TLDR: Aaron Barnard, 40, was born in Haida Gwaii and raised on a hobby farm near Prince George, British Columbia, where his father mentored him in hunting, fishing, and wilderness navigation.
He is competing in memory of his close friend Travis Galbraith, a pioneering Canadian MMA fighter who drowned in a rafting accident on the Willow River on his 43rd birthday in May 2024.
Through four episodes, Barnard is one of the season’s frontrunners, with a six-line passive fishing setup and a substantial food reserve.
Aaron Barnard is the only Canadian in a field of ten international survivalists, which makes him something of a home-country contestant on a show filmed 125 miles north of the Arctic Circle in Canada’s own Northwest Territories. That adds a layer of expectation to what is already a high-stakes situation.
He has also given himself a reason to be there that goes beyond prize money or personal challenge, and those kinds of motivations tend to matter when the temperature drops and the days run together.
From Haida Gwaii to Prince George
Barnard was born on Haida Gwaii, the remote archipelago off the northern coast of British Columbia, and grew up on a small family hobby farm near Prince George after his family relocated.
His father Dale was an experienced outdoorsman who introduced him early to hunting, fishing, and wilderness navigation in the dense sub-boreal spruce forests of central British Columbia.
Prince George sits at the confluence of the Fraser and Nechako rivers, surrounded by some of the most productive and demanding backcountry in Canada.
The region has high concentrations of grizzly bears, wolves, and cougars, and its glacial-fed waterways, fast-flowing, cold, and prone to sudden flooding, have claimed lives.
Barnard grew up understanding these conditions not as obstacles but as the normal texture of the outdoors.
His most demanding discipline is late-season sheep hunting in alpine terrain, a pursuit that requires exceptional physical conditioning, mountain navigation, and the ability to track and process large game across steep, icy terrain in sub-zero temperatures while bivouacking with minimal gear.
It is exactly the kind of experience that translates directly to the Richardson Mountains.
Travis Galbraith and the River That Took Him
Travis Galbraith was one of the pioneers of mixed martial arts in western Canada. Fighting under the name “The Gladiator,” he competed from 2001 to 2010 with an 18-7-0 record, facing future UFC champion Georges St-Pierre and competing in international promotions including Pride FC and EliteXC.
Outside the cage he was a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt and ran Galbraith Jiu-Jitsu out of the Northern Capital Judo Club in Prince George.
He was deeply embedded in the local athletic community, the kind of person a city like Prince George builds its sporting culture around.
On May 18, 2024, his 43rd birthday, Galbraith went missing during a rafting and scouting trip on the Willow River, approximately 35 kilometers east of Prince George.
His overturned rubber dinghy was found with tracks preserved in the riverbank mud, briefly raising hopes that he had made it to shore.
After a four-day search involving RCMP, a helicopter, and 18 members of Prince George Search and Rescue who logged over 150 search hours, his body was recovered downstream on May 21, 2024. He was survived by his wife Sharon and his sons.
Barnard has said that carrying Galbraith’s memory into the sub-Arctic gives his campaign an anchoring purpose that transforms the solitary experience into something shared.
It is also worth noting that the Willow River, the same waterway that claimed Galbraith, is exactly the kind of glacial-fed channel with strainer logs and lethal cold water that Barnard navigated growing up near Prince George.
He understands what happened there.
His Strategy on Season 13
Barnard was dropped at a location called Lake of the Clouds in the Richardson Mountains.
His approach has been defined by two clear priorities: building a heavy, permanent log shelter and establishing an aggressive passive fishing operation.
The shelter has drawn mixed reactions from viewers. Some have noted the sheer energy cost of processing the volume of timber he has moved, a concern validated by what happened to Poldi Waldmann-Moloney, whose oversized tipi construction created a caloric deficit severe enough to contribute to his Day 14 exit.
Others point out that unlike Waldmann-Moloney’s conical structure, Barnard’s log construction appears scaled more appropriately for the winter ahead.
The fishing operation has been unambiguously successful. By Day 3 he was running a six-line passive array and landed a 40-inch Northern Pike, a substantial caloric reserve that most of his competitors were still working to achieve.
He also executed moose calls that same day, demonstrating active big-game awareness alongside his passive strategy.
Through Episode 4 he remains one of the most stable psychological presences in the competition, which survival analysts consistently cite as equally important to technical skill.
The tribute to Galbraith gives him something to sustain forward momentum when the food runs thin and the isolation starts working on him.
The full Season 13 cast and elimination tracker is updated as each episode airs.
Aaron Barnard and Alone Season 13: Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Aaron Barnard competing in memory of on Alone Season 13?
Aaron Barnard is competing in memory of Travis Galbraith, known as The Gladiator in Canadian MMA, who drowned on May 18, 2024 during a rafting trip on the Willow River near Prince George, BC, on his 43rd birthday. Galbraith had an 18-7-0 MMA record, faced Georges St-Pierre, and ran a jiu-jitsu school in Prince George.
Where is Aaron Barnard from?
Aaron Barnard was born in Haida Gwaii, British Columbia, and was raised on a hobby farm near Prince George, BC, after his family relocated. He grew up hunting and tracking under his father’s mentorship in the sub-boreal forests of central British Columbia.
How is Aaron Barnard performing on Alone Season 13?
Through four episodes, Barnard is considered one of the season’s frontrunners. He established a six-line passive fishing setup, caught a 40-inch Northern Pike on Day 3, and has maintained strong psychological stability. Survival analysts consistently rank him alongside Nero Buys as a top contender.
