Into the Wild Trivia Quiz

Answer: Alexander Supertramp

Chris McCandless seemed ashamed of his previous life. In the time before his death, as he wandered around America, he introduced himself as Alexander Supertramp, nor during those two years did he contact his family.

Answer: Datsun

A yellow 1982 Datsun B210 to be precise. Chris had driven it around the country since he was in high school. In 1990 he chose to desert it in the Mojave Desert when the car would not start after being caught in a flash flood. As he left his car Chris gathers up his remaining money and sets fire to it, beginning a life of hitchhiking. He never returned for the car and it was discovered by the Park Service. Unable to trace the owner they used the Datsun as an undercover vehicle in drug busts.

Answer: Wayne Westerberg

The last person to hear from Chris before he ventured into the Alaskan wilderness, Wayne recieved a postcard reading "Greetings from Fairbanks! This is the last you shall hear from me Wayne. Arrived here 2 days ago. It was very difficult to catch rides in the Yukon Territory. But I finally got here.
Please return all mail I receive to sender. It might be a very long time before I return South. If this adventure proves fatal and you don't ever hear from me again I want you to know you're a great man. I now walk into the wild. Alex"

Answer: Stampede Trail

The Stampede Trail lies north of Mt McKinley in the Alaska Range. When Chris ventures down it, he does so before the winter snows are melted. As such he is able to wade across the Teklanika River which will in a couple of months become an unpassable torrent leaving him trapped.

Answer: Bus

Three days along the Stampede Trail Chris finds, of all things, a bus. It had been brought there by Yutan Construction in 1961 as accomodation for workers during an aborted attempt to build roads in the area. The bus was equipped with a simple stove and bunks.

Answer: Devil's Thumb

Krakauer tells how as a young man he too was drawn to Alaska. His love of climbing and his youthful hubris sees him attempt to scale the Devil's Thumb solo. He fails. Krakauer suggests that had he perished in this attempt people would of said of him as they did of Chris McCandless, that he had a death wish.

He believes neither he nor McCandless had a death wish. Krakauer goes on to say "At that stage of my youth, death remained as abstract a concept as non-Euclidian geometry or marriage."

Answer: He forgot to have somebody come get him

McCunn was dropped by plane into the Alaskan wilderness. He took with him two rifles, a shotgun and fourteen hundred pounds of supplies. However he failed to arrange a date to picked up out of the Alaskan wilderness. In November 1981 and starving to death McCann wrote in his diary "Dear God in Heaven, please forgive me my weakness and my sins. Please look after my family." He then shot himself.

Answer: Mexico

Carrying little but rice, Chris canoes south out of Arizona until he finds himself in Mexico. After surviving a storm off the Mexican coast, Chris abandons his canoe and heads back into the U.S.
This experience, lasting over thirty days with only a bag of rice and living off the land (and sea) convinces Chris to try the same in Alaska.

Answer: Rubber boots

Chris tells the driver Jim Gallien that the only food he carries is ten pounds of rice. He only has a .22 calibre rifle, too small to kill the large animals he expects to hunt. Gallien tries to dissuade Chris, mentioning the lack of game. Failing that he attempts to scare Chris off with grizzly bear stories.

This too fails and in the end he can do nothing but offer Chris a pair of boots and his lunch.

Answer: A page from a book

On a page torn from "Taras Bulba" Chris wrote "S.O.S I need your help. I am injured, near death, and too weak to hike out of here. I am all alone, this is not a joke. In the name of God, please remain to save me, I am out collecting berries close by and shall return this evening. Thank you." In his final days he discards his alias and signs the note Chris McCandless.