Every time I mention this guy people come out of the woodwork with all sorts of crazy explanations for why he died, all of them an effort to deny reality so that it doesn’t mess up the fictional beliefs they are emotionally attached to.
There are so many guys out there who want so badly to believe that solitary people can survive extended periods of time simply on what they catch, kill, or pluck out of the woods - which is absolutely not true. It wasn’t true a hundred years ago, and it’s not true today.
It is amazing to see these people fly into denial and do acrobatics around the true cause of McCandless’s death. They want to believe anything except for the truth: He simply starved. To accept this means they would have to give up their childish, false beliefs about single men being able to live completely on only what the woods provide.
Here’s the truth: McCandless starved. There wasn’t any food to keep him alive. He got so weak that even if food did show up, he wouldn’t have had the energy to get it. Solitary persons cannot live for extended periods of time merely on what they catch, kill, or pluck from the woods. It’s not a matter of skill. It’s a matter of what is possible or not, and it’s not possible.
Gettin’ outta the glorious rain in the glorious backcountry with my glorious dog
I found this video interesting as it relates to conversations we have about the true nature of things, what is really important and what is not, and how little importance some things have depending on the needs of the moment.
For example, this guy and his fellow soldiers, while being shot at would just dump their blankets - the blankets were totally unimportant to the immediate goal of staying alive. This meant later suffering, but at least they were alive.
I think about this sort of thing all the time when seeing guys building elaborate, beautiful shelters in the woods. When you’re hungry and lost, or simply traveling through the wilderness, nobody is going to care about building an elaborate shelter. You’re only going to care about conserving energy and using energy for only things that are absolutely necessary in any given moment.
This means sleeping under a rock outcrop, or a fallen tree, or just trying to get through the night under your sweater and some leaves you scrounge ...
