Yeah, this is a sad story, but guess what? James Kim was obviously not prepared for the trip he and his family were taking. This was not just a simple road trip from LA to SF. This was a 600+ mile Road Trip. Yeah, capitalized, because this was a big trip. Maybe it's just me being a Boy Scout (and an Australian, and a Survivalist) but I have little sympathy for this guy because he absolutely 100% did the Wrong Thing.
Driving from Portland, OR to San Francisco, CA may look like a walk in the park at Google Maps, but that's a serious drive through serious wilderness, and the Kim family undertook that drive in inclement weather.
James and his family apparently survived for a week (on very limited supplies) before James made the fatal decision to go for help. His family were found within 24 hours of his leaving them. Now James had no way of knowing that rescue was literally hours away, so he's not at fault there. James is at fault for not staying put. He apparently went out into freezing conditions wearing the same clothes he'd wear for a trip to the corner store. Street clothes, he was described as wearing. He had F'ing tennis shoes on his feet. The man was wearing jeans, a light jacket, and tennis shoes, and he set out into blizzard conditions to go for help. Wrong thing to do, James.
WWJD? What would John do? If dressed like James was, John would stay with his family. No, I would not go for help. I would not leave my family behind. Even if I was dressed appropriately I still wouldn't go for help. Even if my family were dressed appropriately we still wouldn't go for help. Of course we also have blankets in our car, including reflective, thermal blankets. We have water, first aid kit, and on long trips I always carry our 2-way radios which have a 20-mile range (probably less in hilly conditions though).
The first rule when you are lost (in the Wilderness, that is) is stay where you are. Set up camp right where you are and DO NOT MOVE! People love you. People will miss you. If you've done the right thing you will have let people know where you're going and when you expect to get there...or get back. If your loved ones do not receive a phone call from you saying you got there (or back) they will alert the authorities, and a search will be conducted, and you will be found. If you're smart you'll be prepared. You'll have provisions in your car or your backpack. You'll have a tent or emergency clothing to keep you warm. Maybe even a sleeping bag. You'll have the ability to make fire. If you have fresh water and you can stay warm and dry, you can survive for at least 2 weeks. If people are missing you and looking for you, they will find you within a week or so. Believe it or not but there are people in this world who when they start looking for a lost person, they do not give up. They may not even know the person they're looking for, but they refuse to give up. If the search is called off it's this person who will find you, and they will find you, but if you wander off, if you move around, you're making their job a damn sight harder. The search will take longer, and you've just increased your chances of being found...dead, like James.
It's (morbidly) amusing how the media are trying to make out James was some sort of superman, that he walked 15 miles through the snow and cold...in a circle...to be found (dead) barely miles from his family car. What kind of effort would that take, people ask. A superhuman effort, is the typical response. No, this is just a guy who wandered off, unprepared and improperly clothed for the conditions, and whose mind probably shut down while his body kept on walking aimlessly. Yeah, he walked 15 miles in the freezing cold in jeans and a jacket, but he's still dead, and if he'd stayed with his family he'd be alive.
You NEVER leave your family. I read stories all the time of the father who leaves his family to go for help. He dies and the family gets rescued because the searchers are looking in the area where the family got lost. Not 10 miles way where the father now is.
If you only take one thing away from this, don't be like James. When you're lost stay where you are. Set up camp, dig in and prepare to be there for a while, and survive.
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4 comments:
well, duh, first rule of survival: when lost, stay put! even our son knows that.
i took that trip, but not in bad weather though.
While my heart goes out to the Kim family, I have to say that I'm with you. And instead of using the mans' death as a possible lesson, by trying to make it okay, to say "oh he died a hero" is just so much bullshit and a WASTE. What good was his dying at all if people can not learn from it? This whole thing is making me just a little bit crazy!
If nothing else will stop people from wandering off, why don't they think of those they "might" (read "WILL") be leaving behind?? It is such a terrible gutwrenching thing to see when family and friends find out their loved one is not ever coming back ~ their pain is absolutely unfathomable, and impossible for me to explain.
Think people. THINK. Do not leave. Stay put. Live.
Your Dad was a Scout Leader, he would be proud dude!
Perhaps his mind wasn't working correctly in the first place when he chose to desert his family in hopes of finding help.
Desperation is a nasty cocktail especially when you have a 7 month old baby, so I can understand why James would have wanted to find help as soon as possible. But that doesn't mean his decision to leave his family is what I would have done.
If I knew the area and I knew where to go for immediate help, I would have put on every article of clothing that could have been spared, and then gone for help, not just kissed my family goodbye and then ran off into the wilderness clueless.
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