Zachary Fowler
Appleton, Maine · Alone Season 3: Patagonia
- Age on show
- 36
- Gear sourced
- 10/10
How far did Zachary get? (tap to reveal)
- Days lasted
- 87
- Placement
- 1st
How Zachary's season ended (reveals the result)
Winner. Survived largely on caught trout, two birds, grubs, and foraged plants; lost roughly 70 pounds (about one-third of his starting body weight) over 87 days and won the $500,000 prize.
Our take on the run
Fowler won at 87 days, the longest solo run the show had produced at that point, living almost entirely on freshwater trout plus two birds, grubs, and foraged plants, and surrendering roughly 70 pounds, about a third of his starting body weight, to do it. The finish had a grim asterisk: runner-up Carleigh Fairchild was medically evacuated on day 86 when her BMI dropped to 16.8, just under the show's mandatory pull threshold of 17, which is what actually emptied the field. We keep his list filed next to the coastal winners' kits as a matched pair: same rules, same item count, and almost no overlapping strategy, because Patagonia's food economy and Vancouver Island's have nearly nothing in common. Reading the two side by side is the fastest education in this game that exists.
The loadout, examined
A slingshot and a shovel where the bow should be: Zachary Fowler's list is the franchise's best argument that item choices are bets on a specific landscape, not universal truths. For landlocked Patagonian trout water he built around a fishing kit running 20 and 50 pound test with 25 hooks, then covered small game and birds with a custom two band slingshot, a tool that costs almost nothing in weight but demands practiced accuracy at close range. The Cold Steel Spetsnaz shovel is the other outlier, a digging tool in place of the second cutting tool most contestants default to.
The support kit is long-haul standard: felling axe, crosscut saw, minus 20 Fahrenheit bag, a 2 quart pot whose lid doubles as a frying pan, a Victorinox SwissTool, 40 meters of 550 cord, and a ferro rod. Every item on the list was sourced and confirmed complete in the record. Between the shovel and the crosscut saw, the build points at serious ground-in shelter work rather than a quick lean-to, which is exactly what a Patagonian winter demands.
Zachary's loadout, item by item
Fully sourced selection. Photos marked “category example” show a typical product for that slot, not the exact unit carried. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Victorinox Swiss Army SwissTool Spirit X multitool
category example
category example
Cold Steel Special Forces Spetsnaz shovel
category example-20°F sleeping bag
Pictured: Wiggy's Antarctic mummy-style bag (-60F synthetic, long/wide)
category example2-quart pot with frying-pan lid
Pictured: Solo Stove Pot 1800 (60 oz stainless)
category example
category exampleFishing line (20 lb and 50 lb test) and 25 hooks
Pictured: unspecified assorted hooks + monofilament line
Custom-made slingshot with 2 elastic bands
category example
Compare with the rest of the Season 3 cast or see what every winner carried.