Christopher J. McCandless, known by his chosen pseudonym Alexander Supertramp, remains one of the most polarizing adventurers of the modern era.
His journey into the Alaskan wilderness and tragic demise have inspired countless people to reexamine their own lives and values.
To some, McCandless is a visionary transcendentalist who dared to reject societal norms and seek deeper meaning.
To others, he was an idealist whose decisions brought profound grief to his family. Tragically, his search for meaning ended with his untimely death in 1992, when he succumbed to starvation after months of isolation.
Chris McCandless in front of his famous Fairbanks Bus 142.
Christopher McCandless, born on February 12, 1968, in Inglewood, California, grew up in a household marked by turmoil.
His sister, Carine McCandless, chronicled their challenging upbringing in her book, The Wild Truth. The siblings lived alongside six half-siblings, with their parents allegedly inflicting verbal and physical abuse.
According to Carine, their father, Walt McCandless, battled alcoholism and was often the source of the household’s volatility, while their mother, Billie McCandless, perpetuated the toxic environment.
Walt’s work as a NASA rocket scientist frequently uprooted the family, relocating them across the country. They eventually settled in Virginia long enough for Christopher and Carine to complete high school.
Christopher’s fascination with the natural world and human history was evident from an early age, influenced by the family’s outdoor excursions and his voracious reading.
In 1990, he graduated from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, with a degree in anthropology and history.
Carine attributed her brother’s desire to escape society to their troubled childhood and his admiration for literary works like Jack London’s The Call of the Wild.
Back at his camp, he posted a desperate S.O.S. note on the bus.
Early Travels
In the summer of 1990, shortly after his graduation, McCandless left Virginia in his beat-up Datsun, embarking on a cross-country journey to California.
His car’s deteriorating condition, combined with expired license plates and a lack of insurance, made for a precarious trip.
By late summer, a flash flood at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area in Nevada rendered the vehicle inoperable.
Facing potential legal trouble, McCandless removed the license plates, salvaged what he could, and abandoned the car to continue his journey on foot.
From there, McCandless traveled northwest, hitchhiking into the Sierra Nevada mountains. During this period, he resorted to breaking into a closed cabin to obtain food, supplies, and money.
Over the winter of 1990 and into 1991, he lived in makeshift camps with other drifters in the Sierra Nevada region, surviving on minimal resources.
After a brief attempt to reconnect with family, McCandless made his way to Carthage, South Dakota.
There, he found odd jobs, built friendships with local farmers, and stayed in temporary accommodations, following a familiar pattern of fleeting connections and itinerant living.
By April 1992, restless for a new challenge, McCandless turned his sights northward. His next destination would be Alaska, the untamed wilderness he had long romanticized as the ultimate escape and final frontier of his adventure.
Into The Wild: Alaska
Christopher McCandless managed to hitchhike an impressive 3,000 miles from Carthage, South Dakota, to Fairbanks, Alaska, passing through Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, and Yukon in Canada. His ultimate goal was to embark on his most ambitious journey yet: The Denali National Park.
McCandless was described by those who encountered him as suspicious and wary of others.
He carried a large backpack, often refused to reveal his real name, and was noted for his unkempt appearance and lack of hygiene. One witness described him as “generally strange, weird, with a weird energy.”
Chris’s last photo he took before he passed away (found undeveloped in his camera) holding his final goodbye note that says: “I have had a happy life and thank the lord. Goodbye and may God bless all!”
On April 28, 1992, Jim Gallien, a local electrician, became the last person to see McCandless alive. Gallien gave him a ride from Fairbanks to the head of the Stampede Trail near Healy, Alaska.
During the drive, Gallien noticed McCandless’s inadequate gear, light provisions, and apparent lack of experience. Introducing himself as “Alex,” McCandless shared his plans to venture into the Alaskan wilderness.
Gallien later admitted he had serious concerns about McCandless’s ability to survive in such unforgiving terrain.
After hiking along the snow-covered Stampede Trail, McCandless stumbled upon an abandoned bus roughly 28 miles (45 kilometers) west of Healy.
This old vehicle, tucked away in an overgrown section of the trail near Denali National Park, became his makeshift shelter.
According to various accounts, McCandless had planned to “head west until [he] hit the Bering Sea,” but the dense Alaskan bush forced him to return to the bus.
McCandless lived off the land, armed with 9.9 pounds (4.5 kilograms) of rice, a Remington Nylon 66 rifle with 400 rounds of .22 caliber ammunition, a few books (including one on edible plants), basic camping equipment, and personal effects.
His journal entries and self-portraits document his attempts to forage for edible plants and hunt wildlife such as porcupines, squirrels, ptarmigans, and Canada geese.
On June 9, 1992, he successfully shot a moose but failed to preserve the meat, which spoiled within days.
The experience devastated him, prompting him to write in his journal, “I now wish I had never shot the moose. One of the greatest tragedies of my life.”
Chris and two porcupines that he hunted at bus 142.
For 113 days, McCandless recorded his life in the wilderness. In July, after over two months at the bus, he decided to return to civilization.
However, the Teklanika River, swollen by late-summer runoff from the Cantwell Glacier, had become a formidable barrier. The river, now higher and swifter than it had been in April, was impassable, forcing McCandless to retreat to the bus.
Back at his camp, he posted a desperate S.O.S. note on the bus:
Attention Possible Visitors. 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 ?
The Final Entry in the Journal
McCandless’s final journal entry, labeled “Day 107,” read, “BEAUTIFUL BLUE BERRIES.” Subsequent entries, from days 108 to 112, contained only slashes, and on day 113, no entry was made.
Near the end, McCandless took a photograph of himself, smiling and waving while holding a note that read:
I HAVE HAD A HAPPY LIFE AND THANK THE LORD. GOODBYE AND MAY GOD BLESS ALL!
On September 6, 1992, a hunter seeking shelter for the night discovered the abandoned bus.
Upon entering, he smelled what he thought was rotting food and discovered “a lump” in a sleeping bag in the back of the bus.
The hunter radioed police, who arrived the following day. State troopers found McCandless’s decomposing remains in the sleeping bag.
In his book Into the Wild (1996), Jon Krakauer proposes two factors which may have contributed to McCandless’s death; the first being McCandless running the risk of “rabbit starvation”, officially known as protein poisoning, from over-relying on lean meat for nutrition.
Krakauer also speculated that McCandless might have been poisoned by a toxic alkaloid called swainsonine, after eating sweet-vetch seeds containing the toxin, or possibly by a mold that can grow on them, when he put them into a plastic bag.
Chris and a machete Ronald Franz gave him.
In 2013, a new hypothesis was proposed. Ronald Hamilton, a retired bookbinder at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, suggested a link between the symptoms described by McCandless and the poisoning of Jewish prisoners in the concentration camp at Vapniarca.
He put forward the proposal that McCandless starved to death because he was suffering from paralysis in his legs induced by lathyrism, which prevented him from gathering food or hiking.
The Green and White Bus
The green-and-white bus where Christopher McCandless spent his final days gained fame as a symbol of his journey.
Known as “The Magic Bus,” the 1946 International Harvester had been abandoned on the Stampede Trail by road workers in 1961.
Years later, McCandless’s father, Walt McCandless, affixed a memorial plaque inside the vehicle to honor his son’s memory.
This undated photo provided by the Villard-McCandless family shows Chris McCandless, 24, posing for a self-portrait with a porcupine.
Over time, the bus evolved into a destination for adventurers and hikers who saw it as a symbol of McCandless’s ideals or an emblem of his tragic story.
Visitors from around the world trekked to the remote location, often camping at the site to reflect on McCandless’s journey.
Chris and his family, taken around his junior year in high-school. Top left: Carine McCandless, Top Right: Walt McCandless, Bottom Left: Billie McCandless, Bottom Right: Chris McCandless.
McCandless’s life has been immortalized in a wide array of media. His story was detailed in Jon Krakauer’s nonfiction book Into the Wild, which talks about into McCandless’s motivations, struggles, and ultimate demise.
The book was later adapted into a critically acclaimed feature film, further solidifying McCandless’s place in popular culture.
A replica of Bus 142, used in the film Into the Wild.
Hikers taking a break at Bus 142 along the Stampede Trail.
Alaska Army National Guard airlifting the bus via a Boeing CH-47 Chinook on June 18, 2020.
(Photo credit: Christopher McCandless Memorial Foundation / Family of Christopher McCandless / Wikimedia Commons).