I agree, Teddy, and I'd guess that being outrageously hungry (and possibly weak due to that) may have been a major factor (in terms of odd behavior and bad decision-making). I also like to put myself in the position of the people involved. Here we have teenagers who were wet, super hungry, and possibly ill due to eating the wrong plants (though not to the point of that showing up in toxicology testing). The leader of the group was the one "expert"' and the one member of the group who did a lot of the "heavy lifting" were dead or telling them to leave. They may not have felt that going down to the tree line would do much for them, since they didn't believe they had the skills to survive and were very tired, hungry, and perhaps "not in their right minds" for whatever reason (some have mentioned altitude "sickness" too). They may have thought that staying in that open area would help rescuers find them, and didn't think that as a group they would have the requisite surivival skills without the leader and "heavy lifter." So, I actually don't find what happened to be all that strange, other than claims about the medical issues, though it's possible the surivivor could have embellished (such as to say that several had a symptom whereas only one did), in order to make her decision seem more reasonable (or she may have hallucinated, though I think this is the least likely explanation). As their physical conditions deteriorated (internally and externally), that is when bizarre behavior and medical conditions would be more likely, and the leader apparently was known as "tough" and preferred a Spartan approach, but to see such deterioration after just a few days seems very stange.