SANDPOINT — A Sandpoint High School graduate has emerged the victor of the survival skill reality show “Alone.”

Jordan Jonas, who also graduated from North Idaho College, also won a $500,000 prize for his 77-day wilderness sojourn south of the Arctic Circle.

“Alone,” a History Channel program, documents contestants’ wilderness survival, which they document rather than camera crews.

The sixth season of the show occurred at Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories of Canada. The season began in July and featured 10 contestants between the ages of 31 and 55.

Other locales the show has been shot in include Vancouver Island, British Columbia; Patagonia, Argentina; and northern Mongolia.

Jonas, 35, resides in Lynchburg, Va., with his wife and kids, but plans to move back to Athol next year to work on his family farm, Jonas told Spokane television station KREM in May.

“Alone” contestants provide their own safety and survival gear, in addition to 10 special items. Jonas picked paracord, a saw, an ax, sleeping bag, a ferro fire-starting rod, fishing line, hooks, archery gear, trapping and a multi-tool, according to the History Channel.

Contestants try to outlast each other in the wilderness and are given one rescue call if their survival plans go sideways.

Jonas said he spent many years living in the harsh conditions of Siberia with nomadic reindeer herders, where he trapped and hunted game on his own.

“Perhaps spending years in Russia away from loved ones gave some perspective to the time period I had been gone for … two months is still not a year, and after a year in Russia I would return to America and still be connected to the ones I love. So no big deal …

“But I still didn’t want to miss Christmas in a month and dreaded the thought,” Jonas wrote of the experience on “Alone” on his blog.

Jonas said he was moved to apply to be a contestant after it was clear he possessed the skills to compete in the contest.

“My buddy and I watched an episode and I said, ‘I can do that.’ I couldn’t believe they were that scared of bears. I sent in the application and a couple years later they called me,” Jonas told the Hagadone News Network in June.

Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.