Kinda can't believe it's 2015 and this saga is still mysterious.
I don't see what's so mysterious, frankly. Mid 20's white dude who's read some books on outdoor living and survived outside in more temperate climates thinks he can take on the Arctic. I'm from an oceanic area of Canada originally, and even when I was a kid there was one thing you learned - Over the long term, almost no one messes with the arctic and wins. It takes a very, very special and prepared kind of person to survive, let alone thrive in the arctic as part of a group. As an individual? You have to really be something. It's important to remember that McCandless was living through the Alaskan spring and summer This is a time, especially the summertime, when Alaska is at its most plentiful in terms of game and edible leaves and berries. Of course, you need to know where to look and have experience (or guidance). McCandless had none of these things, and refused them when given a chance. I admire McCandless as a deamer, and his willingness to go after his dream, but as someone who is even just mildly experienced in wilderness survival, I can see his survival chances as none. There is not even a snowball's chance in hell that McCandless could have survived the fall, or the deep winter - the long dark. If the potato seeds hadn't gotten him, the winer would have. The Arctic wins. it always wins - some people just survive to tell their tale.
Quote from Krakauer, who knows more about this situation than anyone alive: "I absolutely think he would have made it if he hadn't poisoned himself" eating a plant that scientists are still arguing about 20 years later. It's easy to fall into the 'young and inexperienced stupid dreamer' narrative but it sounds like McCandless knew quite a bit about what he was doing.
I don't deny Krakauer's knowledge of McCandless, but I do question Krakauer's knowledge of what it takes to live in the Arctic. Krakauer's a good outdoorsman (he DID climb Everest, which does count for something), but he is fundamentally an author, and not a survival expert. Not that I am either - I'm just some schmuck with a computer. I wouldn't even put an above average outdoorsman alone out in the middle of the far North without extensive preparedness practice - which McCandless didn't have. We have to remember, McCandless was going out there to stay, not permanently necessarily, but for a long time. It is easy to fall into that narrative, just as it is easy to fall into the "He'd be fine if he hadn't poisoned himself" narrative. I don't mean to remove McCandless' agency - He thought he knew what he was getting himself into, and as much as someone who has only read about a place can know about a place, he might have. But there are all sorts of small things that show he shouldn't have been where he was. Example - When McCandless first travels the Stampede Trail, heading into the wilderness, there's still snow on the ground, and the ground is frozen. Anyone who's lived in the north knows about what is referred to in Eastern Europe as "Rasputitsa', aka the muddy season (they call it "Breakup" in Alaska). It's a period of time when moving around on anything that isn't a paved road is pretty much useless, because the whole ground is a wet, muddy mess and makes things impassable. So, when he tried to head to the coast, he couldn't get anywhere. I mean, you get that stuff in Northern Ontario, where I lived during high school, and it's not even that far north. Anything not paved is useless for at least a few weeks. But if you've never been that far north, it's an Unknown Unknown. You have no idea it even exists, so you can't even prepare for it.It's easy to fall into the 'young and inexperienced stupid dreamer' narrative but it sounds like McCandless knew quite a bit about what he was doing.
Yeah, it is a bit nuts that this kids story still inspires investigation in to the chemistry of those seeds. I wonder how many young people trek up there every year in an attempt to prove that they can muster what McCandless couldn't? It was a good read though.