From Newsgroup: alt.tv.survivor

This is a very interesting article. I wonder if Rachel has dreams of
joining production one day? _____________________________________________________________________

rCySurvivorrCO Winner Rachel LaMont Shares Her Top 5 Puzzles rCo And the Simple Tricks to Solve Them (Exclusive)

Plus, find out which puzzle the Season 47 winner desperately wants to
return rCo and which she never wants to see again.

By Mike Bloom
TV Editor, Parade

Nov 17, 2025 12:37 PM EST

Key Points

Rachel LaMont leverages Survivor fame and puzzle skills to create competitive game, rCLPuzzle Hungry.rCY

She shares top Survivor puzzles, strategies, and breathwork tips
for mental focus under pressure.

Advocates reviving memory-based mask maze challenge; critiques unsolvable, unfamiliar Survivor puzzles.

As long as she can remember, Rachel LaMont has loved puzzles. And she
put her skills to the ultimate test in perhaps the most unique
environment ever: In the islands of Fiji, exhausted and hungry. Indeed,
as one of the stars of Survivor 47, Rachel put together a performance deserving of many titles, including puzzle queen, challenge beast and, ultimately, Sole Survivor.

Having been given the opportunity to put her puzzle skills to the test,
Rachel saw, fittingly, the pieces coming together for an opportunity of
a lifetime. The result: rCLPuzzle Hungry: Umami Rush.rCY Created by Rachel
and Ryan Plaisted, the new competitive jigsaw puzzle game has 2-4
players racing to build layered food puzzles while simultaneously
dodging obstacles and sabotage from their opposition. And, while Rachel
quit her job to branch out as a game designer, she tells Parade in an exclusive interview that itrCOs a calling she couldnrCOt send to voicemail.

rCLI loved puzzles before Survivor. I love puzzles after Survivor,rCY she remarks. rCLAnd this just makes sense for me. And I hope that my passion
has come through. I havenrCOt felt this excited about something that IrCOm working on professionally in probably close to a decade. ItrCOs just so different.rCY

The rCLPuzzle HungryrCY Kickstarter, which is running until Nov. 20, has already amassed over double its initial goal of $25,000. And sherCOs been
able to build hype in-person as well, bringing smaller versions of
puzzles from the game to various Survivor events across the country.
SherCOs been absolutely thrilled by the response, both monetarily on Kickstarter, as well as getting to watch the pressure mount as people
attempt to complete their puzzles as quickly as possible.

rCLHow can I take this adrenaline rush that I felt out playing Survivor,
doing these challenges, doing these puzzles, under immense pressure, and
bring it to family game night?rCY she asks. rCLI think that is something
that doesnrCOt really exist. And as a general adrenaline junkie before and after Survivor, itrCOs something that I think a lot of players really
miss, that kind of adrenaline spike thatrCOs just hard to replicate in everyday life.

rCLI think that the game touches on it. ItrCOll never be the full
experience. But you feel that pressure of wanting to win so bad, and
your brain is scrambling as a result. And you know you have to calm the
brain to finish the puzzle. But itrCOs also yourCOre just fighting yourself internally the whole time.rCY

Parade was able to get RachelrCOs brain back into Survivor mode, as she
gave us her 5 favorite puzzles in Survivor history, as well as one she
has a bone to pick with and a deep cut she wants to bring back.
Additionally, she provides tips and tricks to solve each one. So future Survivor players, I hope yourCOre taking notes!

1. Barges and balls

Rachel would be remiss, of course, not to start with a puzzle that means
a lot to her personally. In this case, she flags a unique individual
challenge she had to complete during a journey in Survivor 47. The task
seemed simple enough: Move the balls in and out of columns until all the colors are sorted. But this task has a unique timer, as the puzzle is
tied to a rope connected to a series of anchors. Solve the challenge in
time, and you get an advantage. Run out of time, and the table gets
pulled to the depths of the ocean, waterlogging any chance of walking
out with something in hand.

rCLI feel like it was an iconic setting,rCY Rachel recounts. rCLIt was mind-blowing as a player pulling up to this thing, being like, rCyWhat the hell is this?'rCY

rCLI think that whatrCOs really cool about this is that anybody can do it,rCY she continues. rCLAnd I think that the idea of speeding it up is both
really simple and really complex. ItrCOs sorting efficiency. You think on
the surface that itrCOs one task, but itrCOs actually like five tasks. Every single line you have to get every single one right. And so you have to
be moving balls around and ensuring that yourCOre not leaving yourself a problem later thatrCOs going to take you too long to fix, while also still gauging, rCyOkay, when do I stop doing purple? When do I start doing yellow?'rCY

Rachel admits that, despite how easy it may have looked on the surface,
she came dangerously close to getting her prize rCo and her vote rCo taken
to Davy JonesrCOs Locker. But, finding similarities to sorting games she
plays on her phone, she credits her success to being able to change
thoughts on a dime.

rCLItrCOs always adapting to, rCyOkay, did I leave this thing out? How do I get to this last one?'rCY she describes. rCLYou have to just switch gears on
a dime and be like, rCyOkay, well, actually, thatrCOs it for this row for
now. We have to move on to this other one, or IrCOm going to run out of time.rCO It really tests your ability to kind of gauge risk and be able to prioritize in your head whatrCOs most important in this moment.rCY

2. Slide puzzles

We go from one of SurvivorrCys most unique puzzles to one of its most
common: The classic end-of-challenge slide puzzle. And Rachel comes
right out of the gate with a bold declaration.

rCLIt canrCOt be harped on enough that slide puzzles are a formula,rCY she explains. rCLAnd if you donrCOt learn the formula, you will never finish a slide puzzle. And I think that, just like making fire, going out to play Survivor, and not learning how to do the slide puzzle formula is wild. I
think itrCOs bad preparation. At this point, nearly 50 seasons in, you shouldnrCOt go on Survivor if you donrCOt know how to do a slide puzzle.rCY

Not to mention the formula itself is easy to master once you know it.
Start by figuring out what the image on the puzzle should be. From
RachelrCOs research, itrCOs almost always the Survivor logo, which is incredibly easy to remember for people who have been staring at it for
the past twenty-something days. Then, for each row, starting from the
top, do the following:

Slide the pieces around until the leftmost piece on the row is in
place.
Then, work to get the second piece from the left in its place.
Then, slide the rightmost piece on the row into the place to the
left of where it should go.
Slide the pieces around until the second piece from the right is underneath the rightmost piece.
Then, rotate the pieces so both the second piece from the right and
the rightmost piece slide into place.
After completing the top row, repeat the pattern for any remaining
rows.

Whether you use paper, ceramic tiles or any other substance to practice, Rachel affirms: rCLYou will never, ever solve a slide puzzle by just
standing in front of it with no idea how to do it.rCY

rCyThe ChallengerCO rCo And the Reality Show She Wants to Do Next (Exclusive)

3. The tower puzzle (AKA the rCLMichele Fitzgerald Memorial ChallengerCY)

Considering how often certain puzzles get reused over 25 years of
Survivor, itrCOs very rare to associate a puzzle with one particular
player. But leave it to Michele Fitzgerald to kick expectations down.
Michele got to compete in the same challenge in both Kaoh Rong and
Winners at War, the end of which involved solving a three-tiered puzzle
by piecing together blocks of different lengths to create columns. Both
times she participated, she came through in the end, sealing each of her victories with an incredibly GIFable kick to knock over her handiwork.

While Rachel didnrCOt encounter this puzzle on her season, she did get to assemble a real-life replica of it. And while working on it, she
discovered an easy hack to avoid getting bogged down in making sure all
the pieces in each layer measure up equally.

rCLDonrCOt be deceived into believing that the tallest piece is the height
of any layer. The way to figure out the height of each layer is to take
the tallest piece and the shortest piece. Those two pieces together are
almost undoubtedly the height that everything else needs to be.rCY

Follow this advice, and be sure to work on your kick for the inevitable celebration!

4. Pattern recognition and physical exertion

One of RachelrCOs qualities that makes her such a puzzle master is her
ability to spot patterns and figure out what does and doesnrCOt fit.
ThatrCOs an essential skill to have in her fourth choice, which involves sorting through a stack of tiles, each containing a pattern of lines.
You must match up the same pairs of patterns until yourCOre left with
three unique tiles, each of which contains a number to unlock a
combination lock.

This puzzle showed up on the first journey challenge of Survivor 45. But
its more memorable appearance came in the penultimate episode of
Survivor: South Pacific. The castaways had to climb a near-90-degree
rCLBatman wallrCY to get the pieces for the puzzle, leaving them taxed from the task. And, oftentimes, we see how much physical exhaustion of
everything leading into the final stage of the challenge can truly
affect mental exhaustion.

So, how does one try to maintain their mental acuity while physically
spent? For Rachel, it all came down to breathwork, which she had
experience with through her daily sleep meditation.

rCLThat first Immunity Challenge that we lost, by the time we got to the puzzle, I physically couldnrCOt see straight,rCY she recalls. rCLThe puzzle pieces were not computing. I couldnrCOt absorb what they looked like. It
was crazy. I maintain that was the most physically exhausted IrCOve ever
been in my life.

rCLWhen you canrCOt slow your heart rate and you canrCOt focus like your body, yourCOre in fight or flight. And your body is not like, rCyTime to solve puzzles now!rCO ItrCOs like, rCyAre we gonna die?rCO ItrCOs not the environment
that you want to be in when yourCOre trying to focus.rCY

Rachel recommends practicing slowing down your heart rate at home,
especially after an intense workout. The simplest course of action is
box breaths: Breathe in for four counts, hold your breath for four
counts, then release for eight counts. Alternatively, you can time each
breath to your heartbeat to slow it down even further.

rCLI think itrCOs just a matter of how quickly you can get your body back to kind of a calm state after real exertion,rCY she says. rCLBecause itrCOs truly difficult to think in that environment.rCY

5. Stairway to Heaven

Speaking of real exertion, the last puzzle Rachel chooses is arguably
one of the most physically arduous in Survivor history. Players start at
the bottom of a giant staircase, with a series of uniquely-shaped steps
next to them. One at a time, they have to slot each step into its place
until theyrCOve assembled the flight, allowing them to climb to the top in victory. This challenge was the site of one of the most infamous moments
in Boston Rob MarianorCOs storied Survivor career, as Jeff Probst quipped
that the legendary player was rCLliterally carrying his family on his
backrCY as he exhaustedly reached the peak.

Considering how fatiguing it is to run up and down the stairs
innumerable times, this is where the aforementioned breathwork comes in
handy. Additionally, though, Rachel has a tip on how you can sort
through the pattern on each type of step to avoid having to make
multiple trips.

rCLMy strategy would be assigning numbers,rCY she says. rCLLike, rCyThe largest
hole is five and the smallest hole is one.rCO And trying to kind of be
like, rCyThere are two tiny holes on the left, and a big hole, and then a medium-sized hole. 1-1-5-3.rCO Even if you just start with the first two
or three, you can narrow down the options by just being like, rCyWell, I
know I need two small holes next to each other. So let me scan every
single plank and see what the options are.rCO Keeping the pattern, even if itrCOs only part of the pattern, will help you reduce the number of options.rCY

Dishonorable mention

Of course, any good puzzle obsessive would have, along with her
favorites, some least favorites. And Rachel particularly shouts out
another Survivor 45 journey challenge. The conceit: Navigate a key on a
rope out of a metal structure within the time limit. The task was so
difficult that nobody was able to solve it. And Rachel feels that
throwing this brand-new puzzle into the game had set them up for failure

rCLItrCOs sort of like the slide puzzle. I donrCOt know if itrCOs possible to figure it out without knowing how to do it ahead of time,rCY she says. rCLExcept thererCOs no way to prepare for that, because itrCOs not something known to the game. IrCOve watched the YouTube video on how to solve that,
and I still donrCOt understand it. ItrCOs not simple.

rCLI think those puzzles have a trick to them, and thatrCOs the only way to solve it. Most Survivor challenges have a way to make them easier. If
you could figure out whatever method, you can kind of hack it a little
bit in the moment by being kind of savvy. But if the only way to solve
this is to figure out the trick. I think thatrCOs a little too far.rCY

One puzzle to resurrect

Rachel concludes our chat by going to the metaphoric puzzle Ghost
Island, a graveyard of ideas that have been used in seasons long gone,
having never been brought back since. And the deep cut she makes
involves a maze, a mask and a blindfold.

The penultimate Immunity Challenge in Survivor: Gabon blindfolded the
players and put them in front of a station with a mask that was missing several parts. They had to then navigate a maze to get to another
station with the finished example of the mask. After making their way
back, they had to, from sense memory, find the proper pieces to assemble
their mask correctly. Keeping so much in your head, while also being
deprived of one of your primary senses, is a concept that absolutely invigorates Rachel.

rCLYourCOre already trying to remember the path you took, and now you have
to remember this other thing,rCY she says. rCLAnd I just think thatrCOs so cool. And I think that a lot of times now, when we get blindfold
challenges, itrCOs basically kind of like a pain challenge. ItrCOs like, rCyHow injured will these people get?rCO I miss the individual immunity blindfold challenge. ItrCOs less about, rCyIs someone gonna get hit in the crotch with a pole?rCO And more like, rCyI have to have a sense of my
spatial awareness without my sense of sight.rCO And I think that thatrCOs really interesting. You combine that with a puzzle, and I want to do it!rCY

LetrCOs hope Survivor producers are listening and wonrCOt leave this puzzle
in the dark for much longer!

Source: https://parade.com/tv/rachel-lamont-top-5-survivor-puzzle-tips
--
Brian
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