Left in Wilds, Man Penned Dying Record

[Cooter]

people commit suicide over decades by smoking cigarettes... same kinda deal...

[CJ]

Granted I'm going from the newspaper article, but from what he put in his diary he expected to be picked up in August from the pilot. He gave the pilot money to fix his plane, and expected to be dropped off and picked up. The pilot says it was only to be dropped off. Carl noted in his diary that after several conversations the pilot said, "not to count on him as he could be in Anchorage by that time". That should have been a big time clue that he needed to solidify the agreement, but still looks like a misunderstanding to me.

If his intention was to commit suicide and maintain dignity, nothing in his diary can be trusted regarding his true intentions. So, dismissing everything in his diary and only focusing on what actually happened will give you a little better perspective. The primary reason why I think it was a suicide and not an accident is the fact that all observed and factual evidence shows one intention. The only evidence showing contrary is his own writings. And they are polar opposites. All his actions say one thing, all of his writings say the complete opposite. He intentionally was ambiguous to his relatives and siblings about his location and time frame. He did not leave any preparations for rescue with anyone. He didn't arrange or pay for a pickup. A rescue pilot did 4 passes and was certain he was waving him off and not interested in being rescued. I don't know about you, but if I'm about to die of starvation, I'm not going to casually wave off a pilot, giving him precisely the signal for "do not wait" and "not interested" multiple times, and then on the last pass nonchalantly walk back into my tent. Most all of the evidence points to the fact he was not interesting in being rescued. You either have to call it fantastic belligerence or suicide.

[Forever_frost]

And he was in a clearing and didn't put something out that read "HELP" like fallen timber

[Jose]

Truth.

Knowledge can go a long way. See: Dick Proenneke

The original Survivorman. He even videoed some of his stuff, and this was back in the 70s. The fucker built his own log cabin, made his own tools, etc and he did it all at age 50+.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Proenneke

Just finished watching this and it was bad ass. Only thing I hated was that it was only an hour.