“Survivor” is one of the most popular contest reality TV shows ever. It is a long-running show — very long. The American version has been on the airwaves since 2000, around as long as Uhlaender’s Olympic career.

In the show, contestants are dropped on an island with few resources and little more than their wits to keep themselves fed, sheltered, and around for the season finale. Throughout the season, they compete in challenges for food, comforts, knowledge and items to help them survive eliminations. Contestants are gradually voted off the island, and their goal is to outlast the others and win the $1 million grand prize.

Uhlaender said she is there to see a lot of the exciting drama.

She’s a camera assistant, the person behind the person behind the camera, carrying their gear, giving them lenses and helping them set up shots.

Katie Uhlaender, seen here with her dog Rosie, is leaving to Fiji today to work on filming the 43rd season of the show “Survivor.” Uhlaender, a five-time Olympic skeleton racer living in Lake Placid, has worked on several seasons of the show before. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Cerbone)

The crew stays at a five-star resort, but spends 10-hour shifts in the jungle lugging 70-pounds of equipment bags around the wilderness.

There’s video of Uhlaender free-

climbing a rocky mountainside with heavy bags slug over her shoulder and a tripod strapped to her back. Behind her, the rippling blue Pacific Ocean stretches out with other islands on the horizon and the moon hanging big and low over the water.

“Best interview,” she says in the video.

The crew member behind the camera can be heard catching his breath. It’s a workout filming “Survivor.”

Katie Uhlaender organized the crew of the 42nd season of “Survivor” to sign this flag while filming. She said there are people from 31 countries represented on the flag, which she presented to show host Jeff Probst. (Provided photo — Katie Uhlaender)

Uhlaender said, like the Olympics, “Survivor” brings out the “best of the best” in the reality TV world. It doesn’t pay the most in the industry, but people keep returning for the community and the experience.

Uhlaender said an ex-boyfriend got her involved in the show in 2006 for season 13. She returned in 2008 for season 16. Eventually, she got promoted to camera assistant.

After a decade away, she returned for season 40 after competing in the 2018 Winter Olympic Games. She also worked on seasons 41 and 42.

But she’s never watched a full season, or even a full episode. Uhlaender said that might change with the current season, 42, which is airing now.

Uhlaender said she enjoyed the people on this season and that it was a very diverse cast.

She said she keeps returning to work there because she loves the crew on the show and everyone is passionate about the work they do.

“It’s very much a family,” she said.

The showrunners look for people with teamwork, positivity and, of course, resourcefulness, she added.

“You’re doing things with limited resources in the jungle,” Uhlaender said.

She said she built all these skills while training for the Olympics, and they transfer well over to adventure television.

The showrunners are also looking for people with good vibes. If they like you, they’ll ask you back, she said.

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Behind the scenes

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Uhlaender works on filming everything — interviews, contests, b-roll and contestants going about their daily lives on the island while plotting their victory. B-roll is her favorite, because it’s the crew’s chance to be creative, filming shots of iguanas, snakes and dolphins on the scenic island.

These shots mostly exist in the background for viewers but are crucial to setting the tone of the show.

She also gets to witness all the boring parts of living on an island with no modern infrastructure.

“Food and pooping are the two most common talked about things on the show,” Uhlaender said. “They talk about food and taking a poop, like, nonstop.”

Most of this footage ends up on the cutting room floor.

She tries to not get emotionally involved in the contestants’ story lines and who survives or who is voted off. She keeps a layer of reserved skepticism up so she doesn’t get sucked into the mind games they’re playing.

“You don’t know, the contestants are playing a game,” Uhlaender said. “Who they’re presenting is not always who they are.”

Uhlaender said it is never awkward being a fly on the wall while they’re filming the contestants getting heated, emotional or Machiavellian. The crew’s goal is to be invisible, she said.

“They get used to it,” she said. “We direct them a bit in terms of ‘please treat us as though we’re part of the conversation, but don’t talk to us.'”

Uhlaender said the show has changed a bit in two decades. Earlier on, it was more about truly surviving. Contestants weren’t even given rice or water. Now, they get some of the necessities as their focus is more on the metagame of the show.

When she’s filming “Survivor” she’s training for skeleton the entire time. There’s no ice, but she’s at the gym, staying fit though her work and racing her crew members on foot.

She’s wiped out when she gets back stateside, but she’s used to that — everything she does is exhausting.

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Skeleton future

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Uhlaender will spend over two months filming in Fiji.

She’s been in and out of Saranac Lake for 20 years and said she’s looking to settle down here when she gets back from filming.

She plans to compete in the North American World Cups this year, but thinks her sliding career may be nearing the end of its track. She wants a finale in Lake Placid.

“I’m not opposed to continuing to race, but I’d like to start my life,” Uhlaender said. “Get a home, get more stability.”

Because she’s been focused on sliding for 20 years, she’s behind her peers in terms of a career.

“Everyone that started in the same position I was in 20 years ago is now running the show,” Uhlaender said. “I kind of stayed the same and they’re 10 years ahead of me, which is part of my struggle with the Olympics.”

She wants also to start a not-for-profit to support winter sports here, possibly working with the state Olympic Regional Development Authority.

When the coronavirus pandemic hit, she was out of both her jobs. Filming for the 41st season of “Survivor” was postponed, as was her sliding schedule.

“Our competitions were cancelled and I had to find a way to survive,” she said. So she started doing Instacart deliveries.

Being an Olympian doesn’t pay the bills. She had to become a gig worker during the pandemic to make ends meet. There was no safety net, she said.

“I have to work regardless,” she said. “There’s no way around working.”

Eventually, she found a job at Avalon, a local tree care company, which she loves.

She’d like to become a camera operator or producer for “Survivor.”

“Honestly, the way the show takes care of us is the way the Olympic Committee should,” Uhlaender said. “They really make sure there’s a good work-life balance.”

Olympians can be quite isolated, she said. It’s sometimes lonely being on a training schedule without opportunities to bond.

The film crew for “Survivor” is very close. She said they celebrate independence days for Samoa, Philippians and the U.S. together.

The latest season, 42, was a memorable one for her. It was filmed during the pandemic, so the islands they were on were truly deserted of tourists. There weren’t even many planes flying over.

She created a flag which the whole crew signed to remember the experience. There were people from 31 countries represented on the flag, which she presented to host Jeff Probst at the end.

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Testing challenges

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In previous seasons, Uhlaender was on the team who tests challenges before contestants compete in them on air. But that changed.

“I was banned as of this last season because I broke the challenge,” Uhlaender said.

The challenge was to jump off a dock and grab a key. She was too athletic. She could grab the key without needing to jump off the dock.

“They were like, ‘That’s cheating!’ and I was like, ‘No, I have a 24-inch vert,'” she said.

But she admits, “I also cheat all the time.”

She has an eye for the loopholes in the challenge rules.

The most memorable challenge she’s tested was “Get a Grip” — Season 13, Episode 11 — where they had to hold onto a tall pole the longest. After six hours, she was up there with two others. Eventually, a producer told them to come down — it was getting dark. He coaxed them down with the promise of a massage and beer.

“I wanted them to step off the post first, so I stopped,” Uhlaender said.

One other tester stopped, too. They argued back and forth over who would get down.

“I spent six hours holding onto that stupid post. I was committed,” Uhlaender said.

She was resilient, and her fellow tester relented.

They never found out who had more grip endurance, but he was no match for her Olympic fighting spirit.