Alone, and aiming for survival prize

By TOM GREENE

Special to The Press

The first time Jordan Jonas felt truly alone, he was on a freight train as it whipped across the U.S.

At 19, the Athol native and then-recent North Idaho College graduate had hopped a train with his older brother to ride the rails and see where they would take them. The siblings went from Idaho to Chicago, to the East Coast and, eventually, Virginia, where Jonas’s brother ended up staying. Jonas made the trip back to the Northwest on his own, staring out at the country through a freight door.

The second time Jonas felt completely alone, he was in his early 30s and in Siberia. After living with a missionary family in Russia, he headed north to live with a nomadic, reindeer-herding tribe native in the northern Asia region.

Jonas decided to strike out and hunt on his own. After weeks of trapping and following game with no humans in sight, Jonas said, he walked into a snow-covered clearing and was stunned by its beauty.

“I said something like ‘Whoa,’ and it surprised me,” Jonas said. “It had been that long since I’d heard a human voice.”

The third time Jonas felt completely alone was last fall, and the whole world will soon have a chance to witness his experience.

Jonas will be one of 10 competitors vying for $500,000 on the reality show “Alone,” which airs on the History Channel tonight at 10 Pacific Time. This is the sixth season of the show, which drops survivalists off in remote areas of the globe — this time in the arctic, scattered around Canada’s Great Slave Lake.

Contestants are allowed to bring 10 items to help them survive. Unlike other survivalist shows, there are no camera crews following them around. Contestants are given three cameras with instructions to film everything they do. They also have a radio to call in a helicopter in case of an emergency, but that ends their chance at the prize money.

Last person standing, wins.

“My buddy and I watched an episode and I said, ‘I can do that.’ I couldn’t believe they were that scared of bears. I sent in the application and a couple years later they called me,” he said.

Jonas went to a sort of “boot camp” with 22 other contestants, where they tested their outdoors knowledge — building traps, shelters, and fires. He made the final cut and spent last fall in the artic armed with three cameras and his 10 items.

“Mentally and spiritually, I felt like I was in a pretty good place,” Jonas said. “Of course, that doesn’t help you if you’re starving.”

Jonas doesn’t carry a lot of extra weight, so he knew finding food would be critical to his success. Some contestants on past shows concentrated on conserving energy to outlast the others.

“I took a more active approach,” he said. “I can’t just lay around.”

His plans to hunt grouse went out the window the first day because a wildfire had burned through the area where he was dropped off, leaving food for the birds scarce and sending them elsewhere to eat. Since the show hasn’t aired yet, Jonas can’t go into much detail about how he survived or how long he lasted, but he said he was able to adapt to the area and found unexpected sources of food.

“The hardest part for me was weight-related — just trying to get calories,” said Jonas, who spent five winters in the wilds of Siberia for fun. “I wanted it to get as cold and miserable as possible. My goal was to not make it a starving contest because I couldn’t win that.”

Much of where and how he hunted was dictated by terrain and the size of his pack. The GoPro cameras were small, but the main camera and extra batteries brought the pack size up to over 100 pounds in camera equipment alone. Still, Jonas said he unexpectedly developed an affinity for the cameras.

“I actually appreciated having the cameras,” Jonas said. “So much of what I do is alone, but this way I can share the story.”

That desire to share his knowledge with others is a trait that runs in his family. His uncle, Joe Jonas, was a beloved art instructor at North Idaho College from 1976 to 1998. Joe passed away in 2010, but his artwork is still featured prominently around campus, including the metal sculptures adorning the front of Christianson Gym and Boswell Hall. He was well-known for his devotion to his family, his students, and his art.

“He had an opportunity to work at Disney, but turned it down because he wanted to stay at NIC to teach,” Jonas said.

Jonas currently lives in Virginia with his wife and children, but said he is going to move back to Athol next year and work on a farm that has been in his family since the 1950s. His wife plans on attending NIC to become a nurse.

“I don’t know why you wouldn’t go to a community college. It was a great experience for me and school there is much less expensive,” he said.

He said they also plan to return to Siberia for a visit as soon as they can.

“Everything you do there is so directly related to what you need. It’s just a very natural way to live,” Jonas said. “It’s already been too long. We’re ready to go back.”