There is also a new movie coming out on the hapless adventurer, based on Krakauer's book.
McCandless had to go off and die of starvation in the Alaskan wilderness after 112 days alone fighting the elements, and the kicker was he was just a few miles away from where he could have gotten help, had he had enough goddamned sense:
When the man's identity was established, the puzzle only deepened. His name was Chris McCandless, a 24-year-old honors graduate, star athlete and beloved brother and son from a wealthy but dysfunctional East Coast family. With a head full of Jack London and Thoreau, McCandless rechristened himself "Alexander Supertramp," cut all ties with his family, gave his trust fund to charity and embarked on a two-year odyssey that brought him to Alaska, that mystic repository of American notions of wilderness, where he could test the limits of his wits and endurance.
Setting off with little more than a .22 caliber rifle and a 10-pound bag of rice, McCandless hoped to find his true self by renouncing society and living off the land. But, as outdoors editor Craig Medred would note in the Daily News, "the Alaska wilderness is a good place to test yourself. The Alaska wilderness is a bad place to find yourself." No one ever saw McCandless alive again. Fifteen years later his story continues to resonate as a quintessentially American tale, and its hero has assumed near mythic status, blurring the lines between living memory and the creation of a legend.
He was another candidate for the Darwin Awards, had they existed then.
For McCandless's fans, here is a link to all sorts of related articles.
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