this post was submitted on 03 Mar 2026
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He wasn't a dumbass, he was just suicidal.
He first left his privileged life, then his family and friends, then society. Typical steps of a suicidal person preparing for the end.
If he actually wanted to keep living, he could have left the bus and simply walked back, 3 days before his provisions ran out (it takes 6 hours to get to the trailhead).
But he stayed, even though he didn't have the skills to live off the land. He accepted death, until it came close, then he regretted his decision and tried to get out.
As good as all people that jumped of the Golden gate bridge and survived, regretted their decision the second they jumped.
Privileged is a complicated term for his life. On one hand, yes from the outside, and especially as presented in the movie, it seems like he had a typically idyllic upper middle class life. But if you do any digging into it, you find out that his father was an extremely volatile, violent abuser and his mom wasn’t much better. That sort of childhood trauma is a hell of a thing and absolutely impacts someone’s mental state.
To me, this is the simplest and most plausible explanation.
Somewhat related but it’s odd to me how many people I’ve met that feel so strongly negatively about him. Maybe as a herd instinct to warn others?
He wasn’t exceptionally selfish as he had no serious responsibilities.
This BS is part of the reason, I think. Not only is he a dumbass, but he inspires other dumbasses to be the best dumbass they can.
Natural selection working as intended?
Several Darwin Awards nominees
stupid is as stupid does
Not sure the hate is directed at him, but at people glorifying him
Yeah, I haven't read his book and have no strong opinions on him one way or another, but when the book came out, I remember him being presented to us as if he were some sort of spiritual or philosophical luminary to emulate, and it's always rubbed me the wrong way.
Filthy Neutral!
Maybe, but having read the book I don't think that's what Krakauer was going for. The last chapter is basically a bunch of experts roasting him for making mistakes and getting himself killed.
I think he was stranded because of a flooded river though? From memory there was a reason he couldn't just walk out.
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.
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
Goodness [rural] people can be angels