If Chris and Ruess both had families that understood them they way they wanted to be seen by their environmental heroes, then I think they would have ventured, but not in an extreme fashion. Had their family support their outdoor endeavors, their willingness to be apart of the earth, I feel that they would not venture as far as they did from their families and society. Since they feel that these issues are present even though to many on the outside their lives might be quite lot smoother than most, their family problems could have been seen as a weak excuse to go and prove to themselves who they really are. It's one thing to go against your families well doing for you, it's another thing to go against your family to the exremem of killing yourself