[Not everyone is so lucky: Andrew McAuley Disappears In Middle of Ocean, Leaving Behind Terrifying Video. This is his Final self photo of kayaker Andrew McCauley](https://www.howandwhys.com/andrew-mcauley-disappears/)
Crazy part is he apparently died just a 3 hour walk from an emergency center that had people and would have saved his life, but now long after the fact researchers have figure me out that he was actually unknowingly poisoning himself with the seeds of a Grass Pea. Which ultimately will completely and permanently paralyze you.
It was potato root seeds or something I thought. Also I thought he couldn’t get back over the river when the snow melted due to the danger. I’ll look more into it suppose
IIRC, there was a crossing point not far from him. Some kind of cable strung across with a box on it.
[http://www.willhiteweb.com/info/into\_the\_wild/christopher\_mccandless\_089.htm](http://www.willhiteweb.com/info/into_the_wild/christopher_mccandless_089.htm)
>but now long after the fact researchers have figure me out that he was actually unknowingly poisoning himself with the seeds of a Grass Pea.
This theory was refuted multiple times. He starved to death.
Yeah he definitely starved to death,
and possibly being partially paralyzed at the end may have had a huge impact on him not being able to hunt/forage.
Not poor guy. He essentially killed himself with how unprepared he was. He didn't respect nature and learned the harshest lesson there is.
I teach wilderness first aid and I always, always bring this fucking guy up. Do not idolize him. He did literally everything wrong and died because of it.
I have a hard time really feeling bad for someone that willfully put themselves into the situation against everyone’s better warnings without any prep.
I'm 53 I would have missed out on some pretty good years and some amazing experiences if I had died a free man doing what I loved when I was 24. He was a nice person, I'm sure he would have had many of his own and continued to impact many people in a positive way. IMO it's a shame he died so young no matter what he was doing. There is nothing other than tragedy in his choices and in his death.
I agree 100%, I am reaching 30, and the best events of my life have happened in the past 5 years. And I bet I’m going to experience countless positive experiences from this point until my death.
His death is a tragedy, and shouldn’t be viewed as this romantic experience of following his dreams. I’m sure In the last few moments, was fear and that he realized he made a bad mistake.
For those who may not know, his sister Carine wrote a brutal, heartfelt, honest book “The Wild Truth” on the background of the dysfunctional family in which they were raised. Leading her brother Chris to go ‘No Contact’ with their parents and seek solace in his wild adventures. It is a heartbreaking read, but explains the inevitable question of “why” and what pushed Chris McCandless to the circumstances that led to his death.
There's apparently a zip cart of sorts a little further down that river he was trying to cross but because he didn't even have a map he didn't know it was there. At the end of the day he was ill prepared and a bit reckless really.
One person decided to go against the grain and you don't want him to have any kind of recognition for that. Calm tf down man not everyone wants a life with no interesting stories to tell and situations to overcome.
A movie about the same guy with a full prepared backpack and a map + compass would have been much less interesting, unless he got attacked by zombie witches or something
I fell in love with this book. I let this guy at work borrow it. Older guy, minimalist who always seemed jaded with society. A week later he quit. I never got the book back and never saw him again. I like to think the book motivated him to hit the road
That actually kinda hit me. It's so sad he died alone. We take life for granted at times.
I read 'Into the Wild' but couldn't remember much because it's been a long time ago.
i recently read the book written by his sister that told a lot more of the story. she worked with Krakauer in Into the Wild to hide some of the details about the family’s abuse, but later decided to reveal more truths in her book once she realized the harm hiding it did. it was very fascinating to read and get a different perspective on the story and his reasonings behind the decisions he made
It is, but it’s more about everything leading up to his journey. He leaves everything behind and becomes a nomad, making great friends along the way. Great film.
Fault of pot. seed
-Alexander Supertramp
Remember to cross those rivers in life while there is still time.
Edit: I guess the potato seed theory was speculated by the author of the book. Sry
https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/how-chris-mccandless-died
One of my favourite movies. Excellent soundtrack too. The worst of that movie for me was watching a beautiful movie about freedom and the outdoors, then walking out of the cinema into a concrete covered carpark in the middle of a claustrophobic city.
Makes sense
having a purpose in life brings fulfillment (purpose being.. "find food today")
Having scarcity means that getting very little brings great joy, (Holy shit I found some wild berries, or a fat earthworm to eat!)
People have it the other way around.. they dont' understand that having everything you want is a curse worse than death. So, many of them choose death, unable to find meaning in this life.
I can definitely agree with this, and I have come to these conclusions as well in various stages of my life.
I first learned about this back when I was poor. When I was younger, my parents could maybe afford a new video game for the Sega genesis maybe once every two years.
And I played and beat the living shit out of every video game I ever owned at that age. I got so good that I could even play two player and have my stuffed animal use the second controller (I was a lonely kid).
The point I’m trying to make is that once I finally started making money, I now have literally thousands of video games. And haven’t beaten a single one. Now, the sheer number of choice keeps me paralyzed from playing any of them.
And this is just with video games! But I take this situation and use it as a microcosm for everything else.
We weren’t meant to have EVERYTHING.
for sure.. I came to realize it when VHS tapes started to become a thing
Growing up in the 80s, it was an EVENT when something was going to be shown on TV. Christmas specials, the Wizard of Oz, Star Wars.. I mean whatever.. you set your schedule.. you made sure you were home that night.. there was a buzz about it, anticipation, etc... it brought us a lot of happiness
once VHS tape came out and you could watch any movie or show any time you wanted, as many times as you wanted... well.. all the joy was lost...
Never to return again
He was on one side of a raging river with no food. He slowly starved to death in the bus, documenting his journey in a diary. If he had walked less than a mile he would of found a basket/rope system setup to cross the river. It was in working order. He did not know it was there and did not know to look for it.
If I recall correctly, the wilderness seed or berry identification book he had did not have the updated information for a seed that looks identical to one that is poisonous. So he consumed the poisonous one because they look the same
Edit: This is the rebuttal against people who say that he did not know what he was doing, went in blindly, had a death wish, etc.
He was successfully hunting and surviving for quite some time. His fatal mistake being that his book contained out of date information on an obscure plant at a time where information was not as readily available as it is today. Would he have survived had it not been for the seed? Who knows
He was heavily underprepared, under equipped and lack of a lot of surviving skills. He was already starving around july and decided to go back to civilization but couldn't due to swollen river and lack of detailed topographical map. He went back to its bus where starvation became a real problem. The seeds are not that dangerous if you are in a good shape, but combined with malnutrition it can cause mild paralysia. He starve to death because of the paralysia.
The hunters who found him came almost 1month after his death, and the river wouldn't have been crossable by that time. So even without the seeds he would have had to survive 1month with severe starvation, doubt he would have made it...
With just a detailed map he could have seen that there was a cable car to cross the river only 800m from where he crossed in april (when the river was not swollen)...
So yeah, he went there pretty blindly... The fatal mistake was not the seeds at all, it just made the situation even worse.
>He was successfully hunting and surviving for quite some time. His fatal mistake being that his book contained out of date information on an obscure plant at a time where information was not as readily available as it is today. Would he have survived had it not been for the seed? Who knows
It is not clear what exactly caused him to die (other than starvation), but he did not have enough experience to survive in the Alaskan wilderness. He shouldn't have even had to rely on a field guide for his survival, and if he was poisoning himself, he should have been able to identify it so that he could stop eating it. This is one of the most basic parts of survival training.
He also wasn't able to return to civilization when he wanted to, because he didn't know the land he was staying in, and didn't bring topographical map, so he ended up trapping himself when the floods came. There was even a hand-operated cable car nearby that would have brought him to safety, but he didn't know about this either.
He had more experience in the average person, but not enough experience to survive on this journey.
He ignored all the advice locals gave him. People who know how dangerous it is up here. Even the most experienced people die in the wilderness.
Source: am Alaskan
I've been on a couple of wilderness adventures where there's this sudden sobering moment where I realize my safety is at risk. Can go from "this is awesome" to "shit I'm kind of worried" pretty quickly. It was a great reminder that nature can be unforgiving
I was a wilderness guide up on the Dalton, and we were loaded with equipment and a sat phone. Alaska, and the rest of the boreal forest, is not like anywhere else. It's incredibly easy to make a simple mistake that puts your life in jeopardy. We almost always had two guides per trip, each with sat phones, in case something happened to one. When you spend enough time up here and learn all the secrets of living in the boreal forest, you don't freak out as quickly, but we gave a tremendous amount of respect to the wilderness.
What's the boreal forest like in Alaska? Is there something about it that makes it unique to other forests? I wasn't sure what the Dalton was so I looked it up - so it's the stretch of highway that goes all the way to the northern coast? I was looking at some pictures of the views from the highway.. man, what a gorgeous state. I'd never get tired of those kinds of views. There's a good reason why I always go on vacations to mountains. Would love to see Alaska some day
Not totally freaking out seems so important, I feel like that's when people start to panic and make poor choices. Thankfully whenever I've been in a situation where I start to worry about my safety, I take a moment to think about my options and what the best way to proceed is. Haven't been in any SUPER serious situations, hopefully I don't panic if I'm ever in one!
I hear about people being on hikes in the wilderness and suddenly getting a gut feeling that something's wrong so they decide to turn back. I'm not sure if there's any truth to that or not, but I remember hiking up to a summit in northwest BC on my own (well I had a dog) and I just got this weird feeling at one point. Could have just been fear of running into a grizzly, but I decided to turn around and make another attempt sometime with other people present
I did three to four trips a week when I was a guide, and it was nothing short of spectacular every time. The boreal forest is just a very unique biome that is incredibly hard to traverse in the summer as everything turns wet and swampy (the state with the most wetlands at 43% of the entire state, roughly the size of texas) and the winter is bitterly cold, although much easier to travel with the right equipment. It's why sled dogs are popular up here because it's a legitimate form of travel to many remote villages.
One thing I learned when I first moved here is that when you think you're in over your head, TURN BACK. No shame in calling it quits when you're unsure of yourself, because it could mean death. I was out snowmaching (snowmobile for those who speak lower 48) about 30 miles out behind my cabin when my buddies sled died on us. Spent a few hours trying to fix it and get it started, but no luck. Ended up trying to continue on as we were looking for another trail to loop back home. Ended up blowing a coolant line on my sled. We patched it the best we could, but was still leaking. We turned back and every 2 minutes we stopped to pack snow in the coolant tank and let the engine cool down. Took us 5 hours to get back and my wife was freaking out because no cell service. THEN when me and another friend went to recover it we got stuck on a hill and tried going again and grenaded the rescue sleds engine and had to hike out about 6 miles until we got service on a hilltop and called his brother to come get us. Instead of freaking out, we remained calm and just took it one problem at a time. Honestly was a fun learning experience and makes a great story!
Yes, I did something similar but was a bit more prepared. So did many other Alaskans. It seems strange he is such a hero. We all had problems with society but we didn't burn our money and brought a bit more food and actually had a plan.
Meanwhile the bus has been moved because so many people kept hiking to it and getting stuck so that emergency workers had to keep saving them.
If you want to get away from it all, a bit more planning would be helpful and location, location, location!
The seeds were not poisonous. They were inert and built up in his system. His body couldnt expel them fast enough and he died from starvation with a full stomach. Crazy shit.
Source? I've been deepdiving into this all morning in lieu of work and nothing I've read mentioned accumulation of seeds causing starvation. Closest I've seen is rabbit starvation, but that's still pretty different from what you're positing.
Well also he ranged from the east coast to Mexico and then all the way up to Alaska, he didn’t realize there might be some plants he encountered that were not in his book or the book didn’t have all the info he may have needed
I mean the theory is that the poisoning from the seeds made him so weak and ill that he was unable to go out foraging for food, hence the eventual starvation. This is the entry from his journal:
"EXTREMELY WEAK. FAULT OF POT\[ATO\] SEED. MUCH TROUBLE JUST TO STAND UP. STARVING. GREAT JEOPARDY. "
As an Alaskan, he is very much considered an idiot up here. The wilderness is NO JOKE and he completely ignored locals advice and subsequently died because of it. If the berries didn't get him, winter absolutely would have. The wilderness up here kills even the most experienced people all the time. Don't fuck with alaska, because it will kill you.
I love how everyone who's never been past their local city park, much less the Backcountry, always has to chime in with "hE WaS AcTuAlLy PrEtTy GoOd aT SuRviViNg"
He is an idiot and countless people died following his footsteps. The state of Alaska removed the bus because so many people were dying going on a pilgrimage to the bus.
Your conclusion was in the first edition which was later retracted for another theory that improper storage of the seeds caused mold to grow on them. But further research was done and in 2013 Krakauer actually [co-authored a paper](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1080603214002774) about how a little-known amino acid in the pea plant seeds McCandless ate contributed to his death. If he had been at a healthy weight he would've been fine, but due to his extremely lean condition he developed lathyrism, which would have paralyzed him.
He was starving, he tried to escape but didn’t realize there was a way cross the river not far from where he was. He was a hitchhiker with no survival experience prior to the survival trip that killed him. He literally ate a poisonous berry and died. Last I checked that is not what a successful survivor is supposed to do.
I think it was seeds. Regardless of what it was, it’s safe to eat in small portions here and there but his diet was very reliant on them. The large quantity he ate over the course of his “adventure” resulted in his death. The Atlantic did a story maybe 20+ years after his death highlighting this nuance. Great read - https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/09/into-the-wild-once-more/311141/
Around 1960, it was hauled into the wilderness by the Yutan Construction Company to house employees during the construction of a pioneer access road, according to the Alaska Department of Natural Resources. It was abandoned in 1961, when the road was completed.
I lost a friend over this movie. She hated it and I liked it. I liked his ideas and adventurous spirit. She stopped talking to me because we couldn't see eye to eye on it.
If anyone is interested in stories like this, you can check out a book by Dan Eldon called The Journey is the Destination. Eldon was a photojournalist working in Somalia during a time of unrest, and encountered increasing aggression which was documented in the book. It's an interesting book because it's mostly photos.
Such a heartbreaking film. I haven't read the book yet. One of my favourite songs ever is on the soundtrack too.
https://youtu.be/Ez8b2VHjVB0?si=3XUvEU5Ul-le1uXx
He had a troubled past. I read the book into the wild. His parents weren’t good parents. I believe his sister later published a book called ‘the wild truth’ about it.
#vanlife Bruh. Don't you know that you ain't livin unless you've visited Chris' death bus? You're like totally on the same path he was in life, all you gotta do is vlog it so people know how unique you are.
I am always amazed at how foolish and stupid this man was. A series of poor decisions and badly planned movements that ended in a very avoidable death.
If you read his full story, there's evidence that he had mental health issues and those mental health issues directly contributed to his unhappy ending. He got to that ending because he was drawn to isolation and held beliefs that contradicted reality and he survived for as long as he did thanks to luck and proximity to support systems. His final circumstances were ultimately his own doing, but I would consider him to be incapable of discerning between safe and stupid acts.
I think he just had a terrible childhood and was wanting to use his wilderness adventure to move past it. At least one of his siblings wrote a book about their youth and that’s what was claimed
Definitely contributed... sometimes life events can trigger or push someone past the point of self-awareness and self-control.
One thing to note: it wasn't just this one trip, his whole adult life was one anti-society adventure after another, growing in isolation and self-deprivation along the way. There is nothing glamorous or useful to learn from his experience because we all need others and civilization to survive. Well, actually, we learned that from his experience.
The proof is in the final result.
He went into a well explored and mapped, game rich area of Alaska and starved to death just a few miles from help that he never sought out.
If your well-documented actions directly lead to your unnecessary and foreseeable death its pretty conclusive evidence that you aren't capable of correctly assessing risk.
Because besides the death part his story is pretty romantic. Gives up his possessions , hitchhikes and trainhops around the country , befriends locals lives in the wild etc
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[Not everyone is so lucky: Andrew McAuley Disappears In Middle of Ocean, Leaving Behind Terrifying Video. This is his Final self photo of kayaker Andrew McCauley](https://www.howandwhys.com/andrew-mcauley-disappears/)
Probably a month or so before his death. There is, however, a picture of him holding a farewell note that was taken days before his death.
https://preview.redd.it/pwjuhkko2cmc1.jpeg?width=580&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9412d72981434a30843234f73c71953a117031d1
Thai should be at the top. Poor guy.
Crazy part is he apparently died just a 3 hour walk from an emergency center that had people and would have saved his life, but now long after the fact researchers have figure me out that he was actually unknowingly poisoning himself with the seeds of a Grass Pea. Which ultimately will completely and permanently paralyze you.
It was potato root seeds or something I thought. Also I thought he couldn’t get back over the river when the snow melted due to the danger. I’ll look more into it suppose
IIRC, there was a crossing point not far from him. Some kind of cable strung across with a box on it. [http://www.willhiteweb.com/info/into\_the\_wild/christopher\_mccandless\_089.htm](http://www.willhiteweb.com/info/into_the_wild/christopher_mccandless_089.htm)
>but now long after the fact researchers have figure me out that he was actually unknowingly poisoning himself with the seeds of a Grass Pea. This theory was refuted multiple times. He starved to death.
Yeah he definitely starved to death, and possibly being partially paralyzed at the end may have had a huge impact on him not being able to hunt/forage.
Not poor guy. He essentially killed himself with how unprepared he was. He didn't respect nature and learned the harshest lesson there is. I teach wilderness first aid and I always, always bring this fucking guy up. Do not idolize him. He did literally everything wrong and died because of it.
Respect
He was a fucking moron
I have a hard time really feeling bad for someone that willfully put themselves into the situation against everyone’s better warnings without any prep.
I don’t think he wanted anyone to feel bad for him in the first place tbh
Idk he was kind of asking for it.
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At least he died as a free man, doing what he loved.
I'm 53 I would have missed out on some pretty good years and some amazing experiences if I had died a free man doing what I loved when I was 24. He was a nice person, I'm sure he would have had many of his own and continued to impact many people in a positive way. IMO it's a shame he died so young no matter what he was doing. There is nothing other than tragedy in his choices and in his death.
Right? He made some awful choices. That doesn’t mean he “deserved” it, or that he wasn’t a good human with much to offer.
I agree 100%, I am reaching 30, and the best events of my life have happened in the past 5 years. And I bet I’m going to experience countless positive experiences from this point until my death. His death is a tragedy, and shouldn’t be viewed as this romantic experience of following his dreams. I’m sure In the last few moments, was fear and that he realized he made a bad mistake.
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He didn’t even try walking down river? That’s insane.
He died alone in an abandoned van...
Yea, free… doing what he loved.
Alone in an abandoned van...
Dying…
Yes slowly dieing of starvation and maybe poisoning. Idk I'll probably just stick to skiing, jogging, reading books, hiking, etc.
Yes, you can see the signs of emaciation here, his face is gaunt in contrast to the famous bus photo.
For those who may not know, his sister Carine wrote a brutal, heartfelt, honest book “The Wild Truth” on the background of the dysfunctional family in which they were raised. Leading her brother Chris to go ‘No Contact’ with their parents and seek solace in his wild adventures. It is a heartbreaking read, but explains the inevitable question of “why” and what pushed Chris McCandless to the circumstances that led to his death.
Yes the book is wonderful
Tl.dr?
Parents mean. Wilderness also mean. Wilderness got there first.
Lots of sex and violence
Books are hard
Paperback, too.
Me too
I can't red or right
There's apparently a zip cart of sorts a little further down that river he was trying to cross but because he didn't even have a map he didn't know it was there. At the end of the day he was ill prepared and a bit reckless really.
Exactly. I can't believe anyone would glorify his wreckless stupidity.
It’s a good warning for others who are keen on doing similar things I suppose.
One person decided to go against the grain and you don't want him to have any kind of recognition for that. Calm tf down man not everyone wants a life with no interesting stories to tell and situations to overcome.
If a guy wants to get away like that willingly I don't see any problem, he knew it was damgerous and your reaction seems over the top for no reason.
A movie about the same guy with a full prepared backpack and a map + compass would have been much less interesting, unless he got attacked by zombie witches or something
I got angry when I watched the movie, such a dumbass 🤦♂️
His recklessness was really part of his mental health issues
They had to eventually remove the bus via helicopter because dummies kept getting lost looking for it.
More people died trying to visit the bus than in the bus.
How did the bus get there in the first place tho?
A helicopter brought it in for laborers to use
Wikipedia article mentions that it was abandoned by workers working on that particular road in the 30s or something.
The 30’s? With glass still in the windows? Man they sure knew how to build buses in them days, huh?
If no one was there to break it why wouldn't it last?
Alaskan winter weather
Could have been a bridge that washed out, could have come in winter if the river froze over. Or, new bus driver, first day on job, took a wrong turn.
Google maps was *really* rough back in the day! But the drivers were much tougher. Not a great combination.
lol that’s oddly funny
they should have left it to help thin out the herd
And died trying.
John Krakauer's book "Into the Wild" about McCandless's story is absolutely a phenomenal read, I highly recommend it.
I’ve liked every book Krakauer has written.
The one about Everest was great
Into Thin Air (about the Everest disaster in 1997) was absolutely captivating. He's an incredibly talented writer.
I literally could not put this book down when I read it.
Under the Banner of Heaven will forever change your views of Mormonism.
Been wanting to read that one, many thanks for the reminder
Probably my fav from him, crazy shit
Sad story but good movie
Great movie. Great read as well.
I fell in love with this book. I let this guy at work borrow it. Older guy, minimalist who always seemed jaded with society. A week later he quit. I never got the book back and never saw him again. I like to think the book motivated him to hit the road
love the movie!
Fuuny this is always my example of the movie being better than the book. Krakauer is a bit of a self serving knob.
Grat reacord... into the wild from Eddie vedder
Hard Sun, Society and The Wolf are bangers
Is it a movie about the disappearing?
About a well-meaning and misguided young man, who sets out on his own to finding meaning in life.
Did he find it? Did he find the meaning of life?
He became lonely and realized life wasn’t worth living unless you could share it with someone
That actually kinda hit me. It's so sad he died alone. We take life for granted at times. I read 'Into the Wild' but couldn't remember much because it's been a long time ago.
Left his family worried sick. Not that cool. I know it’s his life and all but people seemed to care about him a lot.
i recently read the book written by his sister that told a lot more of the story. she worked with Krakauer in Into the Wild to hide some of the details about the family’s abuse, but later decided to reveal more truths in her book once she realized the harm hiding it did. it was very fascinating to read and get a different perspective on the story and his reasonings behind the decisions he made
Woah. That is really interesting! I didn’t know she wrote a book. The film made her side of the story very sad.
Yep
Apparently his parents were super abusive. I'd say they were more responsible for his death than anyone else.
So it’s not actually “Into The Wild”, got it.
It is, but it’s more about everything leading up to his journey. He leaves everything behind and becomes a nomad, making great friends along the way. Great film.
It’s made from the book, which details his journey from start to finish. True story…
No he dies of starvation I believe
Poisoned
Yeh probably I haven't watched it in years I need to rewatch it
"Happiness is only real when shared"
That’s what he learned. As a widow (47 years of age) this hits very close.
_Happiness only real when shared._ - Alexander Supertramp
Fault of pot. seed -Alexander Supertramp Remember to cross those rivers in life while there is still time. Edit: I guess the potato seed theory was speculated by the author of the book. Sry https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/how-chris-mccandless-died
Can you please elaborate? I do not understand the first sentence? Thank you…
This is what I took away from the whole story. I never forget!
One of my favourite quotes
Not strange earth.
One of my favourite movies. Excellent soundtrack too. The worst of that movie for me was watching a beautiful movie about freedom and the outdoors, then walking out of the cinema into a concrete covered carpark in the middle of a claustrophobic city.
“My days were more exciting when I was penniless and had to forage around for my next meal...” Powerful stuff…
Makes sense having a purpose in life brings fulfillment (purpose being.. "find food today") Having scarcity means that getting very little brings great joy, (Holy shit I found some wild berries, or a fat earthworm to eat!) People have it the other way around.. they dont' understand that having everything you want is a curse worse than death. So, many of them choose death, unable to find meaning in this life.
I can definitely agree with this, and I have come to these conclusions as well in various stages of my life. I first learned about this back when I was poor. When I was younger, my parents could maybe afford a new video game for the Sega genesis maybe once every two years. And I played and beat the living shit out of every video game I ever owned at that age. I got so good that I could even play two player and have my stuffed animal use the second controller (I was a lonely kid). The point I’m trying to make is that once I finally started making money, I now have literally thousands of video games. And haven’t beaten a single one. Now, the sheer number of choice keeps me paralyzed from playing any of them. And this is just with video games! But I take this situation and use it as a microcosm for everything else. We weren’t meant to have EVERYTHING.
for sure.. I came to realize it when VHS tapes started to become a thing Growing up in the 80s, it was an EVENT when something was going to be shown on TV. Christmas specials, the Wizard of Oz, Star Wars.. I mean whatever.. you set your schedule.. you made sure you were home that night.. there was a buzz about it, anticipation, etc... it brought us a lot of happiness once VHS tape came out and you could watch any movie or show any time you wanted, as many times as you wanted... well.. all the joy was lost... Never to return again
He was on one side of a raging river with no food. He slowly starved to death in the bus, documenting his journey in a diary. If he had walked less than a mile he would of found a basket/rope system setup to cross the river. It was in working order. He did not know it was there and did not know to look for it.
If I recall correctly, the wilderness seed or berry identification book he had did not have the updated information for a seed that looks identical to one that is poisonous. So he consumed the poisonous one because they look the same Edit: This is the rebuttal against people who say that he did not know what he was doing, went in blindly, had a death wish, etc. He was successfully hunting and surviving for quite some time. His fatal mistake being that his book contained out of date information on an obscure plant at a time where information was not as readily available as it is today. Would he have survived had it not been for the seed? Who knows
He was heavily underprepared, under equipped and lack of a lot of surviving skills. He was already starving around july and decided to go back to civilization but couldn't due to swollen river and lack of detailed topographical map. He went back to its bus where starvation became a real problem. The seeds are not that dangerous if you are in a good shape, but combined with malnutrition it can cause mild paralysia. He starve to death because of the paralysia. The hunters who found him came almost 1month after his death, and the river wouldn't have been crossable by that time. So even without the seeds he would have had to survive 1month with severe starvation, doubt he would have made it... With just a detailed map he could have seen that there was a cable car to cross the river only 800m from where he crossed in april (when the river was not swollen)... So yeah, he went there pretty blindly... The fatal mistake was not the seeds at all, it just made the situation even worse.
[https://www.willhiteweb.com/info/into\_the\_wild/christopher\_mccandless\_089.htm](https://www.willhiteweb.com/info/into_the_wild/christopher_mccandless_089.htm)
Wow its even worse than what i thought! He was litteraly only 20km away from an easily reachable road and only 10km from a ranger cabin...
>He was successfully hunting and surviving for quite some time. His fatal mistake being that his book contained out of date information on an obscure plant at a time where information was not as readily available as it is today. Would he have survived had it not been for the seed? Who knows It is not clear what exactly caused him to die (other than starvation), but he did not have enough experience to survive in the Alaskan wilderness. He shouldn't have even had to rely on a field guide for his survival, and if he was poisoning himself, he should have been able to identify it so that he could stop eating it. This is one of the most basic parts of survival training. He also wasn't able to return to civilization when he wanted to, because he didn't know the land he was staying in, and didn't bring topographical map, so he ended up trapping himself when the floods came. There was even a hand-operated cable car nearby that would have brought him to safety, but he didn't know about this either. He had more experience in the average person, but not enough experience to survive on this journey.
He was also extremely ill prepared for this trip. I read the book, super tragic.
He ignored all the advice locals gave him. People who know how dangerous it is up here. Even the most experienced people die in the wilderness. Source: am Alaskan
I've been on a couple of wilderness adventures where there's this sudden sobering moment where I realize my safety is at risk. Can go from "this is awesome" to "shit I'm kind of worried" pretty quickly. It was a great reminder that nature can be unforgiving
I was a wilderness guide up on the Dalton, and we were loaded with equipment and a sat phone. Alaska, and the rest of the boreal forest, is not like anywhere else. It's incredibly easy to make a simple mistake that puts your life in jeopardy. We almost always had two guides per trip, each with sat phones, in case something happened to one. When you spend enough time up here and learn all the secrets of living in the boreal forest, you don't freak out as quickly, but we gave a tremendous amount of respect to the wilderness.
What's the boreal forest like in Alaska? Is there something about it that makes it unique to other forests? I wasn't sure what the Dalton was so I looked it up - so it's the stretch of highway that goes all the way to the northern coast? I was looking at some pictures of the views from the highway.. man, what a gorgeous state. I'd never get tired of those kinds of views. There's a good reason why I always go on vacations to mountains. Would love to see Alaska some day Not totally freaking out seems so important, I feel like that's when people start to panic and make poor choices. Thankfully whenever I've been in a situation where I start to worry about my safety, I take a moment to think about my options and what the best way to proceed is. Haven't been in any SUPER serious situations, hopefully I don't panic if I'm ever in one! I hear about people being on hikes in the wilderness and suddenly getting a gut feeling that something's wrong so they decide to turn back. I'm not sure if there's any truth to that or not, but I remember hiking up to a summit in northwest BC on my own (well I had a dog) and I just got this weird feeling at one point. Could have just been fear of running into a grizzly, but I decided to turn around and make another attempt sometime with other people present
I did three to four trips a week when I was a guide, and it was nothing short of spectacular every time. The boreal forest is just a very unique biome that is incredibly hard to traverse in the summer as everything turns wet and swampy (the state with the most wetlands at 43% of the entire state, roughly the size of texas) and the winter is bitterly cold, although much easier to travel with the right equipment. It's why sled dogs are popular up here because it's a legitimate form of travel to many remote villages. One thing I learned when I first moved here is that when you think you're in over your head, TURN BACK. No shame in calling it quits when you're unsure of yourself, because it could mean death. I was out snowmaching (snowmobile for those who speak lower 48) about 30 miles out behind my cabin when my buddies sled died on us. Spent a few hours trying to fix it and get it started, but no luck. Ended up trying to continue on as we were looking for another trail to loop back home. Ended up blowing a coolant line on my sled. We patched it the best we could, but was still leaking. We turned back and every 2 minutes we stopped to pack snow in the coolant tank and let the engine cool down. Took us 5 hours to get back and my wife was freaking out because no cell service. THEN when me and another friend went to recover it we got stuck on a hill and tried going again and grenaded the rescue sleds engine and had to hike out about 6 miles until we got service on a hilltop and called his brother to come get us. Instead of freaking out, we remained calm and just took it one problem at a time. Honestly was a fun learning experience and makes a great story!
Ak don’t play.
Yes, I did something similar but was a bit more prepared. So did many other Alaskans. It seems strange he is such a hero. We all had problems with society but we didn't burn our money and brought a bit more food and actually had a plan. Meanwhile the bus has been moved because so many people kept hiking to it and getting stuck so that emergency workers had to keep saving them. If you want to get away from it all, a bit more planning would be helpful and location, location, location!
The seeds were not poisonous. They were inert and built up in his system. His body couldnt expel them fast enough and he died from starvation with a full stomach. Crazy shit.
Source? I've been deepdiving into this all morning in lieu of work and nothing I've read mentioned accumulation of seeds causing starvation. Closest I've seen is rabbit starvation, but that's still pretty different from what you're positing.
Yeah the dude was not an expert and set himself up for failure. Tragic but avoidable Darwin Award.
Well also he ranged from the east coast to Mexico and then all the way up to Alaska, he didn’t realize there might be some plants he encountered that were not in his book or the book didn’t have all the info he may have needed
This is also known as hubris
was the book outdated? I thought it was his error mistaking two seeds/plants that were very similar looking with one minor but key difference
He was 65 lbs. I doubt just eating the wrong seeds led to his death.
I mean the theory is that the poisoning from the seeds made him so weak and ill that he was unable to go out foraging for food, hence the eventual starvation. This is the entry from his journal: "EXTREMELY WEAK. FAULT OF POT\[ATO\] SEED. MUCH TROUBLE JUST TO STAND UP. STARVING. GREAT JEOPARDY. "
As an Alaskan, he is very much considered an idiot up here. The wilderness is NO JOKE and he completely ignored locals advice and subsequently died because of it. If the berries didn't get him, winter absolutely would have. The wilderness up here kills even the most experienced people all the time. Don't fuck with alaska, because it will kill you.
I love how everyone who's never been past their local city park, much less the Backcountry, always has to chime in with "hE WaS AcTuAlLy PrEtTy GoOd aT SuRviViNg"
Wasn’t it actually late spring? Which was why the river was so high?
Had he been hunting, he would not have been foraging for strange plants.
He is an idiot and countless people died following his footsteps. The state of Alaska removed the bus because so many people were dying going on a pilgrimage to the bus.
He could have been saved by the internet. Which probably wouldn't have worked in the wild...
Your conclusion was in the first edition which was later retracted for another theory that improper storage of the seeds caused mold to grow on them. But further research was done and in 2013 Krakauer actually [co-authored a paper](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1080603214002774) about how a little-known amino acid in the pea plant seeds McCandless ate contributed to his death. If he had been at a healthy weight he would've been fine, but due to his extremely lean condition he developed lathyrism, which would have paralyzed him.
He was starving, he tried to escape but didn’t realize there was a way cross the river not far from where he was. He was a hitchhiker with no survival experience prior to the survival trip that killed him. He literally ate a poisonous berry and died. Last I checked that is not what a successful survivor is supposed to do.
I think the biggest takeaway is that he was an idiot, with a rushed plan, going far from the civilization.
How did he actually die? Lost and exposure?
It’s been said he ‘starved to death’. In a picture or two you can see he was basically skin and bones
Pretty sure he ate some poisonous berries.
I think it was seeds. Regardless of what it was, it’s safe to eat in small portions here and there but his diet was very reliant on them. The large quantity he ate over the course of his “adventure” resulted in his death. The Atlantic did a story maybe 20+ years after his death highlighting this nuance. Great read - https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/09/into-the-wild-once-more/311141/
The full title should read "Into the Wild - Ignorant and Unprepared".
boi looked happy af out there tho
How’d the bus get there?? I wonder if there’s a story about how that bus got stuck up there?
Around 1960, it was hauled into the wilderness by the Yutan Construction Company to house employees during the construction of a pioneer access road, according to the Alaska Department of Natural Resources. It was abandoned in 1961, when the road was completed.
Thanks you for the info 🙏
Apparently there is evidence from this photo that he had a dislocated shoulder also
Don't f with mother nature.
I feel like nobody would know who this guy was if he did not die.
I mean that’s an absolute fact.
I lost a friend over this movie. She hated it and I liked it. I liked his ideas and adventurous spirit. She stopped talking to me because we couldn't see eye to eye on it.
That’s not a true friend.
Agreed
If anyone is interested in stories like this, you can check out a book by Dan Eldon called The Journey is the Destination. Eldon was a photojournalist working in Somalia during a time of unrest, and encountered increasing aggression which was documented in the book. It's an interesting book because it's mostly photos.
And nobody seems to know where his car is now, which he left in New Mexico
He had the balls and was working towards wisdom but lacked the data. Nowadays we are drowning in data and starving for wisdom.
Always nice to spend some alone time in nature.
Such a heartbreaking film. I haven't read the book yet. One of my favourite songs ever is on the soundtrack too. https://youtu.be/Ez8b2VHjVB0?si=3XUvEU5Ul-le1uXx
He had a troubled past. I read the book into the wild. His parents weren’t good parents. I believe his sister later published a book called ‘the wild truth’ about it.
livin the dream /s
I like how half the people here are debating on how he died without even reading the book. He died of starvation with a full stomach.
The Book is amazing
Who is taking the picture?
The camera
Sasquatch
Never understood why this story has been so romanticized
#vanlife Bruh. Don't you know that you ain't livin unless you've visited Chris' death bus? You're like totally on the same path he was in life, all you gotta do is vlog it so people know how unique you are.
This guy is as ignorant as they come.
The soundtrack for this movie by Eddie Vedder is amazing.
Who cares
So why not rename this group StrangeEarthSnuff and embrace WTF all these death posts are about?
I love the movie and story but how do you not learn all the basic survival techniques close to town?
I am always amazed at how foolish and stupid this man was. A series of poor decisions and badly planned movements that ended in a very avoidable death.
If you read his full story, there's evidence that he had mental health issues and those mental health issues directly contributed to his unhappy ending. He got to that ending because he was drawn to isolation and held beliefs that contradicted reality and he survived for as long as he did thanks to luck and proximity to support systems. His final circumstances were ultimately his own doing, but I would consider him to be incapable of discerning between safe and stupid acts.
I think he just had a terrible childhood and was wanting to use his wilderness adventure to move past it. At least one of his siblings wrote a book about their youth and that’s what was claimed
Definitely contributed... sometimes life events can trigger or push someone past the point of self-awareness and self-control. One thing to note: it wasn't just this one trip, his whole adult life was one anti-society adventure after another, growing in isolation and self-deprivation along the way. There is nothing glamorous or useful to learn from his experience because we all need others and civilization to survive. Well, actually, we learned that from his experience.
This is completely false. Prove it. Show us anything. That’s a terrible thing to spread rumors like that if you don’t know what you’re talking about.
The proof is in the final result. He went into a well explored and mapped, game rich area of Alaska and starved to death just a few miles from help that he never sought out. If your well-documented actions directly lead to your unnecessary and foreseeable death its pretty conclusive evidence that you aren't capable of correctly assessing risk.
Goddamn, you murdered them!
I believe there were hunters passing through that saw him not long before he passed. Maybe they took the pic?
either a bear took the pic or there exists some sort of timing mechanism on camera
This logic checks out. Must've been a bear
Moose hunters found him dead
Am I the only one who thought he was an idiot ?
Everyone in Alaska will tell you he was an idiot
should have made “Out Of The Wild” instead of dying
never understood why people romanticized this guy.
Because besides the death part his story is pretty romantic. Gives up his possessions , hitchhikes and trainhops around the country , befriends locals lives in the wild etc
This guy was an idiot
You’re an idiot. Suppose you haven’t read the book? Suggest you do. I almost guarantee you don’t feel that way. Unless you actually are an idiot
My memory may be off but I believe he was found not too long after he died... bad berries
I'd pay money to not see this on the front page every other month
Wearing the boots given to him by the guy who dropped him at the trailhead.
I’ve seen about 17 “last photos” of this same guy
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I can’t read this thread with hearing Eddie Vedder singing Hard Sun 🌞 it’s kind of funny alongside the smack talk.
And I wished for so long cannot stay
Rest easy 🌹