Mt Whitney Zone Forums The Chat Room Heroes & Heroines

Whatever you do there should be at least some basic survival skills obtained and proper equipment carried. It's quite a bit different hoboing it around the countryside and taking off into the wilderness with a match and a knife so to speak. Take on challenges but pass on folly.

What I took from McCandless story is his very confused relationship with his father, and that was the driver in pushing him to attempt the "heroic gesture", and perhaps drove him to remain when it would have been obvious to most other people that he was in extreme danger early on.

I wasn't up for watching the ending of the movie, of him perishing. There wasn't anything left to learn about a very muddled young man, and little would be served to simply watch him die.

Well he had a .22 rifle it's kind of amazing he managed to kill a moose with it!, but there is one of the skills he lacked, the know how to preserve meat but to be fair he went off the advice from his South Dakota friends and tried to smoke the meat when it would have been better to cut it into thin slices and dry it.



Well he actually managed to survive long enough to be satisfied with what he did out there and he did try to leave, the early season melt is what kept him there, then of course the mold on his seeds made him sick and finished him off.

What I find really foolish is his original plan that the movie did not cover was to walk cross country for 500 miles, this plan is nuts when you consider the horrible marsh terrain of early spring and the fact that finding enough food is a full time job by itself but to add traveling and the calories burned from doing so? he spent the night in the bus then traveled for two days and realized how bad his plan was so he returned to the bus and stayed.

Re McCandless, Into the Wild, et al, while browsing around this evening I found a site with an article by an Alaskan ranger that touched on Sean Penn's thoughts (on comments by another Alaskan ranger that were less than flattering about McCandless' unpreparedness in the wild and his eventual demise due to it). Penn was the director of Into the Wild. Without a doubt a highly talented individual, but not the sharpest or most balanced knife in the drawer (remember his chaotic, almost comical attempt to "rescue" Katrina survivors in a rowboat - which promptly sank 10 feet from shore?). Penn's comments below (slightly edited for a PG audience) are directed at rangers in general and give some insight into his thinking:

"No, I don't object to a person who wears a brown shirt and a patch on their shoulder and follows instructions all day either. I'm not all that interested in what the park rangers have to say. I accept that there's an automatic instinct to judge those you envy and who have more courage than you do, and I think that while he (the ranger) rides around in his four-wheeler on a CB radio getting fat, Chris McCandless has spent 113 days f(bomb)ing alone in the most unforgiving wilderness that God ever created."

So, BobR and all you other rangers and wilderness personnel of various persuasions out there - how's that instruction-following, four-wheeling, CB radio-chatting, pound-packing job workin' for ya? I never knew you guys had it so easy! Next time you have to perform a SAR in hazardous conditions or any other demanding aspect of your job, you might want to hold up and give Sean a call first to ensure it's done properly. He's clearly the man with the plan.

Hmmm - I think you're off-base to start a rant on Sean Penn. We'll never know how accurate his depiction of McCandless may be have, but his acting and directing abilities are superb.

Whether you agree with his politics or not - he puts his money where his mouth is and gets involved, whether it's in Louisiana, Haiti, or elsewhere.

As for his take on rangers - I agree that it's harsh. In my experience, I met many rangers who were superb. I've also met many who were arrogant, condescending, and totally convinced of their own self-importance. So what?

Not ranting Kevin, but I can't speak for Sean. I just supplied a quote relevant to members of this board related to Chris McCandless and Into the Wild. Never mentioned his politics or his commitment to his beliefs, only his lack of common sense (or bad judgement) during Katrina. I also noted his talent as well. What I did zero in on and attack was the sheer stupidity of his comments in this interview.

Was it a thoughtless, ill-conceived, and grossly all-encompassing comment? You bet. Did it piss me off? Oh yeah. You and I, our experiences with rangers in the US must be different. In thousands of trail miles, many of them in 30 or so national parks around the country, I've yet to have a bad experience with a ranger. Maybe I'm just lucky. Maybe not. Either way, when I've seen Sean Penn out on the trail regularly for a few years, then I might have an ear for his thoughts on rangers and the job they do. Till then he's simply not qualified to offer an opinion (indictment?) on a subject like this that he clearly knows nothing about. He got ticked at one ranger's comments about McCandless, and he annihilated the entire profession in a sweeping, childish backhand. In my book, that just ain't cool.

Chris McCandless has spent 113 days f(bomb)ing alone in the most unforgiving wilderness that God ever created. (Penn)

Actually he spent 113 dying because he didn't know that 1/4 mile from his "camp" there was a way across the river and salvation which it seemed he actually wanted.
I presume he lost about 80 pounds or more during his 113 days.

His seeds did not kill him.

Oh, one more thing, he was not by any stretch of the imagination in an unforgiving wilderness. He was in a bus for God sakes, and it was spring time.

And on "the most unforgiving wilderness God ever created", Sean has clearly never been to the Antarctic.

I had to laugh at Seans comments about the rangers, there may be a couple like that but not many i'd say.



Well it's sort of a mixed bag, the movie portrays him as eating the poisonous look alike of wild potato root but the book goes into the detail to disprove this, the trouble is although he was managing to find food he was burning more calories then he was consuming and after loosing a ton of weight the illness that his moldy seeds gave him could easily be shaken off by someone in fine health but in his already weakened state it drained him to the point of not being able to function which led to his death.

Besides his escape route I guess there were also hunting cabins just 6 miles away that were stocked with food if he had known they were there.

I have to say sorry also, I feel like I have spun this thread way off topic lol

And now back to our "Heros and Heroines"

Now Rod, are you implying the thread, in good old internet message board tradition, has been hijacked?

How about Hilary/Tenzing?

Hey, at least this one never got more than two degrees of separation away from the subject matter. We've had other threads that you needed binoculars, a map, and a compass to find the original thought.




Or maybe Mallory/Irvine? Nah - that would get us going again.

Ruth Dyer Mendenhall...

And our Elusive California Moose...

Without a doubt one of the greatest men to ever live is John Wooden.His wisdom and humbleness is beyond anyone I have ever met or read.
I just re-read the book WOODEN:A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off The Court. His "Pyramid of Success" is brilliant and inspired.For those who only think of him as a successful basketball coach must read his books.He is a paradox of genius yet a mid-west simple ordinary person.
I had the amazing opportunity to meet him,shake his hand and tell him what a great inspiration he was to me.

Getting home trumps first ascent. Always.

Wooden definitely on the list. Not even so much because of his success as a coach, but how he dealt with things with such grace and dignity, as well as how he positively impacted many.

One of mine, along such lines, Nelson Mandela

Like I said, prime material for an endless, entertaining debate . . .

Personally, I think some Nepalese or Tibetan sherpa's great-great-great-great-great grandpappy probably summitted first, but we'll never know.

Ken,
Wooden cared little about his 10 Championships. He cares about the character he developed in his players.He cares that he challenged them to be their best in life. Great man.His books are some of the most inspirational I have ever read.His down home wisdom and humility are unique amongst those self help guru types.He is so genuine.

My turn...

My Dad (RIP): Master Sergeant. U.S. Army. Korea, Vietnam. He instilled in me the values of hard work. What you put into it, you get out of it. If you don't put in enough, you won't get enough. If I didn't do it, BELT!

My Mom: She fed me and my dad made me do the chores to work it off. My mom is a great cook. I cannot duplicate some of the dishes she made. Guess that is what make mom's so unique.

My "American" uncle (RIP): Sergeant. U. S. Army. WWII, Korea. I worked on his farm during the summer during my adolescent years. It ain't easy being a farmer. He was a farmer all of us life. Mulching fields for planting and those ******* hay bales. Bucking square or round bales for 20 cents each. A 1,000-bale day was a good day in the 1970s.

My half-brother (RIP): Corporal, U.S. Army. Vietnam. He served their country while serving in Vietnam. I never got to know him or see him. It was when my parents came out to see me in Quantico, VA, in 1983. We went to The Wall. It was there I saw my father cry for the first time. I learned alot about my half-brother: He never quit. Duty. Honor. Country.

My son (RIP): USMA. 1st Lieutenant. U.S. Army. Duty. Honor. Country.

My daughter: USNA. Lieutenant. U.S. Navy. Naval aviator. She is going to be my "little astronaut" some day. She is tough. Doesn't even know the meaning of quit.

Others: Those who inspire me to do things outside of my "comfort zone." I see them do it, I hear them do it, I read them do it. If they can do it, I can at least try it, too. Then, if I can do it, you can do it, too!

I stop now...