He overcame freezing temperatures, starvation, and isolation.
But of all his wild accomplishments this season, Clay’s proudest of overcoming himself out there.
For the uninitiated,Aloneis one of TV’s most grueling reality shows.
Clay Hayes on ‘Alone’.courtesy The HISTORY Channel/Brendan George Ko.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What was it like learning that you won during your final medical check?
So as the days stretched on, I really guarded myself against hoping.
I was like, “holy s—,” and then I realized it was truly over.
Clay Hayes on ‘Alone’.courtesy The HISTORY Channel/Brendan George Ko.
Can you talk a bit about overcoming the depression you dealt with later in the competition?
I was eating more than anybody else, but only a couple hundred calories a day.
So there was this slow starvation thing going on.
Clay Hayes on ‘Alone’.courtesy The HISTORY Channel/Brendan George Ko.
The days were getting very short; you have these long, cold, dark nights.
That was difficult for me because I’m a very active person.
I was letting those conditions dictate my mood.
And that was the turning point.
All of my suffering was gone, because I had been creating my own suffering.
What did you kill while you were out there, and what was your diet like?
And I was eating some fireweed greens, and then there were some wild carrots.
Probably like day five or six, I started catching fish.
And I think the whole time I was there I caught maybe six or seven fish.
The fishing was very, very tough.
I killed a few more grouse, and then I finally got the deer, which was massive.
What did it feel like killing that deer?
It was like the weight of the world was lifted off my shoulders.
It’s a stressful thing because I was eating maybe two or three ounces of fish every day.
So I was dipping into my normal body weight after that.
Things like that are weighing on your mind.
It’s that kind of relief, like, “Oh my God.”
Why do you always start by eating the heart when you kill an animal?
I don’t know, people have been eating hearts and organs forever.
It’s just something that’s significant to me.
So it’s very important.
It’s just something that I’ve done forever.
The heart’s just a muscle, but it tastes different.
It’s not like a sirloin steak.
It has more of an irony flavor to it.
What do you think was your biggest mistake?
I was pretty complacent with the bears.
And luckily everything turned out well.
But I did some things that could’ve turned out differently.
You actually went looking for a bear and managed to track it down.
Well, I spent my life in the woods and around big animals.
I wanted to see where he went, I wanted to get some good footage of him.
I knew that I had bear spray on my side.
And I don’t know, I wanted to see what he was up to.
That footage of the bear charging you is incredible.
Was that your scariest moment?
Even when the bear charged me, I wasn’t scared.
That kind of surprised me.
But that never happened to me with the bear.
I just thought it was one of the coolest things I’d ever seen.
I think the reason [I wasn’t scared] is because of my experience reading animal body language.
When I saw that bear, to me he looked like an English setter going after a pheasant.
His head was up, his ears were forward, his neck was stretched out.
you’re able to’t see it on the footage, but I was watching him the whole time.
I could see him coming from about 100 yards, and he looked more curious than aggressive.
That bear is telling you something different.
What would surprise people the most about competing on the show?
Most people have never gone more than eight hours without eating.
But I still had that food in my belly, so thoughts like that come easy.
What was your first meal back in the real world?
How are you planning to spend the money?
I also went ahead and bought a little boat.
Would you go onAloneagain?
When I first got out of there, I said I’d never do it again.
So if they offered something, I think it’d depend on the location.
If it was a cool location, I don’t think I could turn it down.
What do you want viewers to take away from your experience?
Like, when’s the last time you had undistracted time to be introspective?
When’s the last time you even spent a couple hours like that?
I think that you might realize things about yourself that you hadn’t previously.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
Videos courtesy of the History Channel.
