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It wasn't going to work out, he was dead the moment he set off alone, Alaska is a mean MF, and she'll slap you upside your head for being an idiot.
I'll quibble with this slightly. Setting off alone wasn't what did McCandless in; setting off alone without adequate experience and local knowledge is what killed him. When he decided he was done out there and set back to hike back to civilization, he was still in decent enough shape (though underweight) to make it back. But he clearly didn't know that the Teklanika was going to be in full flood then, and that's what killed him. He couldn't cross where he forded back in April, and he didn't know how to get out of that situation, so he just went back to the bus and starved to death there. It's hardly a big secret that rivers and streams fed by meltwater flood when the snowmelt happens, but he obviously didn't know that crucial fact. Nor did he know how to find an alternative crossing point. Heck, he could have walked 30 miles upstream to the road into Denali National Park and flagged down a tourist bus - if he'd known that road was there, and if he'd had the gear and the skills to bushwhack for a few days (which he did not).
He thought he was more skilled than he was, and he didn't know what he didn't know - and it turned out that what he didn't know was pretty crucial. His ignorance killed him.
...that’s what I got out of it, friendly bears cure cancer, but that may actually have been a Native American unobtrusively hanging out for a week. I’ll just have to try it out. .
I’m always amused when I post something that I thought was an interesting story and someone assumes I was giving advice.
He already knew he couldn't find happiness with others because he failed to connect with others his whole life...
Not true. He connected with many people he met on his trip out west, especially the old man who abandoned his comfy lifestyle as a result. He clearly enjoyed the company of others, but didn't want these pleasures to divert/distract him from "the quest".
To me he obviously wasn't suicidal, but rather cocky and a bit reckless.
..Of course had he survived, I doubt that this thread would exist, or, anyone would be dying to go to bus 142. It's far more romantic to fantasize about what someone was thinking who died there, than know what they were doing when they were rescued there.
Yes, he could have survived with a bit of luck. Wasn't there a cable across the river that he failed to discover?
No, this thread would not exist because the book wouldn't either. At least, not likely. If somehow it did, I think the bus would remain a draw to other kindred spirits.
We don't have to fantasize much about what he was thinking though, he wrote it down.
But I believe after college he went on a suicide mission, and he succeeded - just took awhile.
If he was suicidal, like you believe, why did he even attempt to hike from the bus back to Healy in July?
Quote:
Originally Posted by ClaraC
The whole thing is awful. It would have been SO WONDERFUL if some hikers had come upon him, dying there, and been able to rescue him.
You bring up an interesting "what if". Let's say someone found him in the bus near death and they were able to get him to a hospital ASAP and he lived, how would that change his story/the narrative? Would a book still have been written, would Chris have written it? Would it be like the Aron Ralston story, who wrote a book about his incident and a subsequent move was made.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Arktikos
Wasn't there a cable across the river that he failed to discover?
Supposedly a half of a mile or so downstream from where Chris was trying to cross the Teklanika River, there was an old hand crank cable system that he might have been able to use to cross the river. If he just had a good map of the area, he could have also hiked 13 miles south following the Teklanika (from where he tried to cross) and came out at the Denali NP road.
Supposedly a half of a mile or so downstream from where Chris was trying to cross the Teklanika River, there was an old hand crank cable system that he might have been able to use to cross the river. If he just had a good map of the area, he could have also hiked 13 miles south following the Teklanika (from where he tried to cross) and came out at the Denali NP road.
Yes - a good map and basic orienteering skills probably would have saved him. So would knowing that the rivers were going to flood in the summer, as he could just have stayed on the east bank of the Savage to carry out his "experiment." Then he wouldn't have had to cross any water in order to hike back to town. (Of course, he wouldn't have found a bus to serve as a convenient shelter there... He was simply under-prepared for the conditions out in the Alaskan bush.)
You bring up an interesting "what if". Let's say someone found him in the bus near death and they were able to get him to a hospital ASAP and he lived, how would that change his story/the narrative? Would a book still have been written, would Chris have written it? Would it be like the Aron Ralston story, who wrote a book about his incident and a subsequent move was made.
That's an interesting question, to which we will never know the answer. I suspect the whole experience out there had matured him considerably; it would have been an interesting book to read (as Aron Ralston's was).
Does anyone know if there are many people hiking out to see the slot canyon where Ralston lost his hand? I suspect not; somehow his survival story doesn't see to inspire the same level of romantic idiocy as McCandless's non-survival story has. Maybe the book and the movie conveyed too clearly just how harrowing the whole experience was? OTOH, Cheryl Strayed's book (and subsequent movie) about section-hiking the PTC has certainly inspired a lot of people, even though (like Ralston and unlike McCandless) she survived to write about it herself. It makes me wonder what the difference is between the books/movies which inspire the romantics and the books which don't.
I'll quibble with this slightly. Setting off alone wasn't what did McCandless in; setting off alone without adequate experience and local knowledge is what killed him. When he decided he was done out there and set back to hike back to civilization, he was still in decent enough shape (though underweight) to make it back. But he clearly didn't know that the Teklanika was going to be in full flood then, and that's what killed him. He couldn't cross where he forded back in April, and he didn't know how to get out of that situation, so he just went back to the bus and starved to death there. It's hardly a big secret that rivers and streams fed by meltwater flood when the snowmelt happens, but he obviously didn't know that crucial fact. Nor did he know how to find an alternative crossing point. Heck, he could have walked 30 miles upstream to the road into Denali National Park and flagged down a tourist bus - if he'd known that road was there, and if he'd had the gear and the skills to bushwhack for a few days (which he did not).
He thought he was more skilled than he was, and he didn't know what he didn't know - and it turned out that what he didn't know was pretty crucial. His ignorance killed him.
Nope, that far out, you'll die unless you plan on returning to a resupply base (Anchorage, Fairbanks, Nenana even). You'll trip fall knock yourself out in the dead of winter and wake up dead. You'll slip and break an ankle, die of exposure, you'll experience an animal attack, get an infection that needs antibiotics but lays you up for septicemia.
Hell just running out of firewood where he was later in the year and he'd be toast.
If he was suicidal, like you believe, why did he even attempt to hike from the bus back to Healy in July?
Why would he give away all his money then work minimum wage jobs to keep from starving on the road? Wtf made him believe he could hike from Healy to the Bering sea with a 10 lb bag of rice, a 22 rifle and a few books? He didn't even have a tent ffs. I think his stumbling onto the bus was completely unexpected, and was the only thing that kept him from dying much sooner.
This is a really weird set of facts and the mind is very complex, a deep desire for suicide is the only thing that makes sense to me. I could be wrong, and he was just one weird sob - but stupidity can't be the answer, he got great grades in high school and college. He also showed his intelligence by surviving 2 years as a hobo.
Not true. He connected with many people he met on his trip out west, especially the old man who abandoned his comfy lifestyle as a result. He clearly enjoyed the company of others, but didn't want these pleasures to divert/distract him from "the quest".
To me he obviously wasn't suicidal, but rather cocky and a bit reckless.
I'm not talking about some lonely old man who felt sorry for him, I'm talking about connecting with his peers - women his age. Before left everything to be Alex Supertramp.
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