I suspect, it has been confided by a few of the more self-aware people I know, that a considerable number of people who are engaged in adventure type activities are in some way exploring their will to live. Some are willing to die if the terms are favorable. Quite a few people in 'survivalism' are simply looking for an appropriate setting to give up.

The diminishing prospects of the middle class and middle age whites, high unemployment, relative worthlessness of the individual and inability of people to find a place and make a mark are causing a lot of males to question the value of their lives.

Some are just waiting for a situation where they can go down in a 'blaze of glory', 'heroic action', 'noble sacrifice'. Death by cop, going postal, school shootings, and attacks on public buildings are the antisocial version. Running into a burning orphanage to save the children, and joining the military and falling on a grenade the much more socially positive side.

Going toe-to-toe with mother nature and falling short is somewhere in the middle. So far in the middle that the desire for an end may not have been conscious. He may have been in denial as to his novice status but he strikes me as having gone through enough that he was fairly self-aware. I suspect that at some level he knew he was taking a big risk. But I also think that at some level it didn't matter.