Christopher McCandless Bio
Christopher McCandless Bio
Christopher Johnson
McCandless was born February 12, 1968 in El Segundo, California. His
parents are Walt McCandless and Wilhelmina Johnson (who was known as
Billie) and his sister is Carine.
Walt also had children from his first marriage and they were living in
California, although Walt was still legally married to his first wife
when Chris and Carine were born. (This is something that Chris found out
later which infuriated him to the point where he thought his life had
all been a lie)
In 1976, Walt was offered a job with NASA as an antenna specialist so
they moved to Virginia and his mother worked as a secretary at Hughes
Aircraft. Later Walt and Billie started a consultancy firm which became
very successful. But it seems working and living together affected their
marriage resulting in arguements in front of Chris and Carine which
cause them to distance themselves from their parents.
Chris was a good student with A average grades and he was also a good
runner leading a team of cross country runners.
But, he was very stubborn and strong willed. He would train his cross
country team mates hard taking them on practise runs in places where it
was easy to get lost. But he saw it as a challenge and saw running as a
form of spiritual exercise. An example of his stubbornness was receiving
an F for one subject becuase he refused to write an article in the
particular way that the teacher had asked.
He graduated from High School in 1986 and shortly after took off on an
solo adventure for the summer arriving back 2 days before he was due to
start college. He arrived at college scruffy compared to his well
dressed room mate. His room mate dropped out several weeks later but
Chris went on to get exellent grades. He graduated from Emory University
in 1990 but saw titles and honors as immaterial and irrelevant. Later he
would say that university is a 20th century fad and not something to
aspire to.
Shortly after graduation, he gave the remaining money from his education
fund to Oxfam. The cheque written by Chris on 15th May 1990, totalled
$24000. He then left quietly from home to begin his adventures and
assumed the name Alexander Supertramp of which he got from the book The
Autobiography of a Super-Tramp by William H. Davies from 1908. When
asked by someone where his family were, he would reply that he didn't
have a family anymore.
He travelled through various states of America in his car (which he left
after it was caught in a flash flood) and by train, hiking, canoeing and
of course walking. The challenge to himself was to travel with the least
amount of belongings as possible and as little money as possible. He had
no map and no agenda, just the will to travel.
His dream was the Alaskan adventure and he would tell this to those he
met along the way. Some people he worked for on odd jobs would try to
convince him to stay and some would insist on giving him supplies to
help with the journey.
He seldom accepted.
He reached his final destination on April 28, 1992 in Fairbanks Alaska.
Four months later he would perish from a combination of errors and his
body was found in an abandoned old Fairbanks
City Transit Bus numbered 142 which was located on the Stampede Trail.
He kept a journal along the way and took self portraits now and then.
His final self portrait was a picture of him holding a farewell note in
his left hand and waving with his right hand. He was but 30kg in weight
and eventually died of starvation and possibly poisoning from fungus on
some fruit he had eaten.
Jon Krakauer (A writer from Outside magazine) did an article on Chris in January 1993 and later wrote the book which
in 2007 became the movie 'Into the Wild' by Sean Penn.
Chris'es actions have caused many different debates on safety in the wild and what not to do and many have said that
what he did amounted to suicide. But, he has also had a lot of praise for his courage and spirit of adventure. Bus 142 has become somewhat of a tourist attraction, with many visiting every year and posting Youtube vidoes and pictures on the internet.
There is also a documentary on the Chris McCandless story. You can read more here.
Christopher McCandless Journal Entries for his Alaskan Adventure -
Day 2: Fall through the ice day. Day 4: Magic bus day. Day 9: Weakness. Day 10: Snowed in. Day 13: Porcupine day.... Day 14: Misery. Day 31: Move bus. Grey bird. Ash bird. Squirrel. Gourmet duck! Day 43: MOOSE! Day 48: Maggots already. Smoking appears ineffective. Don't know, looks like disaster. I now wish I had never shot the moose. One of the greatest tragedies of my life. Day 68: Beaver Dam. Disaster. Day 69: Rained in, river looks impossible. Lonely, Scared. Day 74: Terminal man. Faster. Day 78: Missed wolf. Ate potato seeds and many berries coming. Day 94: Woodpecker. Fog. Extremely weak. Fault of potato seed. Much trouble just to stand up. Starving. Great jeopardy.
Day 100: Death looms as serious threat, too weak to walk out, have literally become trapped in wild—no game.Day 101-103: [No written entries, just the days listed.] Day 104: Missed bear! Day 105: Five squirrel. Caribou. Day 107: Beautiful berries. Day 108-113: [Days were marked only with slashes.]
