Adam Riley

The twelve by twelve tarp is the tell in Adam Riley's kit. Only 20 of the 101 contestants with a recorded gear list in our data gave a slot to a tarp, because most people trust their build skills to keep the weather out. Riley builds custom treehouses for a living and took one anyway, which says less about doubt and more about speed: a tarp buys a dry camp on night one while the real shelter goes up properly.

The rest of the list backs a builder's read of northern Labrador. Axe and folding saw cover construction and firewood from two directions, and the food plan runs all three systems at once, bow for caribou country, hooks for the river, trapping wire for whatever walks a line. A two quart pot and ferro rod round it out with no slot wasted on rations or comfort.

What is missing matters too. No knife recorded as a standalone item, with the multitool presumably carrying blade duty for fine work. For someone who has crossed the Northwest Passage on expedition, that is a weight of experience choice: the big tools do the real cutting, and the small blade only needs to exist.