[Lorric]

I guess they had to figure those steps out as they went and he wanted to as well.

The timing is bad, but you also have to consider he was entering some sort of contest. I'm not clear whether it was for career advancement or career obtainment, but maybe he wasn't able to wait. But even if it wasn't, I still think it was noble to go out right in the middle of the worst weather we've had all winter, and take the risks associated with that.

[Mika]

I can't help but echo Ryan's comment. This pretty much helped nothing, but only left his family behind - and goes to Darwin Awards in my books.

Being unprepared and unaccustomed to cold is pretty much a recipe for a disaster when trying to overnight if you have snow on the ground, no matter how good the intentions behind it.

Yes it is possible to overnight outside in temperatures below -15 degrees of Celsius without any fire or heating, but that's only because I happened to have the stuff which can be used to pull it off. I do recall a group of minimalists trying to survive in Lapland (originally from French if I recall), they respected nature up to the point it became dangerous for themselves - they didn't cut the trees down, the pushed it down non-violently. To nobody's surprise, they didn't last even two months out there in the winter, but luckily no-one died. Much of that belongs to an outsider who provided them wood to burn in their tents.