I don't understand

[benevolance]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061210/ap_on_re_us/missing_family

How every year a bunch of people die lost in the wilderness...If you were in Alaska I could see freezing to death or the midwest...It is not that cold in Oregon...The guy was fully clothed...

They say he walked 16 miles on a logging road...Like 16 miles is some gargantuan feat...Logging roads are pretty easy walking...Not like the guy walked 16 miles of peaks on Everest.

It is a shame this guy is dead and his family has to go on without him...

What makes these people who have no compass...Cannot tell east or west by the sun...Decide to leave the group and walk in the middle of absolute wilderness?

What ever happened to the start a fire find some drinkable water and look for something to make any sort of shelter that will keep you alive until you are found....

Heck even if you walked as a family for half the day and then stopped to start another fire to stay warm and alive

You can go many days without much food...If you are rested warm and hydrated.....

Again it is a shame these people die every year....They should make people take some kind of course before they are allowed out of the city

[glenn-k]

I was thinking similar about this guy.  

He should have turned around while he had a chance.  Snowy untraveled roads in Oregon are no place to be lost.  The wrong shortcut there should not even have been considered.

[John_C]

The report that I read stated that he had slipped and fallen into a creek and died of hypothermia.  He made some mistakes like underestimating how far he was from the nearest town, but the sheriff who investigated thought he would have made it if he hadn't fallen into the water.  They estimated that the rescue team found his body within perhaps a few hours of his death.  

[peg_688]

Negative he was dead at least a day or more IRRC. Sad deal , but it goes to show sucess in the business world does not mean survial / common sence . Why he didn't just follow the road out , the car tracks where good enought for the helo to see to find the car , I'll never know . A road as always better than a cross country walk even if it has snow on it. Common sense , he lacked it . Darwin at it's best!  Sad but true , sorry if anyone is offended by it , harsh , mean , nah just facts .  

Carry on !

[benevolance]

Well it is never a good idea to separate yourself from the herd...because you might slip and fall and drown in 2 inches of water or whatever.

But yeah why the guy did not try to follow out a established road I will never know.

Even if it was longer...All roads lead to somewhere...Plus helicopters and rescue teams find you instantly on a road....

So walk the damned road even if it was 30 miles of road until he found civilization

Glenn I know the mountains can be cold..But Oregon has a warm climate compared to say winter in North Dakota or Minnesota....a couple hours out in that wind equals death for anyone not dressed in extreme condition clothing.

AllI am saying is that this guy died needlessly...It was almost entirely self inflicted and that is a shame for his family

[peg_688]

Peter durning that time we where, and so was, that area in that artic blast , plenty cold , plenty wet , that wet/ cold temp , not cold and dry , a wierd PNW cold that will kill ya if your not ready / smart / and act stupid . Had he stayed with the car , or walked the road he'd have a storey to tell , And not be the storey that being told.

So we are in total agreement , a first

[glenn-k]

If the government would quit tampering with the weather, this wouldn't have happened. :-/




There -- that should get you two back into disagreement.

[Amanda_931]

The family had been stuck in the car for days--maybe even a week--before he decided that going for help beat just sitting there.

The "on-line community" from CNET to Huffpost has written about him.

[Amanda_931]

Like this one

http://blog.wired.com/music/2006/12/james_kim_searc.html

headlined

James Kim Search Encumbered by Bad Luck and More

that quotes the story here:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/12/10/MNGVOMT3NJ1.DTL

For four days, as the snowbound Kim family's food supplies dwindled and they used up their gas running their stranded car's heater, no one even knew they were missing.

It was two more days before rescuers narrowed the search to roads leading across thousands of square miles of western Oregon, and another day before cell phone transmissions helped to pinpoint the search area.

While the speed of the investigation in some ways was remarkable -- given what little authorities started out with -- it was dogged by early missteps and obstacles that handicapped investigators.

A Portland hotel where the family had stayed refused to provide credit card records that might have indicated which way the Kims had gone. An early search by air and land of the treacherous mountain route that James and Kati Kim drove out of Grants Pass yielded nothing.

The owner of a lodge on the road where the Kims' car was stuck had told authorities three days before Kati Kim and her daughters were found that he had seen tire tracks in the snow, but he hadn't been able to follow them in his snowmobile once he hit bare ground. No one followed up.

Finally, cellular phone clues -- gathered by a company engineer who volunteered his time -- helped searchers with seven state and federal agencies and crews with three helicopters hired by the family converge on the right area.

[benevolance]

Peg...

Other than George Bush I think we would agree most of the time man...

What really makes me wonder is how you can do something reckless or stupid when you have a family? I mean wouldn't staying there to make sure they were safe and protected be a primal animalistic urge? What possible arguement can you make for leaving the family alone and wandering off the established road in to the wilderness

And yes I remember the threads here about the snow and unusual cold weather for the PNW...So it was nasty outside. Another shock to me...Doesn't everyone have an emergency kit in their car...Flare, Blanket piece of tow chain, candle, jumper cables...Matches blanket etc...

Here in the south the weather is not cold...But I never go anywhere without the jumper cables, blanket, matches and flashlight.

When I was a boy 5 miles from my Grandpa's house at the lake there was a guy building a dock in the water for his boat....He was standing upto his waist inthe water and yelled upto his wife to plug in the cord for the drill...She did We all know that he is worm food now.... I did not understand then how someone could do something like that....Maybe this is the same thing....

natural selection if you want to call it that

[Amanda_931]

I think after 4 days in a car with three other people you would be nuts.

[benevolance]

Amanda

Nuts, but alive and able to see my children grow up marry have kids etc.... Does not seem like a tough choice to me.

[MountainDon]

Yes, it's a terrible tragedy.

But as to the "why" he set off on his own, we're all guessing, unless/until the wife can add to the story. Most of the time it would make sense to stay with the car and the rest of the people. But after many days of no rescue in sight who knows what you or I would be thinking? I've read many tales of a lost soul wandering around in the wilds to their death, and also a number about people who walked out to safety after realizing the hopelessness of their situation.

But as mentioned, backtracking on the road they came in on would have made more sense that setting off to someplace you think is nearby. Unless you have a GPS and good maps to back up the cross country excursion, the road would be the safe bet, especially in a strange, unfamiliar area; might be longer but anyone who has bushwacked their way from A to B cross country would know that. But maybe he didn't.

But then he went off into unkown territory all alone (single vehicle), in what has been described as a "car" I don't know what it was; does anyone? Maybe an SUV, but many of them are little better than a lowrider car. I'd never wander off in my Honda Civic; a great car, but not for back roads snow.

But what of the "vandals" who apparently cut the lock leaving the formerly locked gate open? Sure wish there was a likelyhood of them being caught.

As for emergency equipment in the vehicle; most people know they should have some supplies, but I'm sure most do not. "It's never going to happen to me; just the other guy".

**MountainDon (300 pounds or so of tools, parts, water, food, clothing, etc. in the back of the Cherokee at all times)