While it may be that Chris brought a number of books with him and wrote in them for diary entries or general speculation, it is also well known around the Fairbanks, Alaska area that not all the books were the ones Chris brought out. A number of the books were brought out the previous winter by a then college student and still very much a climber/mountaineer by the name of Jeff Apple Benowitz. Jeff was then a student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and a developing climber who would take many trips into the Alaska range, many of them solo for mountaineering trips. This particular winter trip, Jeff went out climbing along and brought along reading material, including used books he had grabbed (sitting for hours in a weathered in tent, mountaineering trips require vast reading material). Jeff however got lost and never saw a soul for 16 or so days, until stumbling along the bus along the Stampede trail (from which he had entered weeks before) and used it to his advantage. He shed much of his pack weight to return to Parks Highway (the highway running from Fairbanks to Anchorage and one the Stampede is connected too) and get back to Fairbanks. Jeff not only left most of his books in the cabin but he also wrote in them as well. It was the following spring and summer of 1992 that the events that happened to Chris McCandless.
Not a lot of folks know of this portion of the story. If you believe I am lying, a quick google search of "Jeff Benowitz Into The Wild" will back my claim. How do I know this? I have attended the University of Alaska Fairbanks the last 4 years, where I study and have heard many takes on the Into The Wild story. Mr. Benowitz is one of my climber instructors, for he teaches the rock climbing courses for the school.
I hope this version makes people a little more aware of the story, if not sparks some folks imagination.
