"McCandless didn’t conform particularly well to the bush-casualty stereotype. Although he was rash, untutored in the ways of the backcountry, and incautious to the point of foolhardiness, he wasn’t incompetent-he wouldn’t have lasted 113 days if he were. And he wasn’t a nutcase, he wasn’t a sociopath, he wasn’t an outcast. McCandless was something else-although precisely what is hard to say. A pilgrim, perhaps. (85)"

• Krakauer saw McCandless as different even from those that strove very hard to be their own person and went on these cray trips. He didn't think he was crazy or prudent because he lasted as long as he did, but maybe he wasn't careful enough to go on this particular trip with only what he knew.