Here's the Insanely Treacherous Terrain Where 'Win the Wilderness' Was Filmed

There’s a new reality competition series coming to Netflix, and Win the Wilderness does not disappoint. Picture a whole of Survivor with a side of Alaskan Bush People and The Amazing Race. While it reminds us of existing shows we know and love, it’s definitely got a vibe all its own.

Originally a BBC2 production, the show follows six British couples on a quest to call a remote and insanely beautiful wilderness property their own.

But caring for the off-the-grid property they’re all after is not for the faint of heart, to put it mildly. The contestants must prove themselves to the current owners — Duane and Rena Ose — that they’ve got what it takes to keep the homestead’s legacy alive. 

The show is filmed in Alaska, mostly on Ose Mountain. The mountain was named (by Duane) in 1986, once they chose the spot for their property. The Ose home features sweeping southern views of Mt. Denali.

“The earth here comes from an ancient Birch forest, giving us a fertile soil nested in a sheltered bowl protected from the North winds. Our massive log home is built on a ridge which my wife Rena and I live within our means, off-grid and created a new life,” Duane shares in a personal blog post.

But the cast wasn’t cozy on the mountain the entire time.

“Filming for the show was arduous as the distance between Duane and Rena's house and the wilderness camp was nearly 200 miles apart by road and air,” shares popular British news source inews.co.uk.

Duane and Rena send the competing couples — and a local survival expert to keep watch — deep into the Alaskan wilderness to complete various tests of their creation. The idea is to see how they can handle some of the real situations they’ve faced in their 30 years living off-the-grid. 

“Provided with canvas sheets, ropes and minimal instructions, the couples must use the surrounding forest to build the shelters they will live in during their time in the Alaskan bush.”

So it’s no surprise they want the couple who takes over their little slice of heaven to be the same. As the story goes, despite his disability, Duane walked for 15 days through the Alaskan wilderness to find the spot he’d claim and build his home on, along with five surrounding acres under the U.S. Homestead Act.

He and Rena built their three-story home out of 7,000 spruce trees amidst some of the toughest conditions on the planet. 

“They have lived there ever since, 100 miles from the nearest road, without fiber-optic broadband or rubbish collections, but with each other 24/7. Neither has been bumped off by a bear nor, more astoundingly, each other,” The Guardian shares.

“If you don’t love a challenge, you don’t belong here,” says Duane.

We’ll be watching (with a morbid curiosity, and knowing we couldn’t hack it ourselves!).