Chris McCandless was an asshole

(This is Bringing the Heat, an as-often-as-I-feel-like-it feature where I say something that will probably get me yelled at on Twitter.)

This morning, the Alaskan National Guard removed by helicopter a bus from alongside the Stampede Trail. It was likely an expensive move, one that otherwise wouldn’t have been worth the effort … except the bus was the famous one from the true story/book/movie Into the Wild, where “adventurer” Christopher McCandless set up his final camp, eventually dying nearby.

The primary reason the bus needed to be moved? People kept trying to follow in McCandless’ footsteps, visiting the bus in the wilderness, and ultimately needing to be saved and/or also dying there.

In other words, McCandless’ death count might finally stop — but probably not, because people are still going to want to venture to the spot. He will continue to kill.

If it isn’t clear, Christopher McCandless was an asshole. He was a selfish bugger who put himself in harm’s way and who was so self-absorbed he abandoned his sister to the (reportedly) abusive hands of their parents. He ended up after some meandering around the country in the wilderness of Alaska. Nothing wrong with that in theory, except McCandless was so ignorant of where he ended up that he died within a quarter-mile of a tramway that would have gotten him to safety, and apparently (though to my knowledge we don’t know for sure) didn’t know the local fauna enough to know what was and wasn’t safe to eat.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to head out and “find yourself” or to leave your life behind in pursuit of a new one. It can be argued that doing so while abandoning your sister is a little sketchy, though it ain’t Chris’ fault that there was another person who wanted him. There’s nothing wrong with wandering the country and doing whatever you need to do to survive. There’s nothing wrong with ending up in Alaska. There’s not even anything wrong with ultimately dying there. People die all the time.

But it damn sure isn’t something to admire.

Chris McCandless should be a cautionary tale, something someone reads or sees or hears about and thinks, “Man, I was thinking about heading off on a ‘find myself’ mission too, but I guess I should take a little time to not be a complete moron first.” Instead — and I’m sure this is a combination of the mysteriousness of his life and the quasi-hagiographic nature of the book and movie about him — McCandless has become a celebrated figure, for reasons that I literally can not come close to understanding.

If you want to explore the Alaskan wilderness, be my guest. It’s probably beautiful. If you want to do so without learning Thing 1 about the wilderness you’re going to explore … well, that’s your call, but it seems dumb. If you want to follow in the footsteps of a guy who did that and died, and ultimately need saving and/or die yourself, well, you’re just as stupid as him, and neither of you warrants a book by Jon Krakauer or a movie by Sean Penn.

Chris McCandless was an asshole.