Well, if you’ve read the book then you know that McCandless wasn’t a total moron. He may have been when he first started out, but if I remember correctly, he’d been living out in the wilderness, and in that bus in particular, for quite some time. So he certainly had wilderness survival skills. Not enough, of course, but McCandless was a far cry from weekend hikers who don’t stick to the trails or bring enough water.
But does it matter? His lack of knowledge and inability to use logic and reason still caused his death. Sure he knew more than those weekend hikers that got lost… but he still died anyway. If you aren’t prepared, it doesn’t matter what you know/don’t know.
I couldn’t agree more; the guy was not prepared for what he was doing. I was just trying to point out that he was far more knowledgeable that he is being portrayed in this thread.
Along with everyone else who knew McCandless, I have no first hand knowledge of his final escapades. He was a super bright, funny, self-deprecating, charismatic, obnoxious asshole. Not a moron by any measurement… except for the starving to death in a school bus bit. I totally wanted to give him shit about that.
I guess it would depend on what ‘knowledge’ is in this context.
He managed to get himself to Alaska, that took some knowledge I guess. He managed to get himself to that bus, that took some knowledge.
Now the question is: Did he manage that because of his extra knowledge or simply because he wanted to go there? In other words, if any other ambulatory person was willing to drop everything and make their way to Alaska, could they do it? Could they make their way to the bus and die there, or would they lack the knowledge to get them that far?
From reading the book and seeing the movie, the impression I get is he didn’t do anything that required more knowledge than any average adult has.
Isn’t it obvious, what with all the other people he met in the underground subculture he traveled in? They were all doing what he was doing, their destinations were different is all.
Then I have to wonder if a guy lasts 2 months before he starves to death, while another guy stuck in the same place would die of starvation in less than one month, can the guy who made it for 2 months claim any superiority? Somehow I don’t think so. It’s like a sports team losing by 5 points, but trying to claim some kind of accomplishment because at one point they were down by 20 points. Sorry but you are still the loser of that game, so no extra credit to you for that ‘comeback’. Now if you had comeback and actually won…
The lack of map and compass, I’d attribute that to deliberate choice. Some people just decide to wing it, even knowing that those tools are available and should be used. Kind of like how some people refuse to wear a helmet while riding a motorcycle or wear a seatbelt driving in a car. They don’t lack the knowledge, they just refuse to use it. So I don’t hold that against him as a sign he lacked knowledge.
Some great follow up research into how Chris McCandless died. Definitely worth reading. If his death actually leads to additional wilderness knowledge that might prevent someone else’s death, that’s a nice coda to this story.
Fascinating. Thanks for the link.
Fascinating book and very good movie. What a life. Shame it had to end the way it did.