Luke Nichols, better known online as ‘Outdoor Boys’, built a huge following by posting videos centered around wilderness challenges and life in the Alaskan outdoors. Over time he gained an impressive audience of 18 million subscribers, many of whom tuned in for his calm approach to survival and his knack for turning tough conditions into compelling content.
Some of his most popular videos include ‘Solo Camping in Survival Shelter During Snow Storm’ and ‘Camping on Frozen Ocean’. Clips like these helped cement his reputation as someone who could handle just about anything nature decided to throw at him.
Since then, Outdoor Boys fans have still seen occasional posts, although his newest appearance came in a way no one quite expected. Instead of uploading to his own channel, Luke resurfaced in a video created for another content creator.
He filmed and gifted a video to his friend Steven Smith, the creator behind the ‘MyLifeOutdoors’ channel, who focuses on survival tips and outdoor adventures as well.
Steven has been balancing his wife’s care, supporting their four children, and keeping his YouTube channel active. The workload has been overwhelming, and Luke recognized how much strain his friend was under during the holiday season.
In a generous and thoughtful gesture, Luke decided to create a special video and donate it fully to Steven. His goal was to give Steven room to focus on his family while ensuring the channel continued to run smoothly during Christmas, when consistent uploads can make a real difference.
“That’s a lot to deal with, so I made a video for him to have and post exclusively on his channel so that he didn’t have to worry about making a video over the holidays.”
A description for the video titled ‘Camping in Snowstorm With No Tent, No Sleeping Bag’ explains: “Racing against the early Arctic sunset, he builds a fire-heated shelter from scratch, gathers enough wood for a 17-hour night, cooks moose stew over the flames, and even squeezes in a bit of gear talk along the way.”
He wrote: “I’m incredibly honored and grateful for the support of my new friend Luke Nichols from outdoorboyschannel and so many others in the YouTube community.”
“He came out of retirement and endured a cold night in the Alaskan Wilderness just to film a video on my behalf. I have yet to meet an Outdoor YouTuber who isn’t an incredible human being!”
If you or someone close to you is facing cancer and would like confidential support, you can contact the American Cancer Society at 1-800-227-2345 or use their 24/7 live chat service available every day of the year.
