Christopher McCandless
Bio
 
The map is the journey that
Christopher took over 2 years (1990-1992) through Nth
America and Mexico
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 siblings 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.
His body was found by hunters 19 days after he died and
later his parents would visit Bus 142 to leave a memorial
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 mad. 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.]
 
 
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