Who Is Jacques Turcotte from Alone Season 9? What Happened

Spoiler note: this covers Jacques Turcotte's placement and exit from Alone season 9.

Jacques Turcotte's run on Alone season 9 is a good example of how the show's biggest obstacle for some contestants isn't cold, hunger, or wildlife. It's the emotional weight of killing animals to survive, night after night, with no one else around to share the decision with.

Background

Turcotte was 23 when he filmed season 9, the youngest contestant in that cast, and a glacier guide from Juneau, Alaska, specializing in ice climbing. Per our season 9 contestant page, he came into the show with real cold-weather field experience from guiding, though that background is a different skill set from the trapping and food-procurement work Alone actually demands over weeks in the wild.

Reporting from around the time of the season, including his own outdoor-industry bio, lists him working as a senior glacier guide at Above and Beyond Alaska, an outdoor educator at High Trails Outdoor Science School, and previously a sales specialist at REI, a fairly typical resume for someone building a career around Alaska's outdoor recreation industry rather than backcountry survivalism specifically.

How his run went

Turcotte placed 10th in season 9, filmed near Big River in the Nunatsiavut region of northern Labrador, Canada, roughly 35 km south of Makkovik. He lasted 15 days before tapping out, with our data listing the reason as missing his family; contemporaneous coverage of the season also noted he struggled with the burden of having to kill animals to eat, a factor that appears to have weighed on his decision alongside homesickness.

Detail	Jacques Turcotte, Alone S9
Age	23
Hometown	Juneau, Alaska
Placement	10th
Days lasted	15
Tap-out reason	Missed his family
Prize on offer	$500,000

His ten-item gear list included a sleeping bag, axe, knife, multitool, ferro rod, bow and arrows, trapping wire, fishing line and hooks, a 2-quart pot, and emergency rations, a fairly conventional loadout for the season rather than a specialized one built around any single strategy.

What happened after the show

Turcotte got engaged to his girlfriend Catherine Walsh in late 2021, and reporting from shortly after the season aired said the two married not long after he came home. As of the show's run, he continued working in Alaska's guiding and outdoor education scene around Juneau, the same industry he was in before casting.

There is no widely reported update on his life beyond that period, so this post does not speculate about his current status as of mid-2026 beyond what was documented at the time.

Why his exit stands out

Being the first person out of a ten-person cast usually gets framed as a failure, but Turcotte's reasoning, an unwillingness to keep killing animals for survival combined with missing his family, is a more honest account of what actually drives most early exits than dramatic injury or starvation. Our season 9 page covers how the rest of that Labrador cast fared under the same pressure, and the FAQ breaks down how contestants are allowed to leave the show voluntarily versus being pulled for medical reasons. For a broader look at how tap-out timing varies by contestant background, our rules page explains the show's format and evacuation criteria in more detail.