This tale of a backpacker pilgrimage turned fatality is a terrible tragedy…

 
 

About The Author

paulsullivan

Paul Sullivan is a Berlin-based writer, photographer and author whose words and images have appeared in guidebooks, fiction anthologies, newspapers and various global magazines. Check out: http://www.paul-sullivan.com

  • http://miller-david.com David Miller

    thanks for posting this paul.

    really minimal report over at gadling. i’m sure more details will come out soon.

    no mention was made, for example, of the presence (or lack thereof) of a cable-crossing that’s only a few km away from where mccandless and these folks tried to cross the river. that was something that mystified me in the original tragedy – the fact that even the most minimal knowledge of the terrain, the least amount of beta, could’ve made for a different story.

  • paulsullivan

    i was thinking also that the details were a bit scarce; will be keeping my eyes out for more info…

    as a side note i have to say i was not a fan of sean penn’s take on that original story at all. wasn’t there supposed to be a doc coming out that counter-balanced the more sentimental / Hollywoodized / badly researched elements of Into The Wild?

    • http://miller-david.com David Miller

      yeah, the sean penn movie was really difficult to watch. that whole part about him running that whitewater canyon in his ducky . . .all bullshit. he did float lower flatwater sections of the Colorado, but i just kept thinking .. . why does he (penn) have to put this in there to try and glamorize the story?

      compare it with wim winders documentary to timothy treadwell (grizzly man). i felt like that ‘honored’ timothy’s story while putting it into a greater context all in a transparent way vis a vis the director’s feelings toward the subject. penn made a caricature.

      still, kind of strange to be talking about movies when these kids just died.

  • http://mharmeling.blogspot.com Michele

    David, Here’s an article printed by one of our local papers. Whether or not Claire was demonstrably hiking into the park specifically to find the bus is a matter of some question still.

    I’ll withhold my personal opinion…

    http://www.newsminer.com/printer_friendly/9169377

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