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How Chris McCandless Died

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Re: How Chris McCandless Died

#91

Post by grecy »

jlgreco wrote: post #77
grecy wrote: post #4

I made my own personal pilgrimage to The Magic Bus in summer '09 [1]. It's an extremely special place like none other I've visited. Completely coincidentally, one of my close friends where I now live in the far North was with the girl who tragically drowned trying to cross the Tek River in summer 2010. Also co-incidentally, just today I gave an interview for someone writing an article on the anniversary of Chris' dea…

What did you do for the Darién Gap? I've thought about making a similar trip a few times, but have never really gotten far into the planning stages.

I loaded my Jeep into a shipping container and ocean freighted it. It's much cheaper (~$800) and easier (~1 week) than you might think, and well, well worth it.

My report is: http://theroadchoseme.com/shipping-across-the-darien-gap-pt-...

And there are much more up to date reports and costs at http://wikioverland.org/Pan_American_Highway

If you're serious about this kind of travel, http://wikioverland.org has everything you need to know.

Re: How Chris McCandless Died

#92

Post by grecy »

jlgreco wrote: post #74
grecy wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Luckily there are plenty of people that don't agree with you, who are willing to try and push the limits of what humanity can do. We're all going to die, you know. Stats on deaths with/without oxygen: http://faculty.washington.edu/hueyrb/pdfs/jama.pdf

If you are Edmund Hillary, then knock yourself out. Climbing Everest today isn't pushing the limits of humanity. It is no more admirable than playing Russian Roulette.

It sounds like we're implying we should all either do something off the scale epic (like Hillary, or Felix jumping from space, or Amundsen) or we should all do mundane stuff for our entire lives.

I personally think people need to get out there and have their own adventures. For person 1 an adventure might be getting outside their comfort zone and talking to a stranger they find attractive in their apartment building. For person 2 adventure might be doing a 5 mile day-hike in a National Park, where-as for person 3 an adventure might be sailing around the world.

The fact all of those have been done before doesn't diminish the scale of the adventure for the individual, nor does it give us any right to comment on whether we think it's a worthy pursuit or in fact "adventure" at all.

Everybody needs to do what's right for them, with the level of planning and preparedness that's right for them.

Re: How Chris McCandless Died

#93

Post by jlgreco »

scott_s wrote: post #89
jlgreco wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point is that being in a situation where eating those seeds could be dangerous in the first place was the result of stupidity. "After subsisting for three months on a marginal diet of squirrels, porcupines, small birds, mushrooms, roots, and berries, he’d run up a huge caloric deficit and was teetering on the brink. By adding potato seeds to the menu, he apparently made the mistake that took him down. After July…

He "remained" just as ignorant as the rest of us. You're still implying that if he had done more research, he could have found out that those seeds, in his condition, could kill him. He could not have. Yes, he took a risk. But I don't think it's a significantly different risk from other risky activities young men in their early 20s do, ranging from unusual sports to the military.

He was starving even without the seeds (it was only because he was starving already that the seeds did him in) because he did not actually know how to survive in the wild. Neither do I, but I am smart enough to know that and not attempt living in the wild.

Re: How Chris McCandless Died

#94

Post by jlgreco »

grecy wrote: post #91
jlgreco wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What did you do for the Darién Gap? I've thought about making a similar trip a few times, but have never really gotten far into the planning stages.

I loaded my Jeep into a shipping container and ocean freighted it. It's much cheaper (~$800) and easier (~1 week) than you might think, and well, well worth it. My report is: http://theroadchoseme.com/shipping-across-the-darien-gap-pt-... And there are much more up to date reports and costs at http://wikioverland.org/Pan_American_Highway If you're serious about this kind of travel, http://wikioverland.org has everyth…

Awesome, thanks!

Re: How Chris McCandless Died

#95

Post by grecy »

comrade_ogilvy wrote: post #78
rosser wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry, but if you think you can climb Everest without oxygen, and die in the attempt, you were a dumb-ass . Full stop.

People die on Everest, regardless of how well they were prepared physically, mentally, or materially. Not taking oxygen is not the worst way to be unprepared, it likely only means you will give up sooner. The sooner you give up on the attempt on the peak, the more likely you are to survive it.

> The sooner you give up on the attempt on the peak, the more likely you are to survive it.

Are you implying giving up (or in fact not trying at all) is the best approach?

Are you implying that surviving is more important that reaching the summit?

Re: How Chris McCandless Died

#96

Post by bostonpete »

Am I reading this correctly:

"EXTREMELY WEAK. FAULT OF POT[ATO] SEED."

McCandless wrote "POT SEED" and the author inferred that he meant potato seed? Is that a given...?

Also, doesn't this author seem a bit sloppy? First, he asserts in an 8400-word article that McCandless died from sweet pea seeds, which he shrugs off because he was on a tight deadline. Then he says he made a "rash" decision to suggest in his book that the wild-potato seeds contain swainsonine?

Re: How Chris McCandless Died

#97

Post by dandelany »

glibgil wrote: post #75
rralian wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, you really don't know that he would have survived. He put himself in a precarious position and as others have said, he could have succumbed to any number of other dangers.

He would have survived. As other people have said he could have survived any number of ways (eating squirrels, porcupines) all while enjoying any number of comforts (sitting by the fire, sleeping, reading). You don't really know that he would not have survived.

How can you condemn his post for being so certain while expressing the same (opposite) certainty yourself? You sound a bit ridiculous, obviously no one can be certain of what would have happened had he not eaten the potato seeds. In any case, the article says:

"After subsisting for three months on a marginal diet of squirrels, porcupines, small birds, mushrooms, roots, and berries, he’d run up a huge caloric deficit and was teetering on the brink. By adding potato seeds to the menu, he apparently made the mistake that took him down."

Meaning the only reason he started eating the potato seeds in the first place was because his other sources of nutrition weren't cutting it. So if he hadn't eaten them, he would have at least needed to find another source of calories.

Re: How Chris McCandless Died

#98

Post by sliverstorm »

grecy wrote: post #56
rosser wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry, but if you think you can climb Everest without oxygen, and die in the attempt, you were a dumb-ass . Full stop.

Luckily there are plenty of people that don't agree with you, who are willing to try and push the limits of what humanity can do. We're all going to die, you know. Stats on deaths with/without oxygen: http://faculty.washington.edu/hueyrb/pdfs/jama.pdf

Problem is this completely ignores the native peoples who view the mountain as sacred, and the workers that attempt to either save you or remove your remains from the mountain.

Yes, what a noble way to go! Except for the poor saps that have to deal with your mess after you're gone.

Re: How Chris McCandless Died

#99

Post by grecy »

jlgreco wrote: post #94
grecy wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I loaded my Jeep into a shipping container and ocean freighted it. It's much cheaper (~$800) and easier (~1 week) than you might think, and well, well worth it. My report is: http://theroadchoseme.com/shipping-across-the-darien-gap-pt-... And there are much more up to date reports and costs at http://wikioverland.org/Pan_American_Highway If you're serious about this kind of travel, http://wikioverland.org has everyth…

Awesome, thanks!

You're welcome.

I'm interested in your username. Does that indicate your name?

My last name is Grec, and I'm always on the lookout for more :)

Re: How Chris McCandless Died

#100

Post by glibgil »

dandelany wrote: post #97
glibgil wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He would have survived. As other people have said he could have survived any number of ways (eating squirrels, porcupines) all while enjoying any number of comforts (sitting by the fire, sleeping, reading). You don't really know that he would not have survived.

How can you condemn his post for being so certain while expressing the same (opposite) certainty yourself? You sound a bit ridiculous, obviously no one can be certain of what would have happened had he not eaten the potato seeds. In any case, the article says: "After subsisting for three months on a marginal diet of squirrels, porcupines, small birds, mushrooms, roots, and berries, he’d run up a huge caloric deficit…

I'm sure that if he did not eat wild potato seeds he would not have died of complications from paralysis. I'm absolutely certain. I know it. I can think of nothing else in his environment that would have poisoned him and made him permanently paralyzed and unable to move or hunt. The other source of calories that he needed was on its way and would have arrived 18 days later. He would have been fine subsisting until then.
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