How to get yourself killed in the Arctic wilderness

After Antarctica and Russia, the northern half of Canada provides the third largest remote arctic wilderness on earth, with over 1.5 billion acres of forest and more lakes than any other country on earth by a long shot. There are so many places where it becomes almost impossible to be able to walk far enough to reach safety, and being found by a rescue party is the only way to get out alive. Alaska shares the same climate and terrain as Canada, and is one of the favorite places for people in the US to do some hiking and hunting, and this is where a man named Chris McCandless comes into the story.

(The last ever photo of Chris McCandless alive, taken during July of 1992)

One of the best ways to learn how to survive in any type of terrain is learning what not to do, and the story of McCandless is the single best example of how to avoid getting yourself killed when visiting anywhere in the arctic.

After finishing college in his early 20s, Chris decided to spend some time traveling around North America as the standard 9 to 5 life didn’t appeal to him. He loved traveling around and not being tied down and decided to make his hiking trips more and more remote, until he had the chance to hitch a ride into Alaska.

Mistake number One: Over confidence

We all like to think that we know a thing or two about the subjects we’re interested in, and sometimes think we know more than we actually do, but when it comes to your life relying on your knowledge, over confidence is your worst enemy. Chris found this out the hard way and after spending a couple of years successfully making his way around mainland US, his over confidence led him to make a fatal decision.

He planned to head into the Alaskan wilderness alone, which is fair enough as many people like to get away from things, but most people don’t head into one of the most remote and dangerous wildernesses on earth with nothing more than basic camping gear. He took a very small amount of food, a few cooking pots, a .22 rifle, some books and the kind of tent that you’d use on a camp site during the summer. No thick winter coat, no long term supplies and no way of calling for help.

Mistake number Two: Lack of food preservation knowledge

After he felt like he walked far enough he managed to find an old abandoned bus and turned it into his shelter. It was mid summer at the start of his trip and at first the hunting wasn’t too bad, with his most successful trip managing to down a moose. But after this the animals seemed to move away as the rainy season approached, and they almost vanished over the course of a few days. He wrote in his diary that most of the meat from the moose ended up spoiling as he had no way of preserving it, but if he knew how to make jerky or pemmican, he would have had enough food to stay alive long enough until rescue arrived.

(If made and stored properly, Pemmican can be safe to eat for years)

Mistake number Three: Ignoring natures warnings

The cause of death was officially starvation, but this could have been avoided if he headed back to civilization when he saw the warning signs. In mountainous terrain, river systems can flood faster than any other kind of terrain, so if you’re relying on having to cross a river to get back to safety, you should head back the second you see the levels start to rise. McCandless didn’t do this though for some reason, perhaps he didn’t notice or perhaps he didn’t want to head back, but being cut off by the rising water levels ultimately led to him being trapped in one spot with no food.

(The Arctic wilderness may look pretty, but getting wet in this terrain is the fastest way to freeze to death, making crossing water sources a life or death situation)

Mistake number Four: Lack of wild food knowledge

After the animals left and there was nothing else to hunt, he started to forage for edible plants, but the problem was that he didn’t really have any wild food knowledge and was instead relying on a small wild foods book he brought with him. Theories around how he actually died include two major reasons linked to wild food knowledge, with the first being something called Rabbit starvation. This is a condition were nothing but green leaves are eaten and a person can starve to death even when eating due to a complete lack of things like protein and other necessary nutrients. The second theory suggests that he ate some wild mushrooms that were less than edible. Even though he starved to death and wasn’t killed by poison, it’s very possible that he ate some bad mushrooms that immobilized him from stomach pain or diarrhea, leaving him unable to go out searching for more food.

Mistake number Five: No way to call for help

He wanted to get away from things, so he didn’t take a mobile phone with him, nor did he take anything else he could use to communicate his location, like flares or a flashlight. When he finally realized he was in serious trouble, he had no way of calling for help and no one who knew where he was. Even if your device is broken or has a dead battery or for whatever reason is unable to call for help, if someone knows where you are and when you’re supposed to be back they will raise the alarm and send help. Not telling anyone what you’re doing and where you’ll be combined with a complete lack of any way to call for help is a surefire way to get yourself killed.

Chris McCandless is believed to have died on 18 August 1992 after spending several weeks alone in the area of the stampede trail in Alaska. When his body was found on September 6 the same year, he weighed only 67 pounds (30 kg / 4.7 stone).

There’s only one thing that you need to do to avoid all the above from happening to you:

Be Prepared

The vast majority of wilderness survival stories all seem to share one thing in common, the complete lack of useful supplies. Whether its in the form of food a just a decent sleeping bag, when people get stuck in the wilderness and things take a turn for the worst, its usually down to missing something you need.