[SPOILER ALERT]
Alone season five was a brutal one set in the northern part of Mongolia.
The season was comprised of former contestants from the first three seasons of the show who were placed in the Khonin Nuga valley in northern Mongolia.
The History endurance series is a fan favorite and one of ours. We loved seeing the season five winner Sam Larson express his love for his wife and family on his Facebook page. Sam also gave shout-outs to runner-ups Britt Ahart and Larry Roberts for this chilly run of Alone.
As fans know it was Sam who took the win, he has understandably been flooding his socials with exuberant gratitude posts to all as he expressed his deep gratitude to his wife and family along with the Nebraskans who cheered him on to victory.
“I’d like to thank everyone for their support!” Sam wrote on his official Facebook page. “I have received about 1000+messages across various social media platforms and I promise to do my best to get to all of them. Life continues to be busy, and with 2 little kids, it’s not showing any signs of slowing down.”
“I will always be thankful for the experience that I had in Mongolia. The culture, the people, the fire, and everything else. In the end, I lost 50 pounds in 60 days, which is actually less than I lost on Vancouver Island (pretty nifty!) despite having to trek through the snow for up to a quarter mile to get firewood every day.”
Sam lasted 60 days in the Mongolian hinterlands. Emaciated but healthy, Larson, emerged the victor. He previously had debuted on the first season of Alone and was a runner-up back then.
He posted on his Facebook page shortly after the finale aired to pay tribute to the cast of Alone and detailed his feelings of exhilaration.
“Alrighty folks I’m assuming most of you are reading this because you have watched the Alone finale!” Sam wrote. “Thank you so much for your kind words. I gotta say, I honestly feel like ‘winner’ is a weird title. How do you ‘win’ against nature? You really don’t.”
“You just have to live as much as you can and be thankful for the time you get to spend in the natural world,” The Alone winner continued. “I’m enormously honored to call the other 9 participants my friends. Of all the groups I’ve ever been a part of, I’m most proud to be in the Alone family, and of course, my immediate family.”
“It’s been an honor to see the personal journeys of these individuals and I hope that what they’ve learned through their experiences will stay with them forever. Sorry for the potential run on sentences of this post. Ironically I am on the toilet trying to rush through this.”
Also announced was the second edition of his book, To Tread in Wild Places: An Introductory Guide to Wilderness Living.
Britt Ahart lasted 56 days and third-place finisher Larry Roberts lasted 41 days. In a message on Facebook he made sure to credit his wife’s strength and her belief in his abilities.
“My Vancouver Island experience was a great warm-up (ironically) to Mongolia,” Britt wrote. “Those storms from season 1, along with becoming a father, really toughened me up. I was ready to tap out as soon as I felt that it wasn’t safe for me to be out there anymore.”
“Thankfully, it never came to that point,” he continued. “As tough as my experience was, my wife’s wasn’t much easier. In all, I was gone for nearly 3 months, leaving her with a newborn and our 2 year old.”
“She also lied on TV when she said that ‘everyone was good.’ Our son had just gotten out of the hospital after a scary health issue (that is now resolved, thankfully), and our car broke down twice! I couldn’t have done it without her, and the help that my family gave her while I was away.”
“Once again, thank you to everyone for your kind words! I have appreciated all of the love that you have show my wife and I, as well as my buddies Britt, Larry, and the other participants,” Sam wrote on Facebook.
Sam will be doing a live Reddit on August 28.
Alone Reunion Special airs Thursday, August 23, at 10 PM E/P on History.