Christopher McCandless

Hi There, i was just wondering, as someone new to chris's story...after he turned back from the river.........why didnt he use the map he had to find other ways out??.

Just something that had puzzled me, thanks in advance for all replies.

Because the other options were worse. Take a look at a Topo map for the area. The terrain is aweful going north or south along the Tek. Steep hills covered in tussock, along with swamp. Waiting for the river level to drop would be the safest bet. Maybe a super risky float down the river would be the best. (risky without equipment, I know several folks who have made the float, and it was described as pretty serious still)

Alaska mapper has better images of the area then google, this would give a great idea of how much "nowwhere" is in that area.

http://dnr.alaska.gov/MapAK/browser?set=map&id=1490

Chris didn't use a map because he wanted to do his journey with close to nothing .
If he had a map than it would have not been has much if a challenge and thats' what
chris wanted was to see how far could he set his limits.

He should have been a little more prepared if he wanted to test his limits and not use a map.

I think Chris didn't use the map because he didn't want to know where he was all he wanted to do is get away from society and he did that by getting lost in Alaska. Chris did use a map for a little while then he stopped using and that is what puzzles me. Chris did what he wanted when he wanted and i guess he stopped using the map because he didn't want to use it anymore but i don't know why for sure. So i will look into why he stopped using the map that he had by going back in the book to read and see if that tell us why he stopped using the map. This is a good question that i would like to know the answer to as well.

The map he had was a highway road map. It didn't have much detail of the topography. But the book says the map had a red line showing the Stampede Road which Chris wanted to walk out. Any road map that showed the Stampede Road would have also shown the much larger Denali Park Road about 18 miles to the south. It is a walk up the Sushana river gravel bars which is pretty easy to ford and then up and over a 4,000 foot ridge line of mountains. It looks daunting from the locale of the bus but it is not that hard of a walk to do in 1 or 2 days. But it would have been hard for him in his starved condition.

The map he had was a highway road map. It didn't have much detail of the topography. But the book says the map had a red line showing the Stampede Road which Chris wanted to walk out. Any road map that showed the Stampede Road would have also shown the much larger Denali Park Road about 18 miles to the south. It is a walk up the Sushana river gravel bars which is pretty easy to ford and then up and over a 4,000 foot ridge line of mountains. It looks daunting from the locale of the bus but it is not that hard of a walk to do in 1 or 2 days. But it would have been hard for him in his starved condition.