The reason was him refusing to bring a map, which would have shown a bridge over the river less than a mile away.
And not scouting out his environment either, or even trying a detour along the river, or improvising a raft…
stuff you learn in boy scouts when your 12. yeah… probably the best lesson I learned in boy scouts is that if you don’t want to die on a camping trip, you have enough supplies for twice the time, enough clothes for twice the time, a map, a compass, a good understanding of where every road out is, and a plan to bail out of your camp site for every hour of the day, and when medical problem 1 happens, you bail, and you bail fast, no one needs to die on a camping trip. I camped through a blizzard, I dug shelters in snow, I did a lot of crazy stuff, but I was never dangerously hungry, thirsty, injured, or in shock, and the tired old guys who only half wanted to do camp outs were the best, because they knew exactly how far was too far every time.
His emaciated decomposing body was found by hunters. Time of death couldn’t be determined accurately.
The last 4 entries in his diary were just a date and a dash (-).
He had a bag of plant seeds with him that contained a toxin which causes paralysis.
His diary contained entries documenting his dwindling food reserves and unsuccessful hunting attempts.
Yeah, I read that hypothetically consuming the plant (which resembled a nontoxic look alike) could have made it so he was too weak to scavenge what he needed to survive. He could have survived otherwise. He was certainly gambling with his life being out there alone, but I read the claims of him being totally unprepared were exaggerated.
the first theory was possible toxicity, it didn’t pan out, another person noticed he consumed similar forage as prisoners in a concentration camp during WWII who developed paralysis the plant has animo acids that most people can tolerate, but then you are stressed and starved they can cause paralysis, so there is some chance he was paralyzed by the time he knew he needed to hike out. all of it is speculation though, as others have pointed out a lot of people tired to get him to turn around and he may have been trying to end his life.
The dude who dropped him off at the trailhead was so concerned due to his lacking gear, he first tried to convince him to call it off multiple times, then offered to drive him all the way to Anchorage and buy better gear from his own wallet.
And I think also shared what food he had. Yeah, the kid was under prepared for sure, but apparently he had studied the food sources and terrain somewhat. He got unlucky. Not being prepared for unlucky is very very dumb. But most people I hear mad about this think he was zero prepared
The reason was him refusing to bring a map, which would have shown a bridge over the river less than a mile away.
And not scouting out his environment either, or even trying a detour along the river, or improvising a raft…
stuff you learn in boy scouts when your 12. yeah… probably the best lesson I learned in boy scouts is that if you don’t want to die on a camping trip, you have enough supplies for twice the time, enough clothes for twice the time, a map, a compass, a good understanding of where every road out is, and a plan to bail out of your camp site for every hour of the day, and when medical problem 1 happens, you bail, and you bail fast, no one needs to die on a camping trip. I camped through a blizzard, I dug shelters in snow, I did a lot of crazy stuff, but I was never dangerously hungry, thirsty, injured, or in shock, and the tired old guys who only half wanted to do camp outs were the best, because they knew exactly how far was too far every time.
Yeah, that’ll do it.
i’m too lazy to look into, but did he actually starve starve to death or was there some medical complication? it takes a long time to starve to death
His emaciated decomposing body was found by hunters. Time of death couldn’t be determined accurately.
The last 4 entries in his diary were just a date and a dash (-).
He had a bag of plant seeds with him that contained a toxin which causes paralysis.
His diary contained entries documenting his dwindling food reserves and unsuccessful hunting attempts.
Yeah, I read that hypothetically consuming the plant (which resembled a nontoxic look alike) could have made it so he was too weak to scavenge what he needed to survive. He could have survived otherwise. He was certainly gambling with his life being out there alone, but I read the claims of him being totally unprepared were exaggerated.
the first theory was possible toxicity, it didn’t pan out, another person noticed he consumed similar forage as prisoners in a concentration camp during WWII who developed paralysis the plant has animo acids that most people can tolerate, but then you are stressed and starved they can cause paralysis, so there is some chance he was paralyzed by the time he knew he needed to hike out. all of it is speculation though, as others have pointed out a lot of people tired to get him to turn around and he may have been trying to end his life.
The dude who dropped him off at the trailhead was so concerned due to his lacking gear, he first tried to convince him to call it off multiple times, then offered to drive him all the way to Anchorage and buy better gear from his own wallet.
Goodness [rural] people can be angels
And I think also shared what food he had. Yeah, the kid was under prepared for sure, but apparently he had studied the food sources and terrain somewhat. He got unlucky. Not being prepared for unlucky is very very dumb. But most people I hear mad about this think he was zero prepared