Bayfield, Wisconsin — Imagine being stranded in the middle of nowhere in Canada with nothing to eat and only 10 pieces of gear. Your mission is to survive as long as possible while competing against other extreme survivalists. The last one standing wins — with a grand prize of $500,000. Would you say, “Pfft… that’s just on TV,” or sign up?
Ann Rosenquist, who grew up in Lutsen and Grand Marais, Minn., and now lives in Bayfield, Wis., took the challenge seriously: She made it as a contestant on the 10th season of the History Channel reality show “Alone.” Here’s how she recounts her experience on TV’s toughest show.
Rosenquist moved to Lutsen as a little girl when her parents bought Solbakken Resort. She later moved to Grand Marais and was a top cross-country skier at Cook County High School. She qualified for the USSA Junior Olympic team and raced at Lake Placid. Rosenquist credits her carefree childhood spent running through the woods: “I had a lot of independence growing up because my parents were always working. I would hike with my little sister, chasing bears and dissecting squirrels. We just had fun.”
Fast forward 50 years to April 2022, when Rosenquist “got a lead” and decided to sign up for the “Alone” program.
“My life is bigger than me, and I’m just going to try,” Rosenquist recalls of that defining moment.
Two days later, she got a call from the casting director. “She told me I had to buy a smartphone. I didn’t have one,” Rosenquist said. “I had to record a ton of short videos of myself building a fire, building a shelter, shooting a bow, fishing and more.”
Rosenquist still hadn’t been officially cast, but he was sent as a reserve with others to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, in early September. Then Rosenquist got a last-minute call.
“Three days before the start, they came to me and said, ‘OK, you’re going.’ I said, ‘Great.’”
Rosenquist and the other participants then flew north to Reindeer Lake, about 57 degrees north of the equator, in mid-September 2022. Rosenquist set off to live alone on the shores of the world’s 24th largest lake by surface area. Rosenquist points out that Reindeer Lake has more than 1,500 islands and supposedly incredible fishing opportunities.
What did Rosenquist take with her? How did she survive? Her 10 items include a -40F down sleeping bag, a Katanaboy saw, a snare line, paracord, a multi-tool, an axe, a cooking pot, fishing line and hooks, a bow and nine arrows, and a ferro rod.
Rosenquist, then 56, knew that getting the game and fish would require all of her ingenuity and life skills. Contestants weren’t allowed to bring any food in one bag, and some contestants deliberately gained weight before the show as a buffer.
Rosenquist found fishing to be more arduous than she expected.
“I took the inner paracord and made a gillnet out of it, but I had no luck. I also had line and hooks. I tried to catch fish, but the wind kept blowing in my direction. So I started swimming my little hand-made lure out into the lake, threw it into deep water, then swam back to shore and pulled it in. But I didn’t catch anything.”
The only game she took with a bow and arrow was capercaillie. Rosenquist survived mainly by collecting mushrooms and reindeer moss. The latter was not particularly refined: “It was pretty disgusting to eat. You had to boil it three times and rinse it off. It was quite good by the fire, where it got hot and smoky.”
Rosenquist spent 19 days in the Saskatchewan wilderness. She left the program voluntarily, saying she felt ailing but couldn’t understand why.
“I have mixed feelings about my result. I could have lasted longer. I wasn’t starving. I was dehydrated, to begin with, and I didn’t know what was wrong.”
Rosenquist later realized she needed more salt in her diet. Initially, when Rosenquist flew to Saskatoon as an alternative, she had a salt cube that she wanted to take with her as one of her 10 items. Then, while waiting, she sold her salt cube to another participant from Hawaii, who only had a salt shaker, not the required salt block. This came back to haunt Rosenquist, because she couldn’t stay hydrated without the crucial electrolyte.
Rosenquist, who was paid a day to film herself in Saskatchewan, got a chance to see herself in Season 10, which aired this summer on the History Channel.
“I watched myself, but I didn’t like it. They like drama in this show,” she said.
Rosenquist claims the drama was not her act.
These days, Rosenquist no longer has to film her every move. She and her partner, Tom, work harder than ever running North Wind Organic Farm outside of Bayfield. They share CSA produce, pick their own raspberries, strawberries and blueberries, and attend farmers markets. They live completely off the grid, generating their own electricity on site using solar and wind power.
Reflecting on her experience, Rosenquist describes her initial motivation for the program and the end result: “I knew a few people who were already in the program, so part of it was just wanting to be a part of the club. And part of it was just wanting to see how I would do. I thought I would do great. I had a lot of visions of getting a moose. I never thought about TV or the media hype. It was just my own desire to test myself in the wild. And it was so cool.”
So how demanding is it really to be on the show? For Rosenquist: “I’ve been preparing for the show my whole life. I don’t think being on the show is as hard as living in downtown Minneapolis.”
We reprint this story with the permission of the author and the publisher. Northern Wilderness, where it was published in the November issue.
