Alone Season 5: Redemption
- Location
- Khonin Nuga valley, Selenge Province (near Züünkharaa)
- Aired
- June 14, 2018 to August 16, 2018
- Prize
- $500,000 USD
- Status
- Complete
How the season was won (reveals the winner)
Sam Larson, a wilderness skills instructor from Lincoln, Nebraska, won Alone Season 5 ("Redemption") by surviving 60 days alone in the Khonin Nuga valley of Mongolia's Selenge Province, the longest of the season's ten returning contestants. He had previously competed on Season 1, where he finished as runner-up after tapping out at 55 days; for his second attempt he overhauled his kit, trading his old DIY axe and canvas sleeping bag for a Hults Bruk axe and a much warmer -60°F rated sleeping bag, and carrying flour and trail mix rations instead of a fishing kit or bow. The field narrowed as runner-up Britt Ahart tapped out at day 56 and third-place Larry Roberts tapped out at day 41, both citing missing their families, leaving Larson as the last person still in the field. He was awarded the $500,000 prize for outlasting all nine other contestants.
The cast
| Contestant | From | Gear |
|---|---|---|
| Brad Richardson | Fox Lake, Illinois, USA | 1 items → |
| Britt Ahart | Mantua, Ohio, USA | 10 items → |
| Brooke Whipple | Fox, Alaska, USA | 1 items → |
| Carleigh Fairchild | Anchorage, Alaska, USA | 1 items → |
| Dave Nessia | Salt Lake City, Utah, USA | not sourced |
| Jesse Bosdell | Skowhegan, Maine, USA | 1 items → |
| Larry Roberts | Rush City, Minnesota, USA | 1 items → |
| Nicole Apelian | Raymond, Washington, USA | 10 items → |
| Randy Champagne | Boulder, Utah, USA | 1 items → |
| Sam Larson | Lincoln, Nebraska, USA | 10 items → |
Listed alphabetically on purpose. Heads up: individual profiles do reveal how far that person got.
Full results table (placements, days lasted, tap-out reasons)
| Place | Contestant | Days | Why they left |
|---|---|---|---|
| Winner | Sam Larson | 60 | Outlasted everyone |
| 2 | Britt Ahart | 56 | Missed his family. |
| 3 | Larry Roberts | 41 | Missed his family. |
| 4 | Dave Nessia | 36 | Said it "just felt right" to tap out. |
| 5 | Randy Champagne | 35 | Loneliness. |
| 6 | Brooke Whipple | 28 | Loneliness. |
| 7 | Jesse Bosdell | 24 | Medically evacuated for constipation / possible fecal impaction after eating pine material. |
| 8 | Nicole Apelian | 9 | Medically evacuated after a multiple sclerosis (MS) attack. |
| 9 | Brad Richardson | 7 | Had no food the whole time. |
| 10 | Carleigh Fairchild | 5 | Medically evacuated for a fish hook injury in her hand. |
Episode guide
Open the episode guide (recaps include tap-outs as they happened)
E1 · Redemption
June 14, 2018 · Day 1
Ten returning contestants, all non-winners from earlier seasons, get a second shot in the Khonin Nuga valley of northern Mongolia. Familiar faces meet completely unfamiliar terrain, and old wounds drive new strategies.
- First all-returnee 'Redemption' season
- First season filmed in Asia
E2 · The Haunting
June 21, 2018
The veterans discover experience doesn't transfer cleanly; Mongolia's forest-steppe has different food, different predators, and different rules. Early psychological ghosts from their first runs resurface fast.
E3 · The Serpent
June 28, 2018
Venomous snakes and aggressive wildlife raise the stakes around camp. The cast balances food work against new hazards their previous seasons never taught them.
E4 · Mongolia's Wrath
July 5, 2018
Continental weather hits with a violence the coastal veterans haven't seen: heat, storms, and hard temperature swings. Shelters and nerves both take damage.
E5 · The Bowels Of Hell
July 12, 2018
Physical breakdown starts compounding; digestive trouble, injuries, and caloric deficits grind the field down. The redemption narrative meets the ugly middle stretch of every Alone season.
E6 · Of Mice And Men
July 19, 2018
Small game and smaller margins define the food economy as contestants trap rodents and birds to stay in the fight. The valley gives calories out in coins, not windfalls.
E7 · Desperate Measures
July 26, 2018
With reserves gone, the remaining survivalists take risks they'd have refused in week one: longer ranges, bigger projects, thinner safety margins. Some bets pay off and some accelerate the end.
E8 · Slayer II
August 2, 2018
Deep-run isolation does its familiar work on the finalists' minds. The episode title nods to a contestant's bow; the content is the loneliness that experience can't inoculate against.
E9 · Starvation's Shadow
August 9, 2018
The last contestants are visibly hollowed out, rationing energy for the few tasks that still matter. Medical checks become the biggest threat left standing.
E10 · Cold War
August 16, 2018 · Days 56-60
Britt Ahart taps at 56 days, and Sam Larson, the Season 1 runner-up who lost by a single day, completes his redemption arc by winning at 60 days. Larson's patient, low-output strategy becomes a template for later winners.
Out this episode: Britt Ahart (day 56)
- Sam Larson wins at 60 days, completing the Season 1 redemption story
- Larson's conserve-everything strategy influences later seasons
Facts worth knowing
- The first all-returnee season: every contestant was a non-winner from Seasons 1-4.
- Filmed in the Khonin Nuga valley, Selenge Province, northern Mongolia, near Züünkharaa; the franchise's first Asian location.
- Winner Sam Larson (25, Nebraska) lasted 60 days, avenging his 1-day Season 1 loss to Alan Kay.
- Runner-up Britt Ahart lasted 56 days.
- Three medical evacuations: Jesse Bosdell (day 24), Nicole Apelian (day 9), and Carleigh Fairchild (day 5).
- Carleigh Fairchild, who lasted 86 days in Patagonia, was pulled at day 5 here, the starkest same-person swing in show history.
- Aired June 14 to August 16, 2018 on History.
Viewer's notes
- Watch Seasons 1-4 first; the entire season is fan service built on knowing the cast's original runs.
- Sam Larson's win is the payoff of the franchise's longest character arc, five seasons in the making.
- Carleigh Fairchild's day-5 medical exit after her 86-day Patagonia run is the season's hardest moment and a lesson in how much luck matters.
- Larson's minimal-movement strategy here is the clearest on-screen demonstration of the 'calorie conservation beats production' school.
- Mongolia's small-game economy makes this the best season for trapping technique close-ups.
Wondering what the cast was allowed to bring? See the full rules and approved item list or browse the gear database.