Last summer, Rebecca Vance talked with her family about a dream she’d had: She wanted to live in a land disconnected from the world, which she viewed as chaotic and dangerous.
This is so sad but it sounds like they were not prepared for a life off the grid. It’s not as easy as people think. Especially in the winter. It’s sad that fear ended up costing them their lives. I hope they didn’t suffer.
It doesn’t even sound like they tried to be prepared. “I’m going to live off the land,” she replied, and then they’re burning sticks inside a tent stocked with canned goods and ramen?
Fuck’s sake. Not that I’m trying to speak ill. They must have known they fucked up in a way that was final this time and beyond help and if so, it would have been a kind of deep, visceral horror few people get to experience these days.
But she genuinely believed she was going to move out there, grow whatever, and forage, and just be fine, and she apparently did not find out whether or even how she could do that. Idealistic doesn’t have to mean blind.
Take this from personal experience. Living in a frigid, leaky tent full of weenie cans is not living off the land, it is being homeless.
There’s a reason people stopped living like pioneers as soon as they had the chance, because it sucks.
It’s sad they took a 14 year old with them.
Darwin Award unfortunately. Fire in a tent? WTF.
I have all the sympathy in the world for them but trying to live through a Colorado winter in a tent is not a good idea.
That’s so infuriating. Do stupid stuff yourself if you’re an adult, but don’t bring your freaking kid.
There were three of them. You’d think at least one would’ve chimed in with an “I’m so hungry, let’s go back to civilization for a day for a hot meal.” Instead of “hey, it’s so cold, let’s make a fire in this enclosed tent that should actually be some form of small cabin with a chimney.” I hate to say it, but they all deserved it in this case. And yes, even the teenager, because at 14 I could spot a moronic idea like this from miles away.
They might have been trapped by the snow and having been already somewhat weakened from malnourishment.
