AUBURN — When Pamela Albert began an Instagram account documenting her household’s adventures just a few years in the past, she had no concept it could ultimately land them on a actuality tv present, trekking by means of Mexican backcountry with nothing however their packs, wits and one another.
However within the fall of 2021, her account (@onefamilyfrommaine) caught the attention of a casting director for an journey competitors present on the BYUtv community. A number of months and a few interviews later, they acquired the information: Pamela, her husband, Keith, and their sons, Caleb and Breccan, had been solid for season three of “Survivalists.”
“All we knew going into it actually was that it was a present about being challenged as a household, being taken out of our consolation zone however having to return collectively to work collectively as a household,” Pamela, an epidemiologist on the Maine Middle for Illness Management and Prevention and an Auburn College Committee member, stated Friday.
“I feel throughout the pandemic we had all gotten very used to, you realize, form of being on our telephones and social media and form of retreating to our personal areas,” she stated. “And communication perhaps grew to become a breakdown for us. So, that was actually one thing that we have been making an attempt to work on all through our 4 days, you realize, climbing by means of the backcountry of Mexico collectively.”
The Albert household of Auburn, from left, Breccan, 14, Caleb, 17, mom Pamela and father Keith, sit round a hearth April 5, 2022, throughout filming for season 3 of the BYUtv present “Survivalists” in Baja California Sur in Mexico. BYU Broadcasting/Steve Olpin photograph
The present, hosted by excessive adventurer Colin O’Brady, takes two households out of “the consolation of their very own houses” for a four-day race within the “rugged wilderness” with none telephones or different know-how. The $10,000 prize awaits the household that completes the race first.
Filming befell final April just a few hours outdoors of La Paz, the capital of the Mexican state of Baja California Sur. The present offered every little thing they wanted — tents, compasses, a metal and flint, for instance — however issues acquired off to a rocky begin.
“Throughout our travels there, we acquired severely delayed, nearly missed our connection to Mexico. And our baggage didn’t arrive. We really confirmed up in Mexico with nothing that we had packed,” Pamela stated.
With none of their garments, private belongings or climbing necessities, like the brand new boots that sons Caleb and Breccan, now a senior and freshman at Edward Little Excessive College, respectively, had rigorously damaged in, the crew needed to take the household to Walmart the evening earlier than filming started to get every little thing they wanted.
Regardless of that, although, the household felt ready. In addition to their annual “adventure-type journey journeys,” the household are additionally avid outdoor fanatics, and the boys are three-season athletes in soccer, hockey and baseball.
“We clearly weren’t accustomed to the backcountry of Mexico, climbing by means of it for 4 days. However right here, like we’ve been on travels and hikes by means of, I don’t know, all varieties of terrain earlier than. So not a lot was new for us going onto the present however we have been positively challenged all through the present,” stated Caleb, who was 17 on the time of taking pictures.
Whereas the household can’t reveal a lot in regards to the challenges earlier than their episode airs later this month, “caring for your physique whereas climbing and biking and trekking and bouldering in 90- to 95-degree warmth at a time, it positively wears in your physique,” Keith, a scientist, stated.
The Albert household, of Auburn, from left, Caleb, 17, Breccan, 14, Pamela and Keith, hearken to “Survivalist” host and excessive adventurer Colin O’Brady. BYU Broadcasting/Steve Olpin photograph
“It’s actually a push in your communication expertise, the way you wish to resolve these challenges to get the place you wish to go, these checkpoints, with out form of rearing your frustration with the warmth or with one another or with the situations,” he stated.
“So, it was actually a great train in all-around communication when the chips are down form of in opposition to you,” he stated.
Trying again, Caleb stated he would do it once more “in a heartbeat.”
Breccan — who was 14 on the time of taking pictures — didn’t precisely really feel the identical.
Keith joked that his youngest son’s favourite a part of taking pictures was “once we completed” — and it positively wasn’t sharing a tent together with his brother for 3 nights.
However he “by no means complained,” Keith stated, and the expertise “introduced us collectively in numerous ways in which I feel will assist us going ahead.”
The Alberts’ episode premieres Sunday, Jan. 22, on BYUtv. Viewers can stream it at byutv.org/survivalists/episodes/season-3 or on the BYUtv app.
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