The quote is from an essay by an Alaskan Park Ranger not a "member of the public". When people get into trouble, there is usually a something that could been d

The quote is from an essay by an Alaskan Park Ranger not a "member of the public". When people get into trouble, there is usually a something that could been done either in preparation or by exercising better judgement. McCandless didn't just miss a couple of esoteric preparation steps, he failed to take extremely basic precautions like bringing a map or sanity checking your plans with someone who has experience in the area. As explained in the essay that quote is from, Alaskans get frustrated by the glorification of McCandless because he didn't show basic respect for the wilderness he claimed to love. > The dynamics of this subject on HN in particular are really sort of obvious, given that McCandless has come up at least half-a-dozen times on HN over the years, a site not known for its enthusiasm for the outdoors. The treatment here is often about as embarrassing as someone might imagine the topic of machine learning to be on a forum for mushroom pickers. Give the comments in this thread a read rather than projecting your own misconceptions and you will find there are a number of people with personal experience with wilderness and the Alaskan wilderness is specific.