'Life Below Zero' Newcomer Cole Sturgis Is Already a Fan Favorite
Meet his wife and kids!
Published Feb. 4 2025, 7:51 p.m. ET
National Geographic has been running the series Life Below Zero since 2013. It follows the lives of subsistence hunters who live in the frigid north of Alaska, eking out an existence in the below-zero realm of the world's Last Frontier.
Life Below Zero's Cole Sturgis has been on the series since 2023. And although he's one of the show's newest cast members, he quickly became a fan favorite. With a sharp sense of humor and an evident love for the wild frontier of the icy north, Cole's zest for life as an outdoorsman is the perfect match.
Here's what we know about Cole and the YouTube channel he runs to introduce fans to his life through his own lens.
Cole Sturgis and his partner Amanda.
This is what we know about 'Life Below Zero' star Cole Sturgis.
Cole is a father of three from Thorne Bay, Alaska. He and his family live in a floating house, and he jokes on social media that his job is "filling the freezer." Which, to be fair, is pretty accurate. In addition to "filling the freezer," Cole works for Timber Wolf Cutting and brings home the bacon in the finest frontiersman Alaskan tradition.
His daughters are home-schooled, which makes sense when you live so far in the wilderness and embrace a slower lifestyle which is not necessarily entirely compatible with the hustle and bustle of modern life.
Cole Sturgis and his daughters.
In 2023, Cole was spotted fishing with his fiancée Amanda, and he also shared a few photos with his partner on Facebook.
"Well, when God puts someone this awesome in your life there’s not much you can do about it and I wasn’t looking, she just showed up," Cole wrote of Amanda on Facebook per Reality Tidbit.
Cole has a vlog channel on YouTube that gives an even more personal peek into his life.
Of course, being so isolated in the wilderness doesn't mean that Cole doesn't have an excellent grasp on social media and what it means to be interconnected in today's world.
In fact, he runs his own vlog on YouTube where he shows a more personalized peek into his wilderness life. From daily challenges to family life, the channel shows a glimpse of what it's like to live in a way most people have trouble imagining.
In some videos, Cole shows himself cleaning up after a storm. While it's nothing different from what anyone else deals with after a storm, there is one major deviation: Cole and his family live in the middle of nowhere.
So when a storm comes up, they have to rely on themselves to stay safe and recover from any damage left behind.
Cole is a hard worker, like everyone on Life Below Zero, and as one needs to be to survive far from modern conveniences and ease.
With Cole showing what it's like to live on the frontier in Alaska, viewers have the opportunity to peek into what life was like two hundred or more years ago.
Two hundred years ago if Facebook and YouTube existed, at least.
Watch Cole on Life Below Zero Tuesdays at 9 p.m. EST on National Geographic.