Another Hiker Dies Trying To Reach Into The Wild Bus

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Barry Petchesky - Deadspin


https://i.imgur.com/aK9Zeo9.jpg

Veramika Maikamava, a 24-year-old Belarusian woman, died on Thursday in Alaska when she was swept away while trying to cross a rain-swelled river while hiking to the bus where Chris McCandless starved to death in 1992.

Maikamava was traveling with her new husband on a pilgrimage to the “Magic Bus” where the 24-year-old McCandless died under unclear circumstances in 1992. McCandless spent 118 days in the bus, which had been left there years earlier by a construction company which brought it in as a temporary shelter for its workers. McCandless’s story was made famous by Jon Krakauer’s 1996 book Into The Wild, and a 2007 movie version.

The Anchorage Daily News reports:


Newlyweds Veramika Maikamava and Piotr Markielau, both 24, were trying to cross the Teklanika River at the upper crossing along the Stampede Trail shortly before midnight when Maikamava was swept under the water, said Ken Marsh, a troopers spokesman.

The upper crossing, which is generally swift anyway, was running high because of recent rainfall, troopers said.

As the two were wading through waist-high water, holding on to a rope that spans the length of the crossing, Maikamava apparently lost her footing and her grip on the rope, Marsh said.

Markielau found his wife’s body about 75 to 100 feet downriver, troopers said. A trooper and volunteers from the Tri-Valley Fire Department reached the scene on ATVs and sent the body to the state medical examiner.

McCandless’s bus has proven an irresistible lure for many hikers, a number of whom have gotten into trouble in their attempt to reach it. The Fairbanks Daily News—Miner reports that there were 15 state-generated search and rescues involving the bus from 2009–2017. Many of them also involved problems crossing the Teklanika River, including a 29-year-old Swiss woman who drowned in 2010 at the same spot Maikamava was swept away.

Alaska State Troopers urged people “to be prepared and know your limitations, too. If that river is too high or too swift, know when to call it quits or to hold off.”

Locally, a debate over the bus flares up every time a hiker is killed or injured or requires rescue while trying to reach it. Local columnist Sean Doogan said his view used to be, “two cans of gas and a match would solve all our problems,” though in 2017 he wrote that he now believed the bus should be left to let nature (and tourist scavengers) take its course. But Doogan also quoted a dog sled tour operator who said, “I would say that most people who live out here want the bus gone.”

[Hal-9000]

"McCandless died under unclear circumstances in 1992"

He starved to death, hardly mysterious.

No proper maps or supplies...the river swelled (sound familiar) and he became trapped. Ended up eating bark, berries and plants...may have gotten sick from them and died weighing 67 pounds.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

"McCandless died under unclear circumstances in 1992"

He starved to death, hardly mysterious.

No proper maps or supplies...the river swelled (sound familiar) and he became trapped. Ended up eating bark, berries and plants...may have gotten sick from them and died weighing 67 pounds.

Did he starve for sure or was that just the general consensus as to how he died? :-k

[Hal-9000]

Did he starve for sure or was that just the general consensus as to how he died? :-k

Combination of his diary entries and pictures. And the autopsy.

There's been some big controversy over something he ate maybe having a poisonous effect in the stomach. Not yeast, but a similar plant.

The dude was only 140 to start with and he was found at 67 pounds, no wounds or other discernible signs he was hurt.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

I watched the movie, but it was so long ago.

That's some serious rough country out there, you deserve what you get, no sympathy for the idiots that have died trying to get there so they can put it on their Instagram. And the ones that need to be rescued, I hope the state of Alaska bills them for the search and rescue costs.

[Hal-9000]

Below summarized says he may have eaten some seeds that could cause poisoning over an extended amount of time.

Over a few years they go back and forth, citing a certain type of mushroom he ate could cause the same thing.

The seeds would be okay to eat for someone having normal health.



In his book Into the Wild (1996), Jon Krakauer suggests two factors may have contributed to McCandless's death. First, he offered that McCandless was running the risk of a phenomenon known as "rabbit starvation", from overrelying on lean game for nutrition.[19] Krakauer also speculated[20] that McCandless might have been poisoned by a toxic alkaloid called swainsonine, by ingesting seeds (Hedysarum alpinum or Hedysarum mackenzii) containing the toxin, or possibly by a mold that grows on them (Rhizoctonia leguminicola) when he put them damp into a plastic bag. Swainsonine inhibits metabolism of glycoproteins, which causes starvation despite ample caloric intake.[5]

However, an article in the September 2007 issue of Men's Journal, by Matthew Powers, states that extensive laboratory testing showed there were no toxins or alkaloids present in the H. alpinum seeds McCandless had been eating. Dr. Thomas Clausen, the chair of the chemistry and biochemistry department at UAF, said, "I tore that plant apart. There were no toxins. No alkaloids. I'd eat it myself".[21] Analysis of the wild sweet peas, given as the cause of McCandless' death in Into the Wild, found no toxic compounds, and there is not a single account in modern medical literature of anyone being poisoned by this species of plant.[2] As Powers put it: "He didn't find a way out of the bush, couldn't catch enough food to survive, and simply starved to death".[21]

In 2013, a new hypothesis was proposed. Ronald Hamilton, a retired bookbinder at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania,[5] suggested a link between the symptoms described by McCandless and the poisoning of Jewish prisoners in the Nazi concentration camp in Vapniarca. He put forward the proposal that McCandless starved to death because he was suffering from paralysis in his legs induced by lathyrism, which prevented him from gathering food or hiking out.[22] Lathyrism may be caused by ODAP poisoning from seeds of Hedysarum alpinum (commonly called wild potato). The ODAP, a toxic amino acid, had not been detected by the previous studies of the seeds because they had suspected and tested for a toxic alkaloid, rather than an amino acid, and nobody had previously suspected that Hedysarum alpinum seeds contained this toxin. The protein would be relatively harmless to someone who was well-fed and on a normal diet, but toxic to someone who was malnourished, physically stressed, and on an irregular and insufficient diet, as McCandless was.[23] As Krakauer points out, McCandless' field guide did not warn of any dangers of eating the seeds, which were not yet known to be toxic. Krakauer suspects this is the meaning of McCandless' journal entry of July 30, which states "EXTREMELY WEAK. FAULT OF POT[ATO] SEED. MUCH TROUBLE JUST TO STAND UP. STARVING. GREAT JEOPARDY."[24]

In September 2013, Krakauer published an article in The New Yorker following up on Hamilton's claims.[5] A sample of fresh Hedysarum alpinum seeds was sent to a laboratory for HPLC analysis. Results suggest that the seeds contained 0.394% beta-ODAP by weight, a concentration well within the levels known to cause lathyrism in humans, although the interpretation of the results was disputed by other chemists.[4] The article notes that while occasional ingestion of foodstuffs containing ODAP is not hazardous for healthy individuals eating a balanced diet, "individuals suffering from malnutrition, stress, and acute hunger are especially sensitive to ODAP, and are thus highly susceptible to the incapacitating effects of lathyrism after ingesting the neurotoxin".[5]

Anchorage, Alaska, reporter Craig Medred pointed out in a January 2015 article[6] in the Alaska Dispatch News that mushrooms which McCandless collected, photographed,[25] and consumed may have also contributed to his death.

In February 2015, Krakauer published a follow up article in The New Yorker that reported on scientific analysis of the H. alpinum seeds McCandless ate. A report in Wilderness and Environmental Medicine[7] demonstrated relatively high levels of L-canavanine in Hedysarum alpinum seeds and suggests this as the toxic component in McCandless' diet, rather than ODAP, as originally supposed by Ronald Hamilton. In his New Yorker article Krakauer goes on to speculate that L-canavanine "was a contributing factor to" McCandless' death.

[Hal-9000]

I watched the movie, but it was so long ago.

That's some serious rough country out there, you deserve what you get, no sympathy for the idiots that have died trying to get there so they can put it on their Instagram. And the ones that need to be rescued, I hope the state of Alaska bills them for the search and rescue costs.

I recall you were very mad at him when I reviewed the film years back :lol:

The author Jon Krakauer wrote a phenomenal book called Into Thin Air about the eight deaths on Everest in 1997. He climbed with one of the two tour companies that led tourists up the mountain. Then he got into a huge battle that lasted years with one of the guides, a heralded Russian climber who could make the climb without using oxygen bottles. Krakauer claimed the Russian left tourists to die while saving himself. Later it was determined the Russian saved a handful of people when Krakauer was near death himself sitting in a tent. Incredible story.

[lost in melb.]

If you can drive a bus there, it can't be that remote. :hand: These idiots wouldn't last 2 days in outback Australia

[Teh One Who Knocks]

If you can drive a bus there, it can't be that remote. :hand: These idiots wouldn't last 2 days in outback Australia

:-s

The bus was abandoned in 1961, there is no road there now. And I want to see you survive and Alaskan winter on your own :hand:

[Hal-9000]

:-s

The bus was abandoned in 1961, there is no road there now. And I want to see you survive and Alaskan winter on your own :hand:

Be nice, he's Aussie. They have two seasons; really hot and quite warm :thumbsup:

[lost in melb.]

:-s

The bus was abandoned in 1961, there is no road there now. And I want to see you survive and Alaskan winter on your own :hand:

Give me a Satfone hunting rifle & vit C no probs 8-[

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Give me a Satfone hunting rifle & vit C no probs 8-[

You get a slingshot and 3 granola bars [-(

[Hal-9000]

Give me a Satfone hunting rifle & vit C no probs 8-[

He apparently brought down a moose or deer and didn't know how to dress it properly.

So according to his diary, about 2000lbs of diseased and unusable meat.

[lost in melb.]

You get a slingshot and 3 granola bars [-(


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlMoDUBIg00

[lost in melb.]

He apparently brought down a moose or deer and didn't know how to dress it properly.

So according to his diary, about 2000lbs of diseased and unusable meat.

What do you think youtube is for? :dunno:

[Teh One Who Knocks]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlMoDUBIg00

4 granola bars? :dunno:

[Teh One Who Knocks]

4 granola bars? :dunno:

Don't think there was a YouTube in 1992 :nono:

[Teh One Who Knocks]

https://www.adn.com/voices/article/mccandless-magic-bus-near-healy-alaska-should-it-stay-or-should-it-go/2013/06/04/

Good article on the bus from a few years back.