Christopher J. McCandless (February 12, 1968 – August 1992) was an American wanderer who died near Denali National Park after hiking alone into the Alaskan wilderness with little food or equipment. Author Jon_KrakauerJon Krakauer wrote a book about his life, Into the Wild, published in 1996, which was adapted into a 2007 film directed by Sean_PennSean Penn, Into the Wild, with Emile_HirschEmile Hirsch as McCandless.

McCandless grew up in Annandale, Virginia. His father, Walt McCandless, worked for NASA as an antenna specialist. His mother, Wilhelmina "Billie" Johnson, was his father's secretary and later helped Walt establishes and run a successful consulting company.

From early childhood, his teachers noticed that Chris was unusually strong-willed. As he grew older, he coupled this with an intense idealism and physical endurance. In high school, he served as captain of the cross-country team, where he urged his teammates to treat running as a spiritual exercise in which they were "running against the forces of darkness....all the evil in the world, all the hatred."

He graduated from W.T. Woodson High School in 1986 and from Emory University in 1990, majoring in history and anthropology. His upper middle-class background and academic success masked a growing contempt for what he saw as the empty materialism of American society. "In his junior year he was offered membership in Phi Beta Kappa but declined on the basis that honors and titles are irrelevant," quoted from Into the Wild. The works of Jack London, Leo Tolstoy and Henry David Thoreau had a strong influence on McCandless, and he dreamed about leaving society for a Thoreau-like period of solitary contemplation.

After graduating from Emory in 1990, he gave his $24,000 life savings to the charity Oxfam International and began traveling across the country, using the name "Alexander Supertramp." McCandless made his way through Arizona, California, and South Dakota, where he worked at a grain elevator. McCandless alternated between relatively settled periods, in which he was fairly gregarious and often worked a job, and time spent living with no money and little or no human contact, sometimes foraging successfully for food in the wild. He survived several dangerous trials during these wilderness periods, such as losing his car in a flash flood and canoeing alone down remote stretches of river and along the Gulf of California. McCandless took pride in surviving with a minimum of gear and funds, and generally made little preparation for his expeditions.

McCandless had dreamed of an "Alaskan Odyssey" for years: he would live off the land, far away from civilization, and keep a journal describing his physical and spiritual progress as he faced the forces of nature. In April 1992 McCandless successfully hitchhiked to Fairbanks, Alaska. He was last seen alive by James Gallien, who gave him a ride from Fairbanks to the Stampede Trail. Gallien was concerned about "Alex," who had little gear and no experience in the Alaskan bush. Gallien tried to persuade "Alex" to defer his trip, and even offered to drive him to Anchorage to buy suitable equipment. McCandless refused all assistance except a pair of rubber boots, two tuna melts, and a bag of corn chips.

After hiking the Stampede Trail McCandless found an abandoned bus used as a hunting shelter parked on an overgrown section of the trail near Denali National Park and began his attempt to live off the land. He had carried to the bus a 10 pound bag of rice, a .22 rifle, plenty of ammunition, a book of local plant life, several other books, and some camping equipment. He assumed that he could forage for plant food and hunt game. Despite his inexperience as a hunter, McCandless successfully poached some small game, birds, and a moose. However, his attempts to preserve the meat of the moose by smoking it failed. He had gotten the advice of smoking it from hunters in South Dakota, but Alaskan hunters would have told him to slice the meat as thinly as possible and let it air-dry on a makeshift rack, which is the best and easiest method in the bush.

His journal contains entries covering a total of 113 separate days. These entries range from ecstatic to grim with McCandless' changing fortunes. After living successfully in the bus for several months, Chris decided to leave, but found the trail back blocked by the Teklanika River, which had carried a considerably lighter flow in April.

On September 6, 1992, two hikers and a group of moose hunters found this note on the door of the bus:

"S.O.S. I need your help. I am injured, near death, and too weak to hike out of here. 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?"

His body was found in his sleeping bag inside the bus. He had been dead for more than two weeks. His official cause of death was starvation. Jon Krakauer believes McCandless died from ingesting the seeds of the wild potato (Hedysarum alpinum), which McCandless wrote about eating and blamed for his debilitating final illness. Although they are not commonly known to be poisonous, and the root of the plant is edible, there is evidence that the seeds contain an alkaloid which prevents glucose utilization. However, Dr. Thomas Clausen – of the University of Alaska Fairbanks – carried out extensive tests on the seed and found there were no toxins or alkaloids. (Note that this is the theory that Krakauer presents in his book on McCandless, and differs from the earlier theory he related in his article for Outside magazine, about a second plant — Hedysarum boreale mackenzii, a wild sweet pea plant — resembling the wild potato and known to be poisonous.)

In the most recent edition of his book, Krakauer has slightly modified his theory regarding the cause of McCandless' death. He believes the seeds of the wild potato had been moldy, and it is the mold that contributed to the seeds' toxicity.

Krakauer's book made McCandless a heroic figure to many. By 2002, the abandoned bus on the Stampede Trail where McCandless camped became an adventure tourist destination. Sean Penn's film Into the Wild, based on Jon Krakauer's book, was released in September 2007 to widespread critical acclaim, including four stars from numerous major reviewers such as Roger Ebert. http://www.rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070927/REVIEWS/709270305/1023 As of October 21, 2007, the film had a 81% 'fresh' rating on the Rotten Tomatoes film review database. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/into_the_wild/ A documentary film on McCandless's journey by independent filmmaker Ron Lamothe, The Call of the Wild, is also scheduled for release in 2007. McCandless's story also inspired an episode of the TV series Millennium and folk songs by singer Ellis_PaulEllis Paul, Eddie From Ohio, and Harrod and Funck.

Unlike Krakauer and many readers of his book, who have a largely sympathetic view of McCandlesshttp://outside.away.com/outside/magazine/0393/letters.html, some Alaskans have negative views of both McCandless and those who romanticize his fate. Due to the fact that he had no maps, McCandless was unaware that a hand-operated tram crossed the impassible river only 6 miles from the Stampede Trail. Although it would have required much more energy than McCandless may have been able to exert, his escape was within reach - his willful ignorance ultimately prevented him from flight. Though there were cabins stocked with emergency supplies within a few miles of the bus, they had been vandalized and the supplies spoiled - all three cabins were broken into and vandalized extensively at some point after mid-April. All the food and first-aid supplies were gone, as noted by Jon_KrakauerJon Krakauer and would therefore have represented no real help to him - all of this was explored in great detail in Krakauer's book. Alaskan Park Ranger Peter Christian wrote: "I am exposed continually to what I will call the 'McCandless Phenomenon.' People, nearly always young men, come to Alaska to challenge themselves against an unforgiving wilderness landscape where convenience of access and possibility of rescue are practically nonexistent ... When you consider McCandless from my perspective, you quickly see that what he did wasn’t even particularly daring, just stupid, tragic, and inconsiderate. 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 ... Essentially, Chris McCandless committed suicide." Judith Kleinfeld wrote in the Anchorage Daily News that "many Alaskans react with rage to his stupidity. You'd have to be a complete idiot, they say, to die of starvation in summer 20 miles off the Park's Highway."

*Wikimapia - Christopher McCandless' abandoned bus on the Stampede Trail.

*Wikimapia - Detrital Wash site where Mccandless camped and abandoned his car after the wash flooded.

*63° 52′ 4″ N 149° 46′ 16″ W - approximate geographical coordinate location of the abandoned bus.

*"The Ballad of Chris McCandless" - song written by Ellis_PaulEllis Paul.

*Dispatches from the Wild - Excerpts of McCandless' own articles published in the Emory Wheel student newspaper.