Several times when I was younger, I got mad at my parents and decided to kill myself by holding my breath. Obviously it didn't work out quite like that. But I guess he was thinking the same thing, just in a smarter/dumber way. But if he really didn't mean to kill himself, he probably would have been able to climb back up, right? I don't know. Maybe by the time he realized he didn't actually want to do it, he was too weak?