> While he planned to finish the trail in a single day, he also carried camping gear, including stove fuel, a sleeping bag and hammock, a machete, and another l

> While he planned to finish the trail in a single day, he also carried camping gear, including stove fuel, a sleeping bag and hammock, a machete, and another large knife. He certainly put too many eggs in the phone basket, relying on it entirely for navigation and illumination. But the other things he packed on a contingency of having to bivouac is not something the average unprepared hiker does. He did save some on his weight budget to pack those things on the assumption that the hike was going to be “easy-to-moderate”. I think the judge is viewing this too much through the perfect lens of hindsight and she likely would have made some of the same (or worse) errors given the same prior information.