Three of the most unprepared people in bush craft history

Anyone who’s interested in bush craft or survival should be aware of the need to be prepared, because going out into the wild with the things you need is just common sense. Most survival stories usually start with some kind of accident like a vehicle wreck or just getting lost, but every now and again someone does something truly stupid, with the three stories below being hard to beat.

Chris McCandless – going into the wilderness with next to nothing

McCandless was a hiker who chose to spend his life with as few ties as possible. This meant spending long periods of time hiking around the United States and only working when he needed to, and this lifestyle led to his decision to go into the Alaskan wilderness to just get away from it all. After graduating from university in 1990, he spent the next two years hiking around until he made his way to Alaska in April of 1992, a state he chose for its huge expanses of wilderness.

(The last picture of McCandless alive)

The plan was to live off the land and McCandless thought he knew enough to be able to survive, an overconfidence that led to his death. Apart from not knowing anywhere near enough survival information to live alone in the wilderness, he also decided to pack minimal gear, such as a small selection of basic camping gear and a few books about wild food. He did take a small rifle that he managed to kill a moose with at one point, but most of the meat spoiled because he didn’t know how to preserve it. After having his route to safety cut off by rising waters, he was forced to live in a small abandoned bus he found in the woods. He kept a journal throughout the ordeal and wrote detailed entries up until day 107 which simply read “Beautiful blue berries”, followed by a slash on each day between 108 and 112, then from day 113 onwards there was nothing. His body was found around 2 weeks after he died of starvation by a group of hunters, and he weighed only 67 pounds (30 kg) when he was found.

Andrew Gaskell – Getting lost on purpose

This 25-year-old Australian went on holiday by himself to Malaysia on a spiritual retreat. He wanted to get away from daily life and decided to spend a couple of weeks hiking around the rural areas of the country alone to do some thinking. At one point along his journey through the Gunung Mulu national park, he decided that sticking to the marked out paths was going to be too crowded, and so he got lost on purpose.

(Andrew Gaskell on the day of his rescue)

His goal was to reach the most remote area he possibly could and started to walk down some of the smaller paths, following whichever trail looked the most appealing at the time. The area he was in contains many miles of thick jungle, which also happens to be the hardest type of terrain on earth to navigate through, but this didn’t stop him from getting even more lost. It wasn’t until he achieved his goal of finding the most remote area he could that he realised the danger he was in. At first, he tried to make his way back but just ended up walking round in circles. The alarm was eventually raised by his family and a search team found him after almost two weeks in a very malnourished state. He made a full recovery and later made a formal apology to the rescue team for having to come out and save him from a decision he shouldn’t have made.

Four people who climbed a mountain in basic clothing

In February 2020, a group of four students from Glasgow thought it would be a great idea to try and reach the top of Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the UK standing at 1,345 m and situated in a country that has less than friendly weather. The plan was to simply reach the top, with not a single thought between them about preparing for it, and instead they just thought “lets go”.

(One of the “idiots” they had to rescue sitting down in the snow)

The group were wearing nothing more than regular clothing, jeans and tracksuits with basic jackets, and they were all wearing trainers instead of walking boots. They set out during the day but didn’t leave early enough and found themselves close to the top as dark set in. After they became horribly lost, a storm began which built up to 80 mph winds and dropped the temperature down to -20 °C. The group became separated but luckily one of them had an app on his phone which he used to send his exact location to a rescue team. They were all found quickly within 100 meters of each other, and after a round of comments about how stupid they were, they were taken back down to safety and made full recoveries. If it wasn’t for the app that allowed them to be found so quickly, there’s a very high chance all four of them would have died that night.