Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PEOPLE

Christopher McCandless died from eating poisonous plants. There's every indication that he was a good survivalist. Stop drawing parallels between his poisoning and death from paralysis and a woman who couldn't find her way to a road 4 miles away in 20+ days while perfectly healthy!

Not only that, he was extremely well informed and experienced.

Furthermore, he had (and read) botanical guide books which authoritatively stated the wild potato seeds were indeed safe for consumption.

What happened to him could have happened to anyone in his situation.

Nope. Guy went into the Alaska bush without a map:

McCandless' journal documents 113 days in the area. In July, after living in the bus for three months, he decided to head back to civilization, but the trail was blocked by the swollen Teklanika River; the watercourse by that stage was considerably higher and swifter than when he'd crossed in April. McCandless did not have a detailed topographical map of the region and was unaware of a hand-operated tramway that crossed the river eight-tenths of a mile away from where he had previously crossed.[11] At this point, McCandless headed back to the bus and re-established his camp.

He killed a moose, but let the meat rot, because he didn't know how to preserve it. He was not "well informed and experienced" on any level. If he had bothered to ask, or even just used common sense, he would know that rivers in Alaska flood when the snow melts.

Also the original poison theory Krakauer came up with was proven wrong by toxicological tests, so he came up with another one. But the bottom line is that the new theory, even if true, is based on toxic effects that would only be experienced by someone who was already starving to death. He was, at best, a romantic idiot.

I'm the pp who has seen the bus, and it really changed my opinion of him. Locals up there think he basically committed suicide.

Anonymous wrote:PEOPLE

Christopher McCandless died from eating poisonous plants. There's every indication that he was a good survivalist. Stop drawing parallels between his poisoning and death from paralysis and a woman who couldn't find her way to a road 4 miles away in 20+ days while perfectly healthy!

Continue to venerate him, if you wish, but the "poisonous" plant theory has been discredited after toxicological tests, and to the extent there was anything slightly poisonous that he ate, it only harmed him because he was already starving to death. I continue to believe that anyone (or at least any non-native Alaskan) who walks into the Alaska bush without a map is an idiot. I'm the pp who's been to the area of the bus, and it totally changed my opinion of him. Everyone who actually lives up there thinks he basically committed suicide.

Anonymous wrote:

While hiking alone isn't as bad as texting and driving, it's downright foolish, even for someone who is experienced. She could have easily stopped when her hiking partner stopped. And in some accounts, the hiking partner even URGED her to and said they could do it again the following summer.

Sure, a lot of people hike the AT, but when you go off the trail, that is a different story. And even with a lot of people hiking the trail, it's still a horrible idea to do it alone.

Every time a story like this comes out, the message should be that it is foolish to hike alone. But instead, you get all of these people offering "well, I could have navigated" or "it's just a tragic accident."

No. Don't hike alone in remote areas.


Hiking is downright foolish?? Good lord so we should all lock ourselves in our houses and never venture out into the great outdoors? What an odd and sad view you have. This woman lived a full life and died adventuring into the great outdoors. To me that is a much better life than someone who lives a long time and is too timid to ever do anything with it!

Your reading comprehension is lacking. The PP said 'hiking alone', not 'hiking'. And, given the portion of the AT she was hiking, yeah, it was downright foolish to do that alone.

lots of people hike alone. Lots of people hike the AT alone. It is not foolish. I think more people should try getting out in nature by themselves. It is good for the soul. I did find an article on this and it sounds like she took medication for mental health issues, and was directionally challenged. So there are some specific circumstances that may have come into play. But again, solo hiking is not foolish if you are prepared and know what you are doing. I also think, good for her for trying this, if it is something she wanted to do.

Anonymous wrote:How do you get lost on a trail anyway?

She stepped off to pee, lost the trail, and then tried to text for help. Her text didn't go through, so she made the fatal error of trying to find a cell signal instead of trying to find the trail.

Anonymous wrote:This woman died because she was a moron who lacked basic survival skills.

and yet she manages to survive almost a month alone in the back country...like to see you do that so we can all call you a moron.

How do you get lost on a trail anyway?

Once she had problems with directions before, she should not have been out there alone.

Anonymous wrote:

While hiking alone isn't as bad as texting and driving, it's downright foolish, even for someone who is experienced. She could have easily stopped when her hiking partner stopped. And in some accounts, the hiking partner even URGED her to and said they could do it again the following summer.

Sure, a lot of people hike the AT, but when you go off the trail, that is a different story. And even with a lot of people hiking the trail, it's still a horrible idea to do it alone.

Every time a story like this comes out, the message should be that it is foolish to hike alone. But instead, you get all of these people offering "well, I could have navigated" or "it's just a tragic accident."

No. Don't hike alone in remote areas.


Hiking is downright foolish?? Good lord so we should all lock ourselves in our houses and never venture out into the great outdoors? What an odd and sad view you have. This woman lived a full life and died adventuring into the great outdoors. To me that is a much better life than someone who lives a long time and is too timid to ever do anything with it!

Your reading comprehension is lacking. The PP said 'hiking alone', not 'hiking'. And, given the portion of the AT she was hiking, yeah, it was downright foolish to do that alone.

Yeah. Seems like most people on this site only see things in black and white terms. If you say hiking alone in remote areas is dangerous, they interpret that as you said don’t ever go outside. I'm glad the woman lived a life of adventure. I also think the way she died was sad, stupid and avoidable. I don't think she shouldn't have been a hiker. I just think she should have been smarter about it.

While hiking alone isn't as bad as texting and driving, it's downright foolish, even for someone who is experienced. She could have easily stopped when her hiking partner stopped. And in some accounts, the hiking partner even URGED her to and said they could do it again the following summer.

Sure, a lot of people hike the AT, but when you go off the trail, that is a different story. And even with a lot of people hiking the trail, it's still a horrible idea to do it alone.

Every time a story like this comes out, the message should be that it is foolish to hike alone. But instead, you get all of these people offering "well, I could have navigated" or "it's just a tragic accident."

No. Don't hike alone in remote areas.


Hiking is downright foolish?? Good lord so we should all lock ourselves in our houses and never venture out into the great outdoors? What an odd and sad view you have. This woman lived a full life and died adventuring into the great outdoors. To me that is a much better life than someone who lives a long time and is too timid to ever do anything with it!

Your reading comprehension is lacking. The PP said 'hiking alone', not 'hiking'. And, given the portion of the AT she was hiking, yeah, it was downright foolish to do that alone.

Anonymous wrote:PEOPLE

Christopher McCandless died from eating poisonous plants. There's every indication that he was a good survivalist. Stop drawing parallels between his poisoning and death from paralysis and a woman who couldn't find her way to a road 4 miles away in 20+ days while perfectly healthy!

Not only that, he was extremely well informed and experienced.

Furthermore, he had (and read) botanical guide books which authoritatively stated the wild potato seeds were indeed safe for consumption.

What happened to him could have happened to anyone in his situation.

Anonymous wrote:PEOPLE

Christopher McCandless died from eating poisonous plants. There's every indication that he was a good survivalist. Stop drawing parallels between his poisoning and death from paralysis and a woman who couldn't find her way to a road 4 miles away in 20+ days while perfectly healthy!

I wonder if she was in some state of complete and utter physical and mental exhaustion, or was injured. I can understand panicking at first, but I have a harder time understanding - if she was healthy- how after a bit of time she didn't figure out a plan and execute it. I looked at the map and even in maine it is hard to see places where the trail is more than 10 miles from a road. Follow a valley and/or stream and eventually you hit a road or a lake where, since it was July, you would hopefully find some people out recreating. Alternately, if you hike just the first few hours of the day you can use the sun to navigate, although perhaps not practical in mountainous terrain.

PEOPLE

Christopher McCandless died from eating poisonous plants. There's every indication that he was a good survivalist. Stop drawing parallels between his poisoning and death from paralysis and a woman who couldn't find her way to a road 4 miles away in 20+ days while perfectly healthy!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How did no one find her in 28 days? Did her husband not report her missing??

They carried out a massive search, I believe beginning the next day when she was supposed to meet her husband, just didn't find her. They scaled back the search after 3 weeks when they hadn't found her. If you look at the stories they have a map that plots the track the searchers took and her final location - it was within a 100 yards or so.

I think part of the difficulty faced by the search parties was that she had accidentally, in a attempt to save herself, hiked into a Naval Warfare Survival Training Ground (or something like that).

That land is off limits government property and for military-use only. So the search parties probably couldn't search there.

But by all accounts, there was a very thorough, big, and long-lasting search effort to try to save her.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OMG can't we just agree that this is very sad and while she clearly made some mistakes, it is a sad story and we all have likely made mistakes that could have been fatal and got lucky (I see people texting and driving every day...) while she made mistakes that turned out to be deadly. Also, she wasn't planning to hike solo - but her hiking partner had to get off the trail early and she decided to continue. It also doesn't sound like she just stayed in place - she tried to hike up to get a cell signal and it was in very dense woods so hard to see far in front of her. Also from what I read in "A Walk in the Woods" there are a lot of people hiking the AT, so you are less alone than in a lot of hikes (provided you stay on the trail).

No, we can't agree. First of all, if someone dies because they were texting and driving, my reaction would be the same: they were downright stupid to do that, and they risked other peoples lives. Texting and driving isn't a "mistake." It's a conscious action that is well known to be risky not just to one's self but everyone else. Honestly, I even put that in the category of drinking and driving.

While hiking alone isn't as bad as texting and driving, it's downright foolish, even for someone who is experienced. She could have easily stopped when her hiking partner stopped. And in some accounts, the hiking partner even URGED her to and said they could do it again the following summer.

Sure, a lot of people hike the AT, but when you go off the trail, that is a different story. And even with a lot of people hiking the trail, it's still a horrible idea to do it alone.

Every time a story like this comes out, the message should be that it is foolish to hike alone. But instead, you get all of these people offering "well, I could have navigated" or "it's just a tragic accident."

No. Don't hike alone in remote areas.

Hiking is downright foolish?? Good lord so we should all lock ourselves in our houses and never venture out into the great outdoors? What an odd and sad view you have. This woman lived a full life and died adventuring into the great outdoors. To me that is a much better life than someone who lives a long time and is too timid to ever do anything with it!

This woman died because she was a moron who lacked basic survival skills.