Anyone visit that bus from the movie "Into The Wild" (Barrow: teach, area)

[gobrien]

If you had read the book, many adventurers of his type were discussed in great detail. We don't all have to be the same.

[Frostnip]

I guess I just can't buy the idea that someone who got himself lost right by a well-documented national park counts as an adventurer. A modern take on the holy fool, maybe, but an adventurer...eh.

[gobrien]

To him, it was an adventure. That's all that matters. He wasn't looking for all this notoriety.

[starlite9]

Originally Posted by Jimrob1

I don't know when I have seen the words idiot or stupid used more on citydata to describe someone that has died. Especially such a young person that died all alone like that and he was just a kid.

There is a major difference between being trapped and getting killed when you knew what you were doing verses just being clueless.

Both cases you are dead, but more than likely had the kid not had such a chip on his shoulder for his life, he may have still been alive. There was no honor in his death, just sorrow for his family.

What is sad is those that can't grasp the difference and romanticize his life as if he really had a clue. He went from one close call to another without even knowing it.

I have met the "Pilgrims" on the Stampede Trail that were trying to find the bus in mid summer and they were just as clueless as he was about the conditions ranging from high water to critters.

The local Government has to rescue a number of idiots that try to go and find the bus each year because they are of the same mindset as the kid was.

Nope, locally there isn't much respect for the kid and his stupidity that got him killed, even less for those sheeple that want to follow him to the bus.


Another story of many:


Woman Drowns in Alaska Near McCandless's Magic Bus

'Into The Wild' fan from Switzerland swept into Teklanika River while attempting to reach McCandless's death place
14 years after the book and three years after the movie Into The Wild, wilderness maverick Christopher McCandless still inspires devotees to attempt to follow in his footsteps up the Stampede Trail to his notorious "magic bus"—the place where he wintered and starved to death. Several have needed rescue, and one died on Saturday: Claire Jane Ackermann, a 29-year-old from Switzerland, drowned while attempting to cross the Teklanika, the same river that vexed and trapped McCandless on the edges of Alaska's Denali National Park.







Full story at: http://www.backpacker.com/woman_drow...aily_dirt/1890

[Totek]

When are people going to learn....................2 bags of rice!

[Metlakatla]

Originally Posted by Jimrob1

I don't know when I have seen the words idiot or stupid used more on citydata to describe someone that has died. Especially such a young person that died all alone like that and he was just a kid.

It doesn't matter if his behavior would be described as foolish or whatever, he died a very lonely death and its beyond tragic. When I watched that movie I couldn't help but wonder. If there was alot more to this story, alot more to this young guys life that led up to such a tragic fate.

I completely agree.

[ArcticState]

This thread must be carrying ten bags of rice... it just refuses to die. Look, it was a tragedy that a young man died but we don't want other unnecessary deaths as a result. We tend to despise the oft-portrayed view of Alaska as a great place to "come find yourself" (as if a certain latitude can help you do that), the geography and climate can kill mercilessly. It is no respector of persons. I have survived in many dangerous situations, I won't brag about them because I find lack of humility in nature disgusting, but I mean -45 winter nights in the bush, alone, stuff like that. And let me confess there have been times stupid moves like failing to notice overflows have nearly got me killed. The most grizzled old trappers (of which I am most certainly NOT) always have "stupid me" stories. Here's the problem with McCandless, and others like him: they tend to respect the qualities of nature but not its mechanisms. They marvel at the beauty, the grandeur, the sense of peace we all experience in Alaska. They are hooked by the naturalists; they love Thoreau and Whitman and Tolstoy. But they lack the knowledge of nature's mechanics (weather, physical limits, nutrition, safety, basic understanding of wild and plant life). Humility and experience time in the bush can teach you that. McCandless took, in my opinion, a dangerous shortcut. Alaska doesn't owe you a living off the land, you must admire her first as a student, not as a patient needing help.

[warptman]

Originally Posted by ArcticState

This thread must be carrying ten bags of rice... it just refuses to die. Look, it was a tragedy that a young man died but we don't want other unnecessary deaths as a result. We tend to despise the oft-portrayed view of Alaska as a great place to "come find yourself" (as if a certain latitude can help you do that), the geography and climate can kill mercilessly. It is no respector of persons. I have survived in many dangerous situations, I won't brag about them because I find lack of humility in nature disgusting, but I mean -45 winter nights in the bush, alone, stuff like that. And let me confess there have been times stupid moves like failing to notice overflows have nearly got me killed. The most grizzled old trappers (of which I am most certainly NOT) always have "stupid me" stories. Here's the problem with McCandless, and others like him: they tend to respect the qualities of nature but not its mechanisms. They marvel at the beauty, the grandeur, the sense of peace we all experience in Alaska. They are hooked by the naturalists; they love Thoreau and Whitman and Tolstoy. But they lack the knowledge of nature's mechanics (weather, physical limits, nutrition, safety, basic understanding of wild and plant life). Humility and experience time in the bush can teach you that. McCandless took, in my opinion, a dangerous shortcut. Alaska doesn't owe you a living off the land, you must admire her first as a student, not as a patient needing help.

Wouldn't be bothered by you or other people bragging besides a certain Sity Data....

[ArcticState]

Originally Posted by warptman

Wouldn't be bothered by you or other people bragging besides a certain Sity Data....

Oh him? I have nothing on that guy. I mean, he's hunted whales, carved the tusks of sleeping walruses, slept on park benches in the tundra, wrestled Floyd Davidson in his dreams, and been the terror of every polar bear from Point Hope to Barrow. I'm afraid of him.

[Metlakatla]

Originally Posted by ArcticState

This thread must be carrying ten bags of rice... it just refuses to die. Look, it was a tragedy that a young man died but we don't want other unnecessary deaths as a result. We tend to despise the oft-portrayed view of Alaska as a great place to "come find yourself" (as if a certain latitude can help you do that), the geography and climate can kill mercilessly. It is no respector of persons. I have survived in many dangerous situations, I won't brag about them because I find lack of humility in nature disgusting, but I mean -45 winter nights in the bush, alone, stuff like that. And let me confess there have been times stupid moves like failing to notice overflows have nearly got me killed. The most grizzled old trappers (of which I am most certainly NOT) always have "stupid me" stories. Here's the problem with McCandless, and others like him: they tend to respect the qualities of nature but not its mechanisms. They marvel at the beauty, the grandeur, the sense of peace we all experience in Alaska. They are hooked by the naturalists; they love Thoreau and Whitman and Tolstoy. But they lack the knowledge of nature's mechanics (weather, physical limits, nutrition, safety, basic understanding of wild and plant life). Humility and experience time in the bush can teach you that. McCandless took, in my opinion, a dangerous shortcut. Alaska doesn't owe you a living off the land, you must admire her first as a student, not as a patient needing help.

I agree with this as well. But I have a soft spot for young people, and get tired of the mean spiritedness directed at this kid.