Alone Gear Lists | 2025 Key Items Update & Analysis

Since season one of Alone aired on the History Channel in 2015, I’ve been hooked. Pushing your boundaries both physically and mentally in difficult environments makes for a great TV show with interesting survival situations.

If you are unfamiliar with the show, it’s worth checking out. Alone is a survival show where contestants select 10 items from a list to survive for as long as possible in the wilderness alone.

I’ve spent time in the woods practicing bushcraft since grade school, and I’m also a military veteran and an engineer, so I bring a unique perspective when I pick apart the gear selection with statistical analysis, practicality, and real-world experience.

I’ve put together the most comprehensive spreadsheet about the contestants and their gear, and used the data to figure out which gear has performed the best when it is selected, among other observations.

Spoiler Alert – Winners are showcased and discussed as we explore their gear picks, strategies, and statistics for Alone in the US and internationally.

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Contents (Jump to a Section)

Our latest update added the US season 12 contestant data and picks that just aired. When you buy through our links, we may earn a commission. Disclosure»

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Alone US Winners’ Gear Lists

Contestants have learned which gear works and which doesn’t over the years, so we’ve seen the lists evolve over the seasons and adjust to different formats. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all list, as several winners have brought specific gear that makes their Alone gear list unique.

One of the biggest changes in season 12, besides the location from the cold Canadian lakes to the hot African climate, is the changes to the item list contestants can pick from. The automatic pick, the sleeping bag, is no more. Contestants for season 12 made up for this with a variety of strategies, and Nathan opted to bring a wool blanket (smart choice).

Season 12 really shook up the gear selection with the new location- there was a much wider variety in choices compared to the previous season. Nathan skipped the axe/saw combo that is usually brought to Canada for shelter building- the first contestant in any format to win without at least one of those.

Plenty of Alone fans were disappointed with the longevity of this season, with Nathan winning it all in just 34 days. He still outlasted his brother, Luke Olsen (Season 10), who only lasted 20 days on Reindeer Lake. Maybe he’ll pass him some of the winnings so it’s not too sore of a talking point at family gatherings.

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Alan most of done a little homeschooling before he competed on the show- his gear matches up perfectly with the top 10 picks ranked by performance and the previous two winners.

Every bit of his selection makes sense, and we’ll get into it more below when we break down the top selections by winners.

My 10 Items For Alone Season 11 In Detail (Arctic Circle)

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Alan most of done a little homeschooling before he competed on the show- his gear matches up perfectly with the top 10 picks ranked by performance and the previous two winners.

Every bit of his selection makes sense, and we’ll get into it more below when we break down the top selections by winners.

My 10 Items For Alone Season 10

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Juan Pablo is the second winner with this exact loadout. As he survived a whopping 78 days, he took home the big prize of half a million dollars. His gear selections featured some clever modifications, a prototype hatchet, and a sneaky trick using a blade sharpener as a striker for his ferro rod.

The added G10 scales on his multitool made it easier to handle in the cold and much more ergonomic. This proved helpful since he skipped a knife, which many contestants now do to save a spot in gear selection.

Alone: 10 Items to Survive the Brutal Canadian Wilderness (Season 9)

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Clay is the first one to carry this specific loadout, but wouldn’t be the last. This is the exact type of gear that the next three winners would bring as well, solidifying this loadout as one of the best for Alone.

Specific tool choices within the type of gear may vary, but Clay makes it work for 74 days and has a lot of success with the bow. He used the MILSPEC paracord to make his own gill net, which saved him a pick from his list of 10. In his after-action videos, he mentions he would have preferred to start a friction fire, leaving his ferro rod behind in favor of a salt block.

Clay's 10 Survival Items for ALONE Season 8

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This season mixed it up a bit- contestants had to survive for 100 days to hit the million-dollar payout. If multiple contestants made it, they would have to split the winnings. This was a big departure from previous seasons, where some contestants won by surviving merely 55 days. Also, before Roland Welker, nobody made it to the 100-day mark.

Welker made it look relatively easy. The gear he chose reflects his outdoor hunting guide background, as he is one of the few winners in later seasons to carry a knife. He also picked a gill net over a fishing kit, but you can’t argue with a successful 100 days on your own.

Alone: Roland's 10 Survival Items (Season 7) | Exclusive | History

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Jordan brought along a lot of the top gear as it turns out, but had one peculiar choice: a frying pan instead of a pot. It worked out for him in the end, as he passed Woniya by four days after she tapped out due to starvation.

He impressively bagged a moose, and even more impressive is how he processed the whole thing without a fixed knife (he skinned it with his Leatherman). After he got the moose, he took down his snares since he was set on calories.

Alone: Jordan is a Jack-of-all-Trades (Season 6) | History

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Sam Larson disappointed himself in Season 1 when he tapped out at 55 days due to mental drain or ‘losing the mind game’ as he would put it. But, in this Redemption season of previous contestants that didn’t win, he was able to pull out the win in Asia by surviving for the same amount of time!

Sam offers us a unique opportunity in that we can compare what he chose to bring across his two Alone outings. Notably, he kept the same ferro rod but ditched everything else. He increased the rating of his sleeping bag significantly, added much more cordage and additional food, and left behind the tarp and the knife.

Alone: Bonus - Sam's 10 Items (Season 5) | History

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The last pair to meet up in this unique Alone ‘team-up’ challenge, their long time apart did not impact their ability to win. This season was unique in that 7 teams (14 contestants) were dropped 10 miles apart from their partners, with their survival items split between the pair. One was expected to navigate to their partner, which proved extremely difficult, weeding out almost half of the teams early on.

They split up the gear wisely, leaving the heavier items stationary while the other brother navigated 10 miles through dense forest. They notably brought a 2L titanium pot (weight was an issue to keep in mind this season). Besides their selected items, they were each also able to bring fire steel, a knife, and a sleeping bag. They brought 6″ x 1″ ferro rods, -22°F rated sleeping bags, and different knives spray-painted orange for visibility.

Alone: Jim and Ted's 10 Items (Season 4) | History

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Fowler, a long-time fan-favorite now with his own survival YouTube channel, lost a remarkable 70 pounds over his 87-day excursion to win it all. He is well-known for bringing his trusty slingshot with him and using it effectively throughout his stay.

Plenty of other contestants would go on to have success bringing bows, but Fowler remains the only winner to get it done with a slingshot. His expensive purchase ahead of the contest was his Sorel boots, which ended up being a disappointment.

Alone: Fowler's 10 Items (Season 3) | History

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Dave was a dad of three when he packed it up to rough it out in the cold of Vancouver Island, but the mental strain of being apart from his family didn’t prevent him from winning the challenge.

After season 1 on Vancouver Island, many contestants in season 2 (including Dave) packed gill nets to try and take advantage of the fish food source. Dave states that his pemmican pick was a smart choice, and it did seem to help him overcome a rocky start.

He was a quiet, contemplative contestant who took his winnings to start a church mission. He unexpectedly passed away in late 2024 at the age of 59.

10 items Season 2 winner of ALONE show Dave McIntyre chose to take to Vancouver Island

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Alan Kay topped the first season, so unlike later contestants, he could not see what people before him chose to bring. One of the standout picks from his assortment is the unique Condor Kukri Knife, which he believes bridges the gap between knife and axe.

In reflection, he has admitted that he wishes he had brought a warmer and higher-rated sleeping bag along with taller and warmer boots. He lost 46 pounds over the course of the challenge with a lean diet of mostly seaweed and limpets.

Alone: Ask Alan Kay: 10 Items | History

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Woniya returned on a mission, enduring holes in her tarp, swimming in freezing water, and spraying most of her belongings in the tent with bear mace by accident. She cleverly brought a sweater that could be unraveled to make cordage, opening up a slot in her item list for rations.

While the format brought back several Alone alumni to split the prize when they stuck it out for 50 days, Woniya was the only one to make it there. Swapping her knife from season 6 for an axe was an adjustment she mentioned she would do when she was evaluating her first appearance. Another dropped tool that she chose not to bring was paracord (replaced by the sweater). She mentions her Katanaboy saw is the largest model, but I noticed that it was actually the 500 model.

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Alone International Winners’ Gear Lists

The International versions of Alone have different gear selection lists, if they allow gear to be selected at all.

Version Name	Country	Gear Selection?
Alone Australia	Australia	Yes
Alone UK	United Kingdom	Yes
Alone – Überlebe die Wildnis	Germany	Yes
Alene i vildmarken	Denmark	No
Alone Suomi – yksin erämaassa	Finland	No
Alene	Norway	No
Ensam i vildmarken	Sweden	No

Since I’m mostly interested in gear selection and performance, I focus on the international versions that follow the US format, for the most part. The winners’ and losers’ gear lists from the versions without selection are the same, and you can see those in the supplied gear list table.

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Shay is now the official leader for Australia’s Alone, surpassing Gina with 76 days in the wilderness. He wasn’t afraid to cook up worms in his pot to help him make it to the top. He also caught plenty of fish and trapped a few small animals (or just grabbed them with his hands).

While Shay was eccentric, his gear list is statistically strong. Despite having his initial shelter flooded and having to relocate, he lasted the 76 days with composure.

Eating worms for survival - Alone Australia season 3, episode 1 - 5 recap

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Krzysztof managed to survive for the win without eating any meat during his stay in New Zealand. That’s a pretty impressive feat, as he lost a significant amount of weight.

By the end of the season, he was favored to win and outlasted Suzan and Andreas for the prize. He is now an advocate for neurodivergent people and described his ADHD and how his own neurodivergence may have given him a unique advantage.

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Gina is an enigma out there in Australia, as she was able to beat a crowd of younger men seemingly easily. She doesn’t stop subverting expectations there- she is the first contestant across all Alone contestants to pass up a sleeping bag!

She opted to wear a massive possum coat, a wise decision that panned out since it freed up a valuable equipment slot that she likely used to bring her iconic salt block.

Alone Australia's Gina reveals the item that helped her win | Yahoo Australia

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Germany dealt with a curveball in that they didn’t get a large camera tarp that they could double up as a shelter. This effectively reduced their gear selection from 10 items to 9 when compared with the US model.

David stuck it out for a whopping 64 days and explains his gear picks himself. Go to subtitles and autotranslate like I did if you don’t speak German.

10 Gegenstände / 64 Tage "ALONE"

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The Alone UK series lived a short life, canceled after just one season in 2023. For odd reasons, the show producers seemed to pick everyday people for the challenge in Canada rather than people with some experience. This resulted in a very short show of only 6 episodes, with disappointing results for most of the contestants.

Still, Tom stuck it out to top Elise and grab the prize, relying on fishing and snares for sustenance. Tom went on to found Desert Island Survival, a vacation/tourism service focusing on island survival adventures.

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Alone Gear Lists by Format

The format has evolved over the years, with different item selections available based on where the contestants are located or which production company is running the show. Alone, in many European countries, skips gear selection and issues the same gear to every contestant.

Besides the US version of Alone, only Australia, Germany, and the UK have contestants select 10 items from a list to compete with. This, along with the fact that many of the European countries without selectable gear lists also have contestants compete for no prize money, can have a large effect on the show.

Gear List Comparison Table

I’ve compiled the different gear lists from each Alone format into a table for comparison.

🟡 = Can Be Selected ✅ = Supplied ❌ = Unavailable

Latest Alone Clothing List

Here is the current Alone clothing list and gear that doesn’t count against their limit. A few contestants have found a way to turn their clothes into more cordage by bringing woven sweaters.

• 1 pair of high-leg hunting boots
• 1 pair of waterproof Arctic winter boots
• 1 T-shirt
• 1 fleece/wool shirt (a garment is considered a shirt if it has a 1/2 or 3/4 zip max or a full set of buttons)
• 2 wool, fleece, or cotton sweaters (a garment is considered a sweater if it is a pullover)
• 6 pairs of wool socks
• 2 hats (brimmed, wool, fur, arctic, or baseball)
• 2 buffs or neck gaiters
• 1 shemagh or scarf
• 4 pairs of gloves
• 2 pairs of underwear
• 1 insulated parka or anorak jacket (no system-style or multi-layer jackets)
• 2 pairs of outdoor pants/bibs (can unzip to shorts)
• 1 pair of fully insulated/waterproof winter pants/bib
• 1 waterproof, uninsulated shell or an uninsulated windproof anorak
• 2 pairs of thermal underwear
• 1 pair of gaiters
• 1 leather belt
• 1 toothbrush
• 1 pair of eyeglasses
• 1 personal photograph

Prohibited Gear

There is a bunch of banned gear that you cannot bring, but those are pretty redundant since you can’t bring anything that isn’t on the supplied list or not in your 10 selected items.

The producers are good at examining gear, and many versatile tools will need to be left behind.

This includes a lot of our favorites, like SurvivorCord, toggle-hole ferro rods attached to your clothing, and even fire laces. Even small loops of cordage on your knife count against you, and you’ll need to subtract that from your allotted cordage amount.

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The Ideal Alone Gear List

Gear selection for the show or your survival kit ends up being a personal choice almost every time, but we do have a significant amount of data at this point. If you are strictly following the data, this should be your Alone loadout based on the statistics and the specific gear contestants have used that helped them win:

1. Axe – Gransfors Bruks Felling Axe – The favorite brand and style of Alone winners.
2. Ferro Rod – Bayite 1/2″ x 6″ Rod – Another undisputed favorite- put a snare wire lanyard on it and make it more visible.
3. Pot – Solo Stove 1800 Pot, Stainless Steel, 1.9 Quarts
4. Saw – Silky Katanaboy 500 Folding Saw – Sharpen part of the spine like Woniya for a draw knife.
5. Sleeping Bag – Pajak Radical 16H Sleeping Bag, Down, -100°F rated – It costs an arm and a leg, but contestants have been stepping up their spending and sleeping bag rating continuously as the show progresses.
6. Fishing Kit – 20-lb and 50-lb monofilament, 30-lb braid, 25 hooks
7. Snare Wire – 20-gauge stainless wire
8. Multitool – Leatherman Surge – The Surge is beefier than the Wave, and the Signal is banned (because it includes a ferro rod).
9. Gill Net – If you are going to an area where you can use a gill net, you should use a gill net.
10. Bow and Arrows, Slingshot, or Rations – Samick Sage Recurve Takedown Bow, Simple Shot Scout XT Slingshot, or Pemmican. Using multiple food sourcing strategies worked best for past winners. Hunting gear is heavily dependent on your skill level, but rations are better than nothing despite their abysmal win rate.

If you drop anything from this list, the next up to consider would be the salt block or shovel. Many tap outs have occurred due to stomach pain, indigestion, and constipation- something salt could prove invaluable in helping. Shovels can drastically improve shelters, but require significant effort to use. Their low use rate and promising win rate hint that we might see more of them to come in winner’s gear selections.

Alone vs. Real World Survival

An Alone item list deviates from a real-world outdoor survival list in that the Alone list is restricted by item count, rather than weight and volume. Multi-use items are significantly better on Alone with their versatility, and heavy pots and bulky tarps are much less of a drawback when you get dropped off at your survival location by boat.

My survival-focused bug out bag has significantly more gear at a lighter weight, so I can actually carry it. Alone requires you to be resourceful at times, when you don’t necessarily have the best tool for the job, but having massive folding saws and large tarps dropped off for you is a silver lining.

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Best Gear to Select

Alone winners tend to pick certain types of gear and avoid others. While gear is certainly not the deciding factor for their standing, slight edges can play out over the many months they survive in the wilderness. Here is a graph of all picks made by participants, and you can see the effect these picks have on high-performing winners:

Essential Gear Picks

There is only one item now that every single winner has brought across all formats in every country… the humble ferro rod.

• Ferro Rod [100% of winners] – A ferro rod is so important for longevity that some contestants have tapped out when they lost their ferro rod. Many contestants brought our top pick from our ferro rod review, the Bayite 1/2″ x 6″ rod. There is a size restriction (except for one season), so the bigger the better.

While almost every contestant has brought a ferro rod (despite some saying they wished they could replace it with friction fire methods), not every contestant brought an axe. According to the data, a ferro rod is pretty much required to win.

• Sleeping Bag [97% of winners] – Almost every contestant brings a sleeping bag in seasons where they are allowed to. For the redemption format seasons, most returned with higher-rated sleeping bags. When asked about gear, a few contestants stated they wished they had brought better and cold-weather-rated sleeping bags. Contestants have lately been spending more and more on sleeping bags, with these being the most expensive items brought on Alone by far.
• Pot [97% of winners] – The two-quart size limit makes most contestants settle on lightweight backpacking pots, although some have given small Dutch ovens a try. They are used to purify water, cook food, and as a general container, so it makes sense that most winners bring one along.
• Axe [96% of winners] – Many types of axes showed up, but the Granfors Bruks stood out as a favorite. This aligns with our own testing in our survival axe review. Felling axes were more typical than smaller hatchets.
• Saw [94% of winners] – The Silky folding saws have a huge representation, which aligns with our own survival saw testing results. Successful contestants in Alone overwhelmingly pick the large Katanaboy models, especially in more recent seasons.
• Fishing Kit [94% of winners] – One of the most versatile picks available to contestants, fishing kits include cordage by way of 300 yards of 20lb fishing line plus 35 assorted hooks.

Solid Survival Gear

Some of the international versions of Alone can dilute the gear pick percentages, since they have issued gear and different selection rules. All of this gear is great for survival, but selecting it doesn’t necessarily translate to a win.

• Paracord [75% of winners] – With 80 meters (before you take apart the inner strands), paracord is a strong and abundant choice for contestants. People have made gill nets, traps, and more with some creativity and paracord. Some winners are adamant about the importance of sticking to MILSPEC cord. When contestants have a chance to try Alone again, winners drop the paracord.
• Fishing Net [64% of winners] – Gill nets are dependent on location, and some winners have opted to construct their own once on location.
• Knife [64% of winners] – One of the biggest surprises of the series has been how the long-regarded survival knife has been edged out by larger tools and the multitool when you are limited by item count rather than weight. Knives that are brought by winners vary widely by brand, from custom-made to Condor. More recent contestants and returning contestants pick other gear over knives.
• Tarp [50% of winners] – Contestants are issued tarps that are meant to be used to protect camera supplies (but you can use them for shelter in the process). Half of the winners of Alone opt to bring a spare tarp. This highlights the need to stay dry and protected through inclement weather.

Gear Picks That Win

If you want to go off-script, you can pick these items that have a higher win rate than the essentials. Not as many contestants have picked these, but the ones that do win in a higher proportion.

• Slingshot [33% win rate] – Fowler blew this gear’s win rate through the roof, but don’t expect to be a standout slingshot marksman like him without tons of practice.
• Salt [22% win rate] – Despite its low selection rate, it has one of the highest success rates. A few winners have stated they would bring a salt block if they were to compete again. Stomach-related tap-outs around the two-week mark could be less common with some electrolytes.
• Soap [20% win rate] – Season 12 in Africa had a slew of contestants bring soap to keep things clean, and the winner did too.
• Wire [17% win rate] – Contestants can bring 2 pounds of wire. At 20 gauge, that’s a massive 630 feet of wire- a huge amount of cordage, shelter ties, and snares. Contestants have caught on to this over time and realized that this amount of wire, paired with a multitool, can get quite a lot done.
• Frying Pan [17% win rate] – Jonas mucked this one up, bringing a household frying pan ‘because it is bigger’. I could argue the tip risk, lack of lid, and even that some contestants brought pots with lids that doubled as frying pans.
• Gill Net [17% win rate] – If you can bring one, you should. Some of its effectiveness depends on the location- a shallow shoreline will be tougher to work with.
• Multitool [15% win rate] – The multitool started to outclass the survival knife after a few seasons, just due to its versatility. The ability to work wire with it made it a superior choice as well. Leatherman was the top brand by far, which again matches our multitool reviews. With a focus on functionality over weight, many contestants run the bulky Surge with modifications.

Here are the rest of the win rates by gear type:

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Worst Gear to Select

Notably absent are knives, which are typically a survival necessity. In the real world, they are certainly essential, but when you are limited by item count rather than by weight and size, many contestants wisely leave them behind.

Also absent from the lists are tarps. Some contestants bring additional tarps, but tarps are supplied to ensure that the camera gear is protected. They are essentially a freebie 11th item. If you are looking at Alone kits for survival inspiration, don’t neglect the humble tarp- it belongs in every survival kit.

Lastly, a few pick sharpening stones for their knives, axes, or saws. A few contestants were able to sneak by sharpeners as strikers for their ferro rods or use their leather belts as a strop after sharpening on actual rocks.

Poor-Performing Gear

People have brought machetes, pocket knives, soap, hammocks, sharpening stones (as an item, not as a ferro rod striker), and climbing rope, but none of those contestants won. This puts those six pieces of gear in a stand-alone club of gear that has been selected out of the huge list, but never won.

Besides those, there are some items that have made the trip and seen a much lower proportion of wins than they should. These include:

• Rations [8.7% win rate] – A necessary evil for those without hunting or trapping skills. While they can be useful when you are just getting set up and started out, rations delay the inevitable calorie deficiency if you aren’t successfully foraging or hunting.
• Water Bottle [9% win rate] – Pots just do it better. If you can’t get it done with a pot, you may not be managing it properly.
• Bivy Bag [10.5% win rate] – Spend more on a sleeping bag and use your included tarps effectively to free up this slot and avoid picking this item.

While the water bottle and bivy bag seem a bit redundant when you are limited on items to a count of 10 items, the rations being at the bottom is odd but not surprising. Active strategies to get calories have worked best on the show, and boost the importance of lower win rate hunting gear. While contestants are likely to bag big game, those who do typically end up winning it all with a huge lead in calorie intake. Hunting is a ‘boom or bust’ strategy that still outpaces rations with the gear win rate.

Lately, contestants have also started to bulk up in advance of the competition. By storing calories on their body, they can free up the rations slot for more active tools and strategies.

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Alone Master Spreadsheet

A big thanks to u/LonelyHermione on Reddit for putting together the original master spreadsheet we used as a starting point. From there, we added more seasons and relevant international Alone results, adjusted a few of the data types, and added some analysis.

We used this spreadsheet to analyze the evolving Alone TV show strategies and tactics regarding gear selection. It also opens up opportunities for interesting demographic observations.

Feel free to dive into the analysis on your own- we are committed to keeping this document supported and updated. Opening the document directly in Google Sheets may work better on mobile.

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The Final Word

Contestants, and especially the winners, seem to be getting more savvy about their gear selection on the show, as shown by Gina on Alone Australia with her giant coat replacing a sleeping bag. What ‘hack’ will we see next on Alone? The producers are relatively strict on the rules, although we did see Woniya unravel a sweater for cordage, so who knows? Maybe we’ll see even more clever loopholes.

Here are some other guides our subscribers have found helpful:

• The 10 Best Wilderness Survival YouTube Channels
• 10 Survival Skills You Can Learn From Your Couch
• INCH Bag Guide, Gear List, and Checklist

While looking at their gear was good fun, we can’t stress enough the importance of skills and practical experience. All of the winners had extensive outdoor survival skills through practice and performance. Most had hands-on jobs where they used tools each and every day.

See more of our expert-written guides, resources, and reviews in your search results – add TruePrepper as a preferred source.

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