Woniya Thibeault, runner up on season six of "Alone", is visiting the central coast and spoke to KSBY about her experience on the show.
"Alone" is a show featured on the History Channel. The show takes 10 people and drops them in an environment where they need to survive on their own with limited resources.
The contestants are dropped off separately, and allowed to bring 10 items off a list of 50 items the show provides them.
The contestants are provided cameras and are asked to film themselves on their journey, for as long as they can last.
Thibeault participated in season six where she and nine other people were dropped of in the Arctic, just south of the Arctic Circle.
"It was a pretty extreme to be with no food and very limited gear and no prior knowledge of the area at all," says Thibeault.
In the end, Thibeault lasted 73 days in the Arctic, being the runner-up in season six.
Thibeault says the 73rd day was on her birthday, and that she could have gone longer but, "thinking about what I wanted to give myself for my birthday, I had an epiphany that it was more important for me to have self love and self care, and put myself somewhere where I had food and warmth and the ability to care for myself, than to stay for this idea of winning, and money, which are not my values and are not why I got into this stuff."
Thibeault says another reason she dropped out was because she had lost 50 pounds, which was 33% of her body weight. "I had a medical check later that day and I was fairly certain I was going to be pulled because I was so under weight, but I wanted it to be my choice."
Thibeault says she auditioned for the show because she has been obsessed with learning how to live off the land ever since she was a teenager.
Thibeault is an ancestral skills coordinator and teaches people many different skills needed in order to survive with the resources around them.
She has her own business called buckskin revolution, where she manufactures clothes out of deer skin.
Thibeault also has her own Youtube channel, where she uses her 25 years of experience to teach people how to make things they need in their daily lives, along with resources they could use if they were out surviving in the wilderness.
"Making the things that I have in my daily life feels really important to me because it's this physical expression of my relationship with the land around me," says Thibeault.
When asked if she would go back and do the experience again, she said absolutely, whether it be on camera, or completely on her own.
