I just finished writing an article on "The Survival Legacy of Christopher McCandless."

I know this is a subject we have batted around here on this forum for a lot of years and also one that has had a bit of controversy over the last few. The article is longer, slightly biographical and a lot more philosophical compared to my normally analytical writing. I have to say this is not the article I set out to write, but it is the article I got.

I think we can learn from his mistakes. We should simply not write him off as some deranged lunatic who went north in search of adventure. The real meat of the article is the last half. Hope at least a few of you enjoy the read.

While I'm not sure I agree with you entirely, your article was well-reasoned and well-written.

Did you intend that to be a pun?

Either way, the lesson that I got from the article was that malnutrition is a primary concern in an extended survival situations. And, he lacked the tools (and perhaps the skills) to procure adaqquate amounts of meat, which is the only feasible source of calories in the area. This was aggraved by his pride in being able to go for long times without sustenance.

When he got sick, perhaps from eating the wrong plant, he had no reservior of calories (fat) in which to draw on.

The tone of the article reminded me of Edward Abbey's "Desert Solitaire".

A well written and thought provoking essay. All I know (or think I know) about Christopher McCandless comes from the movie 'Into the Wild'. I may take a little more time to read and ponder because of your essay.

I vaguely remember the movie, "Into the Wild." From what I recall from the movie, it sounded like Christopher McCandless was lacking in long term survival skills and knowledge/experience of the region he was trying to survive in. It has been 7-8 years since the movie came out, which is when I saw it, so my memory may be hazy

I have been noted to drop the odd pun, but that one was sadly not intended.

Either bring in the food or hunt enough to actually feed yourself. That means getting more calories from the meat and fat of the beast to make up for the amount used hunting, skinning preparing, and cooking it. You also must be able to keep the hunting cycle up over the long term. This means you need to know as the seasons progress where the best hunting is and where there might be no game at all and keep out of those areas. That is the "Tribal Experience" we cannot build up in a couple of months. That experience might take a couple of generations to really know if it is a dry or wet spring when and where to go hunting in a particular area.

I would bet small sums of money that he actually died of starvation secondary to scurvy. A year's supply of multivitamins would have cost him perhaps £20?

A deadly accurate, single shot, zeroed rifle with a lot of ammunition also helps.

Mankind has spent 6000+ year's getting away from nature. With very good reason. Why anyone would want to go back to it is beyond me.

Nothing Wrong with a Horticulture and a nice Herd!

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