In Season 8 of the History Channel’s Mountain Men, fans were surprised to hear that Marty Meierotto planned to quit the show.
For eight seasons, viewers watched the skilled survivalist venture out into the Alaskan wilderness, where he spent the sub-zero winters living in a one-room cabin. During the fleeting daylight hours, he set up his trapline, which caught everything from lynx to mink to marten.
Marty was as much a part of the series as the other men who share their outdoor skills with viewers.
“This is my church,” Marty shared in an earlier season of Mountain Men. “This is where I feel most like me.”
So, why did the married father of one leave Mountain Men and reality TV behind? Here’s what he had to say about closing this chapter.
What happened to Marty on ‘Mountain Men’?
The outdoorsman’s departure was especially difficult for fans because he was the second original cast member to leave the show during Season 8. Before Marty revealed his plans to leave, Tom Oar revealed that he was retiring and moving from Montana to Florida.
Marty explained on the show that he no longer wanted cameras to follow him in the bush because he needed to spend one-on-one time with then-13-year-old daughter Noah, who would be helping him with the trapline that winter.
“I thought a lot about it and that’s the decision I made,” he shared. “It’s gonna be the best for her and family time and all that.”
Marty continued, “I’ve been doing this my whole life, and for the past eight years I’ve had a camera on me all the time. I’m glad we got to tell a story and I hope it’s helped people understand what it’s really like out here.”
He added, “At the end of the day, I’m just a trapper. If you’re laying on your deathbed, you’re not going to be thinking about how much money you made or some job you had. You’re going to be thinking about what you’ve done with your life.”
Marty once saved a reporter from freezing to death in the bush.
Marty left an impact on Mountain Men fans, but plenty of other people outside of the show too.
One journalist got more than he bargained for when he joined Marty on his trapline in 2013. The duo became separated after Field & Stream writer, Bill Heavey, lost control of his snow machine.
“I’ve been riding for four hours now,” Bill recalled in an article he wrote about the experience. “As a novice, I had no idea how physically demanding it is. In this kind of country, you ride standing up, the better to react to hidden bumps and holes.”
Thankfully, he managed to get a fire going, which helped Marty locate him in the vast expanse of white. Needless to say, not just anyone can conquer the Alaskan wilderness.
As it turns out, Marty’s wife, Dominique, also had a hand in Bill’s survival.
“Never leave the cabin without a lighter and some paper in your pocket. You got that?” She told the reporter before they hopped into Marty’s airplane.
