Age: 34

Hometown: Sisters, OR

Profession: Primitive Skills School Owner

Joel’s experience in bushcraft began from childhood growing up in South Africa and living off-grid in Tanzania, East Africa.

Over the last 12 years, he has traversed through 40 countries and crossed oceans as an engineer on various seafaring vessels, exploring some of the world’s most remote locations. He has hiked, fished, hunted and explored just about every type of ecosystem, and is trained in desert, alpine, jungle and temperate survival methods. Joel owns and runs a wilderness survival school and has taught families, celebrities, children and the military. He has learned primitive skills from the Hadzabe hunter-gatherers, Maasai herdsman and Rama Indians in Nicaragua.

Joel lives in Sisters, Oregon with his wife, son and dog. Alone is a dream come true for him, and he views the series an opportunity to connect with the land for an extended period of time and to push himself to his mental and physical limit.

Here are the ten items Joel selected to bring on his survival journey to the Arctic:

1. Saw

2. Bow and arrows

3. Fishing line and hooks

4. Snare wire

5. Ax

6. Multitool

7. Ferro rod

8. Pot

9. Sleeping bag

10. Gill net