Who Won Alone Season 9? Juan Pablo Quiñonez's Win, Explained

Spoiler note: this post covers who won Alone season 9.

Juan Pablo Quiñonez won Alone season 9, lasting 78 days on the banks of Labrador's Big River in the Nunatsiavut region of northern Canada, to take home the $500,000 prize. The wilderness first responder and survival specialist, who grew up in Guadalajara, Mexico and later settled in Pinawa, Manitoba, outlasted runner-up Karie Lee Knoke by three days after she tapped out from starvation and exhaustion. His win made him the first Latino champion in the show's history.

How Quiñonez won

Quiñonez built his season around fishing from the start, combining fly line and hooks with 20 lb monofilament to work Big River's cold, wet boreal waters, and backed that up with a takedown recurve bow for when fish weren't enough. Two small improvisations mattered more than they might sound: he used a prototype hatchet built specifically for the season, and he rigged a blade sharpener as a makeshift ferro rod striker when he needed a reliable way to get sparks going. Neither trick would show up on a standard gear list, but both point to the same pattern behind his run, adapting his kit on the fly rather than treating it as fixed.

Knoke's exit on day 75 came from the same slow decline that ends most Alone runs, starvation compounding with exhaustion until continuing wasn't sustainable. Quiñonez avoided that fate largely because his fishing-first strategy kept a steadier calorie stream going than hunting alone would have.

Big River's boreal terrain, cold, wet, and thick with brush, rewards a fishing-heavy approach more than a hunting-heavy one, and Quiñonez's background as a wilderness first responder likely shaped how methodically he built his routine around it rather than improvising day to day, checking his lines on a consistent schedule instead of chasing whatever opportunity came up, a habit that paid off over 78 days more reliably than a boom-or-bust hunting strategy would have. His win also carried weight beyond the season itself. Being the first Latino champion in Alone's history gave his run a significance that outlasted the 78 days on the river, and it's a detail that still comes up whenever the show's casting diversity gets discussed. For the full contestant list and how the rest of the field placed, our season 9 guide has the breakdown, and Juan Pablo Quiñonez's contestant page covers his background before the show.

Key gear behind the win

Detail	Season 9
Winner	Juan Pablo Quiñonez, 78 days
Runner-up	Karie Lee Knoke, 75 days
Location	Big River, Nunatsiavut region, Labrador, Canada
Prize	$500,000

His fishing kit, the 20 lb monofilament plus fly line and hooks, was the backbone of his food supply, paired with a Fleetwood Timber Ridge takedown recurve bow for backup hunting. The JP PAXE prototype hatchet and a 30-inch folding Tuff Camp bow saw handled shelter and firewood, and a Spiritwest synthetic and down hybrid sleeping bag rated to -30°F got him through Labrador's cold, wet nights. The full list, including how the sharpener-as-striker trick actually worked, is in our breakdown of everything he carried.

For what Quiñonez has done since the show, our where-is-Juan-Pablo-Quiñonez-now post covers his life after Labrador, and the winners page has every champion across every season and spinoff for comparison.