Into the Wild

I might be a little late to the party, but I just had to write something about “Into the Wild“. I saw the film this weekend with my sister and her partner. Both of them are consummate outdoors men and having spent my fair share outdoors we were all moved by this movie. It won a bunch of awards and acclaims, but I don’t really care about that, it also had some scientific inaccuracies but that didn’t really matter either. What did matter was Chris’ story.

In a nutshell this disillusioned kid (23 years old) leaves all his worldly possessions behind and tramps around the US eventually making his way to Alaska. What struck us all was how totally unprepared he was. He didn’t have any understanding of what he was getting into. He was selfish to not contact his family prior to his vanishing and foolish to attempt to pit himself against the Alaskan wilderness without proper training. The Fairbanks City Regional Transit bus that he lived and died in has become a shrine for other disillusioned young people and while the feelings are something I can relate to, the actions are not. There were so many ways to get out of there and that he didn’t take one of them boggles the mind. The best response I read was from Peter Christian, a park ranger.

Perhaps Chris wanted to die, he only laster 112 days which really isn’t that long, especially if you consider he was out there in the summer. He would not have lasted even that long if he hadn’t found the bus, or if he had gone out in another season. Krakauer writes about it in Outside Online. By leaving his map, and his watch Chris showed how little he knew. Using a watch you can get a general idea of which way you are heading. And with the map, even if it was crappy he could have gotten an idea of which direction to walk in. What is equally dumb-founding is the fact that the bus had to get there somehow. Which means you needed to drive in. There is even a video of it.

To be honest I think he was looking for a transformative experience. Some trip that would make everything make sense. Unfortunately he didn’t learn that transformation comes from within, not without.

I think the most poignant part was the note left by his mother.

“Sonny boy, it’s time to leave, the helicopter, will soon arrive. I wondered briefly if it would be hard to enter your last home. The wonderful pictures you left in your final testament welcomed me in and I’m finding it difficult to leave instead. I can so appreciate the absolute joy in your eyes reported by your self portraits. I too will come back to this place. Mom.”