Chris McCandless Supertramp - Animal Planet on right now New video

[hikerboy57]

but he was more than unprepared, he was woefully unprepared.and had no intentions of returning,didnt even think about it until he was starving.i dont call it suicide as in putting a bullet in his head, more on an unconcious level of rejecting society and living off the land as best he could, without any outdoor experience or research of the area . he was a smart kid, so stupid i think doesnt really explain his actions. folly? more so.
didnt he ever hear of thruhiking?could have rejected materialism and made town stops every 4 days or so.
and yes the eddie vedder soundtrack is outstanding

[Pedaling Fool]

Just another misguided spoiled rich kid, end of story

[HikerMom58]

If we're going to try to WAG as to why he did what he did, I will throw out my guess and say - mental illness. I don't believe he was stupid at all. People do stupid things but that doesn't mean they are stupid. I'm sure he was very intelligent.

[Malto]

I wouldn't over think this. This is exactly the same as what we see on here. I'm sure many of the folks that come on here with wild eyed enthusiasm and a half baked plan are also very intelligent. But intelligence doesn't equal common sense.

[T-Rx]

I think he was a very smart kid with the same dream that many before him have had. The dream to chunk it all and leave behind society and all it's trappings. However, I also believe he was woefully unprepared for that undertaking and lack of preparation can lead to disastrous consequences as it did with Chris. He lacked good old common sense in this regard for sure. But the longer I live on this earth the more I find that common sense is not always so common. In fact I often refer to it as "uncommon sense" because I see it displayed so little sometimes.

[Tom Murphy]

Ever so often an idiot like Timothy Treadwell comes along. McCandless met and maybe exceeded this type of stupidity.

+1, a senseless death

[Capt Nat]

He made a serious effort to leave, found his way blocked, and didn't know what to do. That doesn't equal suicide... Should have had a compass and map, but I once heard of someone who walked off on the Appalachian Trail without a map and compass.

[johnnybgood]

If we're going to try to WAG as to why he did what he did, I will throw out my guess and say - mental illness. I don't believe he was stupid at all. People do stupid things but that doesn't mean they are stupid. I'm sure he was very intelligent.

I believe we all desire the simplicity of life that escapes us in a complex world,and hiking fulfills that need,albeit just for awhile . He was an idealistic kid with a dream of living distant of all the trappings of society .

[Mags]

What twenty-something hasn't tried to grab the Big One and nearly died trying?

What has happened in the years since his death is that he has almost become deified.

McCandless' story struck a chord with many people because it did reflect a certain segment of society: Young people who are a bit idealistic and romantic who yearn for the big adventure. Like many young people, he was ill prepared and in over his head. Unlike many people who did stupid things in their early 20s , his luck came up badly. (God knows I did! An incident comes to mind about my two buddies and I driving in a snowstorm in my friend's jeep so we could go to the all night diner at 2 am...and after perhaps one too many beers. ) "There but for the grace of God go I..."

If things were just a bit different, he probably would have survived. He would probably be one of these people you meet who talk about the crazy stuff he did in his early 20s. At the end of the book, McCandless displayed signs that he was ready to move on. Ready to enter a different stage of life.

INTO THE WILD is a good book because it does explore this pull many people have felt at some point in their life (and still feel). That is why many people related to it.

Having said that, Chris did some stupid things. Ill prepared. Not the right gear. Dying in an area that would not be considered wilderness by western US standards...much less Alaskan standards. As I said, things could have turned out much differently for him and his family.

He was a flawed, bright and an idealistic guy (like many of us at some point in our lives).

He was not the Christ-like figure portrayed in the movie (good god..flowing down the stream with his arms spread out????) but he was not the Treadwell like-loonie either IMO.

He was a dumb-ass kid who got in over his head. Unlike many other dumb-ass kids who get in over their heads, he paid the ultimate price. God knows I was a dumb-ass kid when I was 21. The difference? I didn't die because of it.

[Wise Old Owl]

McCandless was strongly influenced by Jack London, Leo Tolstoy, W. H. Davies and Henry David Thoreau. In his junior year, he declined membership in the Phi Beta Kappa Society, on the basis that honors and titles were irrelevant. McCandless graduated from Emory on May 12, 1990 with a Bachelor's degree, double majoring in history and anthropology

Yup a dumb ass kid. Should have studied under Ray Mears.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEVB0cpEPVA

[MuddyWaters]

I think he had some issues, and wasnt all there.

His previous sucess at being a homeless person on the fringe of society, emboldened him to think he could go live off the land totally in the wilderness.
He was woefully unprepared, in every way.
He wasnt even really in "wilderness". The area he was in was a days walk from civilization, and freqently traveled part of the year by others. Typically the definition of wilderness today is that mechanized forms of travel are not permitted, etc. That wasnt even the case where he was.

He was just plain stupid.

However, on some level I think many people relate to the desire for a simpler life, the way we lived for thousands of years. When the world was wild , beautiful, and wondrous.

In a way, its the same reason many like to go for long walks in the mountains.

[fadeleaf]

i really do understand what you're saying, but if you really want to experience the very best that life has to offer, yoou have to look outside yourself. look we're all hikers here, we all indulge in a hobby that in itself has little to contribute to society , but i believe as well that we do come back from the woods all the better for it and i believe it makes us better contributors. hey we all come back to share our experiences right here on wb, even those like mr gault and mr monkey to claim to hate people. we come back to lecture/educate/argue because we are social animals.
and its all good.

What Chris did was no less selfish than a thru-hike. And he wasn't anti-social.

but he was more than unprepared, he was woefully unprepared.and had no intentions of returning,didnt even think about it until he was starving.i dont call it suicide as in putting a bullet in his head, more on an unconcious level of rejecting society and living off the land as best he could, without any outdoor experience or research of the area . he was a smart kid, so stupid i think doesnt really explain his actions. folly? more so.
didnt he ever hear of thruhiking?could have rejected materialism and made town stops every 4 days or so.
and yes the eddie vedder soundtrack is outstanding

A lot of you seem too eager to attach yourselves to an oversimplified explanation that conveniently fits some predefined generalization you have of the situation. The minimalistic mentality doesn't belong in the areas of reading and research.

http://www.terraincognitafilms.com/w...l_debunked.htm

Jon Krakauer: People don’t get it. “He didn’t even have a map! What kind of idiot.” That was the point. There’s no blank spots on the map anymore, anywhere on earth. You want a blank spot on the map, you’ve got to leave the map behind.

Although they later did find a map in his possessions, (along with $300 and personal identification, clearly indicating he was planning on returning at some point) which Krakauer seems to ignore.

Just another misguided spoiled rich kid, end of story

Oh yes, very rich and very spoiled. Obviously.

[fadeleaf]

Meant to say:

What Chris did was no MORE selfish than a thru-hike. And he wasn't anti-social.

[HikerMom58]

Well, I just did a quick search on this man... I looked at his timeline link.

In HS, he was an amazing runner but as a "coach" of his HS CC team, he told the runners to imagine they were running away from all the evil and darkness in the world... that's a weird thing to say as a HS aged kid, to his peers.
In college, he cut ties with his parents b/c he found out that his dad had an affair.... Wow!
Co-workers at McDonalds said he was ODD.
He writes his journal in a melodramatic third person perspective.
Those are just a few things that I read that raises "red flags" in my mind. When someone, who is so intelligent, lacks logic- which is clearly seen in this man's "story". It seems like he was struggling with something going on inside his head. I believe for some people it's a fine line, to which only the professionals would be able to make that call. I'm not saying he had a mental illness but after reading his timeline, it still makes me wonder.....

[skinewmexico]

A college degree in no way is the ultimate indicator of intelligence, it's all relative. History and anthropology? I took those to raise my GPA. I think there are a lot of people around who got extra idealism, and completely skipped the counter giving out common sense.

[cliffordbarnabus]

he lived the life he wanted to live. he died doing what he wanted to be doing.

would a life of fluorescent lights, push-button thermostats, and "dead"lines have been better? more fulfilling?