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CHRIS MCCANDLESS, ALSO KNOWN AS ALEXANDER SUPERTRAMP, DIED AFTER SPENDING 113 DAYS LIVING OFF THE LAND IN THE ALASKAN WILDERNESS, WITH HIS TRAGIC STORY LATER MADE FAMOUS BY JON

KRAKAUER'S BOOK INTO THE WILD 10:00, 29 May 2025 In April 1992, Chris McCandless, a self-styled adventurer, embarked on a treacherous trek into the wilds of Alaska. Five months on, the

24-year-old was found deceased, cocooned in a sleeping bag within a deserted bus. His body weighed just 30kg (4st 7lbs), with starvation cited as the cause of death. Known by his alias

Alexander Supertramp, McCandless documented his last days in a diary, detailing his reliance on hunted wildlife, roots, and seeds for sustenance. His poignant tale was captured by Jon

Krakauer in the book 'Into The Wild', which later inspired a hit movie. Back in Fairfax, Virginia, McCandless was celebrated as a bright student and athlete, with his high school

teachers remarking he "marched to the beat of a different drummer", as reported by The Daily Star. Post-graduation from Emory University in 1990, armed with a degree in history and

anthropology, he donated $24,000 to OXFAM and spent two years juggling jobs and hiking adventures, reports the Mirror US. Come 1992, after shedding most of his belongings and equipped with

scant provisions, he hitchhiked to Fairbanks, Alaska, plunging into the wilderness. His journals, peppered with photos, show his journey along the snow-laden Stampede Trail, where he

stumbled upon an isolated bus near Denali National Park and made it his base. Article continues below He got by on small game like squirrels, birds, and rabbits, along with foraged roots and

seeds, embracing his time in the wild. In June, McCandless's bushcraft hit a snag when he poached a moose but failed to cure the meat properly, leading to its rapid spoilage. In a

cruel twist of fate, come July, McCandless's attempt to rejoin society was foiled by the swollen Teklanika River, which forced him back to the refuge of his bus. In desperation and

fearing the worst, he left an SOS message outside the bus: "Attention Possible Visitors. S.O.S. I need your help. I am injured, near death, and too weak to hike out. I am all alone,

this is no joke. In the name of God, please remain to save me. I am out collecting berries close by and shall return this evening. Thank you, Chris McCandless. August." Tragically, his

plea for assistance was met with silence. McCandless's eerie tale spans 113 days alone, with his last written entry on day 107 praising "BEAUTIFUL BLUE BERRIES." The

subsequent days were chillingly marked with slashes until the 113th day, which was left disturbingly blank, adding to the enigma of his untimely demise. One of his final gestures was taking

a self-portrait holding a note that read: "I HAVE HAD A HAPPY LIFE AND THANK THE LORD. GOODBYE AND MAY GOD BLESS ALL!". His body and personal diaries were eventually found by moose

hunters on September 6. In a tragic twist of fate, McCandless, who didn't have a detailed map, was oblivious to an old cable car system close by that could have helped him cross the

river he had previously abandoned. The mystery intensified around why this fit adventurer died of starvation despite his daily hunting and foraging efforts. Author Jon Krakauer suggested in

his book that McCandless's demise wasn't due to starvation but rather from eating wild potato seeds. McCandless's journals showed he ate plenty of these seeds, leading

Krakauer to suspect that a toxic alkaloid in them weakened him so much that he couldn't continue to hunt and gather. Yet, this theory encountered problems as most guidebooks consider

wild potatoes harmless. Determined to find the truth, Krakauer had the seeds tested by a scientist, but they found no toxic alkaloids. Undeterred, Krakauer now endorses a medical paper by

researcher Ronald Hamilton, which posits that the wild potato seeds were indeed fatal to McCandless, but not because of any toxic alkaloids. Hamilton's study uncovered that

McCandless's scant diet and malnutrition made him susceptible to "lathyrism", a rare but severe condition that slowly paralyses its sufferers, typically seen in undernourished

young men. Lathyrism is triggered by ingesting an amino acid first identified in the seeds of wild grass peas. Krakauer dispatched some wild potato seeds to a chemist, who verified that

they contained the lathyrism-inducing amino acid. The converted bus where McCandless spent his last days turned into a famous destination for trekkers after his demise. Known as "The

Magic Bus", it boasts a commemorative plaque from McCandless's father, Walt. In September 2020, the bus was moved to the Museum of the North at the University of Alaska, where it

underwent restoration and became part of an exhibit. In the 2007 film Into The Wild, actor Emile Hirsch played McCandless. During the shoot, Hirsch scaled mountains, swam naked in a chilly

river, and stood mere inches away from an 8ft grizzly bear. Director Sean Penn felt compelled to adapt the story into a film upon reading Krakauer's book. "I ended up reading it

cover to cover, nonstop, twice - the first time realising it was a movie and the second time affirming it," he shared. Penn reached out to Krakauer, who introduced him to

McCandless' parents, Walt and Billie, and his younger sister Carine. Initially, the family was reluctant to greenlight a film adaptation of McCandless' tragic story, not wishing to

reopen old wounds so soon after his death. However, about ten years later, they agreed, and the project proceeded. While some admire McCandless for his audacious spirit, others condemn his

actions as reckless and thoughtless. Park Ranger Peter Christian didn't hold back in his scathing critique: "When you consider McCandless from my perspective, you quickly see that

what he did wasn't even particularly daring, just stupid, tragic, and inconsiderate." He pointed out McCandless' lack of survival skills: "First off, he spent very little

time learning how to actually live in the wild. He arrived at the Stampede Trail without even a map of the area. If he had a good map he could have walked out of his predicament."

Christian was blunt about the consequences: "Essentially, Chris McCandless committed suicide." Article continues below However, another ranger, Ken Ilgunas, viewed things

differently as noted in The McCandless Mecca: "McCandless, of course, did not commit suicide. He starved to death, accidentally poisoned himself, or a combination of the two." Jon

Krakauer, the author behind the renowned narrative, stood up for McCandless, stating: "In 1992, however, there were no more blank spots on the map - not in Alaska, not anywhere."

Krakauer explained McCandless' unconventional thought process: "But Chris, with his idiosyncratic logic, came up with an elegant solution to this dilemma: He simply got rid of the

map. In his own mind, if nowhere else, the terra would thereby remain incognita."