Man dies trying to save his family. RIP James Kim

Be Prepared. If he had taken proper precautions, he might still be alive: food, water, tools including shovel, rope and a come-along, shelter, communications equipment, map, compass, footwear, proper clothing... especially with children along! What was he thinking? But he wasn't and now he's dead. So sad, too bad. But this was totally preventable.
 
this is a link showing Kim's path away from the car posted by Hartsell:

http://www.layoutscene.com/james-kim-path/index.html

At a certain point, he left the road and began following a deep ravine probably thinking this would lead him to a lower elevation quicker and thereby find help faster. By leaving the road he undoubtedly introduced a lot more moisture into his clothing from the surrounding foliage. Given the ambient temperatures and the degree of moisture present, it is amazing he made it as far as he did.

He wasn't "walking in circles". He simply made a bad decision to leave the road not knowing his orientation to the car he had left and inadvertently moved back toward his starting position.
 
First, let me just say that I feel badly for the Kims. I wish Mr. Kims wife and children a full, emotional healing.
O.K., here's the deal. I followed this story with quite a bit of interest because
1) I live in Oregon 2) Grew up in the Northern California / Southern Oregon area where Mr. Kim died 3) Was raised in a family that owned a logging business in the area and 4) have worked and tramped about, around, in and through much of the woods area where this all took place.
Of the first reports from Mr. Kims wife after she was rescued (approx. 4 or so days before he was found) one told that they took that road deliberately in order to have a more scenic, and direct route to Gold Beach. Apparently, they found the route online (I believe it was a recommended route from a travel/tourist type site). So in that one statement lies the beginning of all their trouble. Turning onto a gravel, Forest Service / BLM road that goes UP into the mountains, in winter, in a two wheel drive car with his wife and children. All on the recommendation of some postings on a web site, by people who's qualifications they knew nothing about or (maybe) when they even took that route. The road is well posted at both ends regarding it's danger in winter, and signs are in place stating that it is closed (or impassable) from Oct. to May. Then, an insistance to continue on when things started getting dicey, then downright un-manageable reveals that Mr. Kim made at least two errors in judgement (one, in taking the road in the first place, and two, in not turning around before getting stuck). Now, regardless of my experience I am no Daniel Boone or Davy Crockett in the woods. But I do know enough to realize that if I've got one foot caught in a trap, I dont go looking around for a second trap to put my other foot into.
In short folks, I've heard about enough from pundits saying what a hero this man was for trying to save his family. The simple truth is that he made poor decisions with a limited amount of knowledge about the situation at hand, put his family at risk and got himself killed.
 
That Google Earth map is great. Thank you for posting and it has helped me understand. He basically thought he had gone far enough on the road to take a short cut straight down toward the main highway (#23). The problem is he cut down a bit too quickly and that sealed his fate as I'm sure things began to not look at all like he was expecting. Tis sad. This kind of thing is one of the reasons I keep a Delorme Atlas in my car for the states I cruise. Usually has the creeks and many/most of the roads including many private ones. Obviously not to the scale that would be terribly handy, but it is a lot better than nothin.
 
faramir said:
He was walking in circle(s) ? What kind of tech-wiz was he anyway ...
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It is a fact that without a direction pointer or knowingly correcting your self everyone eventually walks in a circle due to having a dominant side !!!:eek:
 
He wasn't walking in circles. According to one news report that I saw, he told his wife that he was going to go to the river and then follow it down to town. He thought that once he got to the river he'd be within 4 miles of town but he was more lost than he knew and was in fact 15 miles from town once he got to the river.

In any case, his decision to descison to go down into the drainage appears to be a deliberate, pre-meditated one. He must not have known how cold and wet he was going to get down there.
 
the more I read/think about this...the more amazed/bewildered I get.


Hope the full story comes clear sometime.

11 days is a lot of time....
 
I don't know a great deal about this case, but here are a few facts that will shed light on some the questions raised in earlier posts. They were southbound on I-5 intending to travel to a fairly remote area of the Oregon coast. They missed the turn that would take them to Hwy 42 and their destination. Rather than back track Mr. Kim relied upon his GPS which indicated there were roads that would take him where he wanted to go. Unfortunately, the GPS doesn't tell you road conditions or show every USFS spur out there. (Ironically, it was his GPS that helped get him into trouble.) The road the Kim family ended up on was closed and supposed to be gated, but vandals had recently broken the lock and left the gate open. Mr. Kim made a wrong turn as a result and ended up on an untravelled/unmaintained road.

I'm a little familiar with that area. It's very remote and very damp. The snow holds a lot of moisture and it wouldn't take long until you are soaked to the bone. At that point you are already in serious trouble before you realize it. The Oregon Coast Range can also get socked in with fog for days on end and no flare or fire will work as a signal. Don't know if that was the case here, but the family hired a fleet of private helicopters to search the area. These guys are helicopter loggers familiar with the area and exceptional pilots. I suspect weather was a factor in not finding them sooner.

Mr. Kim had to make a choice and it's understandable that he decided to leave for help given the desparate nature of the situation. He dropped down into a drainage apparently thinking he could follow it out. That's a common mistake for someone lost in the woods. Many of those drainages will take you into deep canyons away from roads and under tree cover where rescuers can't see you and you can't tell where you are. It's better to go up where you can see and be seen, or stay on the road which is usually best.

Bottom line is that it was a series of unfortunate events that put Mr. Kim in a very bad situation that ultimately cost him his life. I can't say that I would have come out any better off, but the best chance for survival is preparation on the front end. I'm sure the last thing he expected when he left for vacation was to find himself in the middle of some very unforgiving back country.
 
SIR7 said:
(Ironically, it was his GPS that helped get him into trouble.)
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This is quite surprising to me. His GPS should have indicated that he'd taken a wrong fork long before he got as far back on those logging roads as he did. Basically, the GPS should have showed him NF-23 and then showed his position as moving away from that road and "off the map". So unless the GPS became inoperable due to the environmental conditions (I suppose this is possible, I've never taken a GPS unit into extremely foggy and/or heavy snowfall) it should have been immediately obvious that he was going the wrong way.

There appears to have been an extremely long chain of very unfortunate events that lead to James Kim's death.

Edit: I just finished Deep Survival (Laurence Gonzales) and it occurs to me that even if the GPS unit was showing his position correctly, Kim might have refused to believe it was working correctly. Gonzales writes of someone lost in the wilderness who smashes his compass against a rock out of frustration because he's so convinced that he's going in the right direction that he becomes angry with his disfunctional compass. Once a person gets turned around AND stressed due to deadlines and other pressures (internal and external), all kinds of wacky things start to go on in the human brain.
 
I had assumed there was no GPS simply because he missed the turn for Hwy 42 (also known as the Coos Bay-Roseburg Hwy) which was his planned route to the coast. The Garmin GPS V gives me turn directions, which I guess his GPS did not. That's too bad.

I really like GPS for in car use. I've taken it on trips to areas where I'd never been previouly and used it in rental cars. Took me from the airport straight to the hotel and never missed a turn. Even if you know the route, it gives you precise ETA info and is an excellent tool for planning fuel and food stops (waypoints are free). My unit also up/downloads to my laptop which has additional detail if I need it. I use the laptop for planning and then upload to the GPS receiver. I've considered upgrading, but that old grayscale GPS V does everything I need and it's smaller than the upgrades. Hell, if I decided to walk out, I'd take the Garmin with me.
There appears to have been an extremely long chain of very unfortunate events that lead to James Kim's death.
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Which is almost always the case.
 
0234042 said:
First, let me just say that I feel badly for the Kims. I wish Mr. Kims wife and children a full, emotional healing.
O.K., here's the deal. I followed this story with quite a bit of interest because..... The simple truth is that he made poor decisions with a limited amount of knowledge about the situation at hand, put his family at risk and got himself killed.
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I cut some stuff out there but I have to say your original post is right on sadly. Mistakes like these are why we have the statistics we tought on these forums.

I remember watching James on TechTV and all I can say is he will be truly missed.
 
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