Age: 35

Hometown: Lynchburg, VA

Profession: Construction

Jordan Jonas grew up on a farm in Idaho and from there, traveled the world, which he recalls through his various injuries.  Jordan’s first significant memory comes from after a summer of riding freight trains across the country when he critically injured his knee.  Soon after, he set off for Siberia where he would eventually learn to fur trap and survive in one of the most remote places on earth. While in these harsh conditions he spent a month and a half alone in the wilderness where he survived a fall through the ice into a frozen river – alone and miles from a cabin. After that learning experience, he began living with nomadic Evenki reindeer herders deep in the taiga. Of course, those years were not without incident either, including chopping a tendon in his good knee that left him immobilized for three days in a tipi, pulling himself out of a mud bog that enveloped him to his shoulders, having his ribs broken by a reindeer, and nearly dying after accidentally ingesting a mouthful of gasoline.

After all these invaluable experiences, he made his way back to the United States where he would meet his future wife.  One time, while riding an ATV together, they crashed, and Jordan cracked his head open in front of his new wife.  He reflects on these (and many other) injuries often, and they have made him approach life more thoughtfully.

In between those incidents Jordan learned to hunt, trap, fish, survive and even thrive in good times and bad. He learned to deal with adversity and value his family and friends. He learned that experience is valuable, but that the development of character and love are the most important aspects of life. He values where he came from, both his Assyrian and Danish heritage and strives to be someone worthy of the incredible sacrifices those before him made to give him a good life. He hopes to do the same for his beloved children. He is very blessed and thankful to have an opportunity to live, and live life to its fullest.

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

1. Paracord
2. Saw
3. Ax
4. Sleeping bag
5. Frying pan
6. Ferro rod
7. Fishing line and hooks
8. Bow and arrows
9. Trapping wire
10. Multitool