Who Is Adam Riley from Alone Season 9? What Happened

Spoiler note: this covers where Adam Riley placed on season 9.

Adam Riley was 36 years old and living in Fayetteville, Arkansas when he competed on season 9, the "Labrador" season filmed near Makkovik in Canada's Nunatsiavut region. His contestant page is at /contestants/us-season-9/adam-riley/.

Who he is

Riley's background sits outside the usual guide-or-hunter mold this show often draws from. According to our data, he is a custom treehouse builder and alpaca shearer, and he had previously completed an expedition across the Northwest Passage before ever appearing on Alone. That is an unusual combination: a trade built around fine carpentry, a farm job that involves handling large animals, and cold-weather expedition experience most contestants only talk about in the abstract.

How his run went

Riley lasted 52 days on season 9, finishing in 4th place before tapping out due to starvation, according to our normalized season data. Fifty-two days is a strong run by the show's own history; only a handful of contestants across all US seasons make it past the 50-day mark, and doing it in Labrador, a region known for brutal cold and thin game density, says something about how he managed his energy budget over that stretch.

His gear

Riley's ten items, as recorded on his contestant page, were a sleeping bag, a 12x12 tarp, an axe, a folding saw, a multitool, a ferro rod, fishing line and hooks, a 2-quart pot, trapping wire, and a bow and arrows. It is a well-rounded fundamentals kit rather than a bet on one strategy, which lines up with someone whose skill set (building, working with animals, cold travel) rewards steady, adaptable decision-making over a single specialized approach.

What he has been up to since

As of mid-2026, reporting on Riley describes him back home in the Arkansas Ozarks, working as a carpenter and building custom treehouses, and taking on a cabin build of his own on a six-acre property. He is also described as spending time fishing and hunting locally and biking the area's trails, which fits the same low-key, hands-on profile he had going into the show.

Some outlets have also reported on plans involving a longer arctic expedition and documentary project tied to his Northwest Passage experience, but the details in that coverage are thin and inconsistent with the show's own bio (which describes the Northwest Passage crossing as something he had already completed before season 9). Given that conflict, we are not repeating those specifics here; the verified, consistent picture is a carpenter and outdoorsman who returned to a fairly private life in Arkansas after the show.

Why his run stands out

A 52-day finish in a region as unforgiving as Labrador, from a contestant whose day job is treehouse building rather than survival instruction, is a good reminder that this show's outcomes track skill and judgment more than job title. For the full season 9 placements list and how the other finishers compared, see the season page linked above; our winners hub rounds up how contestants across every season have fared after the show ends.