Nathan Olsen

Nathan Olsen lives in southern Idaho with his wife Erica and a blended family of ten children and two grandchildren This big family lifestyle is nothing new for Nathan who grew up in a large Mormon family and whose brother Luke Olsen competed in Alone Season 10 As a young introvert Nathan learned to cope with living in a high density home by frequently escaping to the surrounding wilderness of southern Idaho At age ten he took his desire to be alone a step further by convincing his parents to let him homeschool and become a sheep herder A typical homeschool day involved packing some books and leading his flock of Suffolk to graze the canyon upstream from the family home My first home school assignment was to find an arrowhead draw a picture of it in place and write a story about how it got there Nathan feels grateful to have parents who encouraged each child to develop their interests from a young age At age fifteen Nathan enrolled in college and earned a Bachelor of Science in Soil Science and eventually a Masters in Business Administration He worked as a field guide for the Anasazi Foundation an outdoor therapeutic program cofounded by his father Larry Dean Olsen Nathan farmed potatoes in Turkey and Romania and for the past 20 years has been the CEO of BestNotes a software company started with his brothers Erica and Nathan decided to get married after sitting on the couch bingewatching all of the Alone series By participating in the show Nathan and Erica hope to model for their children and grandchildren the courage to pursue their interests and do hard things even with uncertain outcomes