UPDATE: It’s a 3 part series, airing Tuesdays April 14, 21 & 28 at 9 p.m. in Alaska.

UPDATE 2: Ttsusena Lake is 64 miles NE of the town of Talkeetna, according to an anonymous comment.

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The Discovery Channel is turning last year’s “The Alaska Experiment” into a new eight-part series, and one of the participants is an out gay man, a first for Discovery.

“Out of the Wild: The Alaska Experiment” strands nine strangers together in the Alaskan wilderness with three days worth of water, a map, a compass and instructions to find their way back to civilization before the harsh winter sets in.

The new cast members are from “all different walks of life.” The gay volunteer is Jake Nodar, a thirty-year-old horse trainer and avid hiker from Maryland.

“For me personally, I’ve always found Alaska to be appealing,” said Jake in an interview with AfterElton. “I completely stumbled upon this, just complete fluke kind of thing, and being openly gay, I found it to be a very cool opportunity to go and represent.”

The series was filmed in September 2008. After a three-day crash course in basic survival skills, including how to shoot a gun, skin an animal and start a fire without matches, the volunteers were flown to “Ttsusena Lake” in the rugged Alaskan interior, described by Discovery as “one of the most inhospitable terrains on earth.”

Where is “Ttsusena” Lake? Could they mean Tustumena Lake on the Kenai Peninsula?

“Over the course of their monthlong journey, the volunteers put their newfound skills to the test, hunting, fishing, foraging for food and building makeshift shelters,” said the press release. “They faced plummeting temperatures and diminishing daylight hours. Their only lifeline was a GPS beacon they could activate if their lives were in danger or if they wanted to be evacuated.”

“Out of the Wild: The Alaska Experiment” will debut in April during Discovery’s Alaska Week.