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Could You Race to Survive with Your In-Law? Ryan and Bronsen Explain How They Do It
Utah in-laws Bronsen Iverson and Ryan Stewart are making their Race to Survive: New Zealand personality dynamics look easy. They explain how they do it.
Spoilers for Race to Survive: New Zealand up through Episode 5
Race to Survive: New Zealand asks nine teams of two to traverse 150 miles of the country's harshest terrain for the chance to win a $500,000 prize. The expertise and rapport between teammates can make all the difference in helping to lift one another through each grueling race leg, which are designed to be physically and mentally taxing from start to finish
All of that makes the unicorn dynamic of the Utah-based in-laws team of Bronsen Iverson and Ryan Stewart, a standout of the season because they are newly father and son by marriage. Imagine heading out on one of the most stressful and rigorous physical challenges in the world with your new in-law? On paper, that's a recipe for disaster. However, Bronsen and Ryan have made it look pretty easy as the two outdoorsmen have carved out a strong groove that's kept them in the upper portion of the pack since the start.
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USA Insider recently spoke with the pair via Zoom to get the full story about how they got cast this season, what's surprised them most about what the race course has thrown at them, and Ryan's worrisome injury.
How did Bronsen Iverson and Ryan Stewart make it onto Race to Survive: New Zealand?
How do you even get cast on a reality competition survival show with your son-in-law? Ryan explained that he previously applied for a solo outdoor-themed reality show that didn't come to be. But then his wife saw a casting call for Race to Survive and asked to put in a new application for him.
Ryan said he got a callback and the casting team asked who he would want as his teammate. "I said, 'I've got a future son-in-law. He's engaged right now and that's who I'd probably take,'" Ryan recalled. When that dynamic intrigued producers, Ryan got the green light to ask Bronsen if he'd like to participate.
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The quiet Bronsen said he already got along well with Ryan and thought the show sounded like a once-in-a-lifetime experience in general. "It'd be such a cool thing just to go out and experience something like that with my father-in-law," Bronsen said. "And it'd be a really good bonding experience."
For everyone else whose eyebrows lifted to the sky just thinking about the prospect of weeks alone in the woods with their in-law, know that Bronsen's fiancée thought they were nuts too. Bronsen said her reaction was, "I'm glad it's you and not me."
Ryan admits as a team, they went a pack too far
Neither Ryan or Bronsen had ever been to New Zealand before they traveled there to start the Race to Survive season. And because of their busy lives working on the ranch or Ryan guiding hunters on camping trips, they didn't have much time to research the terrain. In truth, Ryan's wife did much of that for them and ordered them a lot of gear to bring on the plane.
"I think we probably had the heaviest bags out there," Ryan said of their less-than-lean packing. "The last time we had them weighed they were 38 pounds and I know we still had stuff that was sitting on our beds. So I'm guessing we came in at 40 pounds, plus the other stuff that [the producers] gave us with equipment. There's a lot of times I think we're probably hanging around on a mountain with between 50 and 60 pounds on us."
Ryan said the only time they were allowed to thin their bags was during the first Survival Camp. But at that point, they weren't sure what they still might need so they kept their packs intact.
Ryan and Bronson confirm that the show and the landscape is legit "brutal"
As both avid outdoorsmen back in Utah, Ryan and Bronsen said the race course itself was close to what they expected. Ryan said initially his biggest weakness was navigation.
"The scariest thing for me out there was thinking of navigation," Ryan said. "I did it in the military, but not to the extreme of this. We could have GPS systems then, but this was purely off of a compass. And it was stressful because I've never gone that far just using a compass."
But Bronsen said after some first-race hiccups, they found their groove. "I felt like our navigation, honestly, became one of our strengths when we thought going into it that was going to be our biggest downfall. But it surely became one of our strengths."
Ryan was also pleased to note that the show was run as hard-core as it looks on camera. "There was no fakeness," he said of the production leaving the teams to rely on their own skills. "They never handed us food. They just sat there and filmed. So it aligned, for the most part, with what I thought it would be. It was a little bit brutal, I guess. Like, 'Wow, this is real.' And it's cool because I liked it that way because I knew everyone else would suffer too."
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Speaking of suffering, in Episode 2 Ryan is seen taking a fall that twists his knee, which has increasingly become a bigger problem as they continue their race. Ryan said that fall was not great — but then it got worse later.
"I'd taken an initial fall but there's a fall almost directly after it where I rolled down," he explained. "I felt it the first time on camera where they showed up. But then there's another one that's way worse not on camera. And that's when I could feel like a burn. That one was because my pack just gained momentum and I just started rolling and rolling and rolling and rolling."
Will Ryan's knee bring the pair down like Mikhail's knee or Coree's head injuries? Keep watching new episodes of Race to Survive: New Zealand every Monday on USA Network at 11 p.m. ET/PT!
