James Kim found dead in Oregon mountains

Geez-us, along with the fact that I am from Oregon/West Coast, this family drama just made me cry and I feel like a total freak because of it: Missing dad found dead in snow

Have shortened it for legality. see whole article with link above.

Sad - but I have to be honest and say rather silly to leave clothing as a marker for searchers in such weather.

It depends, heard on TV that he was experienced with the outdoors and he wanted to leave a trail so that he would be found more easily. I don´t think the pants kept him that warm anyway. It would have been different if he had left his jacket behind.

I feel sorry for his wife and his children...

It is always the easiest to pass judgment on someone when you were never in the same situation.

How true Genie.

I read this story yesterday before he was found... tragically sad for the family no matter the circumstances.

One of the signs of hypothermia is a belief that you are actually too warm. It is therefore common for people suffering from hypothermia to remove items of clothing, thus actually hastening their death. I wonder if this is what happened. I realise we don't know many facts, but leaving behind clothing in such conditions goes against all common sense.

But the fatal mistake was of course leaving the car in the first place. Rule number one in such a survival situation is to always stay put, however tempting the proactive alternative may seem. This rule is once again confirmed in this case, where the people who stayed put are the ones still alive today.

I have followed this story since it was first announced last week. At first I was pissed at the family for allowing themselves to be placed in this situation due to the fact the media said he planned to take back roads. Later they announced he missed his exit and decided to take a mountain road. I know of said area because I have hiked there many times and it is dangerous in winter. In fact I am surprised he was able to get his vehicle as far as he did. The area he took on foot I have to say I am equally impressed. That area is rugged with endless snow drifts. I remember on my first winter in Oregon I took a similar trail to photograph naively with no concept of proper equipment. I was driving my piece of sh*t mercury through this cut back when I saw this wonderful little green tree standing alone in the snow. It was no taller than my knee so I parked the car, grabbed the SLR , and ran over there. Igot with about two meters of the tree and fell. I was fortunate to have fallen at an awkward angle where my left foot was parallel to the ground while underneath my right foot I felt nothing. I knew then that I was not on solid ground. My girlfriend was screaming hysterically and ran to me. I told her to stop and bring a rope from the trunk. She brought the rope and threw it to me and pulled me out. I came back months later to same spot and realized that the little tree was actually a full grow fir and what I had saw was only the tip of it. I had literally ran on about 10 meters of nothing but snow packed between trees. I learned my lesson and was fortunate of this. I really feel sorry for this family for the grief that unfortunately been bestowed upon them.

Spooky stuff, perdido.

I don't think it was a matter of missing his exit and "deciding" to take a mountain road. I just read an article about the guy who found the wife and kids. The entire search effort was being led over by the beach area, and this guy flew his own private helipcopter over to the area where they were on a hunch that Kim made the same mistake many people do. There's a logging road that runs off of the road he was supposed to be on that, due to frequent use, is actually larger than the main road. Due to this, Kim (and many others before him) accidentally took off on the mountain road, thinking it was the main road, and ended up off-road by about 15 miles.

That sends a chill down my spine.

IPJ I know. All I am saying was the intial reports from last week were from friends stating they feared he was taking this route because of his love for the rugged terrain. Then through the course of this story it has changed. Thats why I was intially disturbed by this. You see every year a story similar to this occurs where someone decides to be smarter than the elements and fails. Usually it is a single person. I allowed myself by listening to these intial reports to place him in that same category. Like I said I know of this area, and know the area he was attempting to go to. It is a lovely, if not beautiful area to spend Xmas at but hell to get there. It doesnt really matter now though.

And just how many more people will have to lose their way or die before someone decides to put up a warning sign of some sort?

I have been following this in the San Francisco Chronicle, hoping for their safety. When I read that the car had been found with the mother and children in it I feared the worst for the father trekking to find help. They were all of them very brave and resourceful, my heart goes out to them.

Yeah I followed via CNN this past 10 days. It is never a good time for this to happen but even worse during the hollidays.

CNN is broadcasting a live internet feed right now of a press conference by Oregon State Police.

@perdido

Your story gave me goosebumps.

It's even more sad that they found the body of James Kim just a mile short of a cosy lodge stacked with food - enough to last for months. Here's more from this CNN report.

What I read said that there's actually a gate there, but it was left open. One would think they'd close it for the winter...

Yeah, they should really keep that gate closed. Of course, snow in Oregon packs so high, you could feasibly have a road higher than a gate. They usually have pretty tall poles just to show the snowplower where the road is.

When I was back in Oregon, there was a story about two people whose first date was a cross country ski day, none of them having ever done it before. They lost their way and day turned into night and then it started to snow. They stopped in some bushes and started to get really cold, then figured that if they kept on cross-countrying, they would stay warm.

Annyhoo, they ended up cross-countrying through the whole night and eating snow, and things worked out fine.

They sighted a downhill ski slope in the morning about 7am or so then skied down to a lodge.

I wish I had names to provide facts. This was always something i thought was "skiing for your life".

I also thought this was probably the all-time worst attempt at impressing a girl on your first date.

Well the problem also is the number of logging roads located along the way. I have taken some by mistake in summer so I know in winter it is much easier to get confused. I know the roads around Crater Lake are usually closed from September to May due to the snow pack, but this is more closely maintained because of the tourist factor.

A sad story...but I disagree with the blanket assumption that he simply should have stayed put. He did stay put - for 7 days! As someone quoted by CNN put it:

"If I'd been up there seven days, I had a seven-month-old child, I probably would have made that decision -- trying to go get help," Servis said. "There comes a point where you ask: how long do you stay with the vehicle? If you've told somebody where you're going to be, then I would have stayed with the vehicle."

"If I thought I could make it back to where there was people, I might have done that," he said. "Because if no one was looking for them, they could have been there for weeks or months and they could have died in that car."

Also from CNN:
Survival ABCs

Experts say the three rules for survival if you plan to be traveling in a wilderness area are as easy to remember as ABC:

# A. Always tell someone where you're going, said Ken Brink of the Colorado State Parks Department. "If you tell people where you're going, and when you get in trouble you stay put, there's a very high possibility that we can find you within 24 hours. Not always, but usually."

# B. Be prepared -- Think of the worst possible scenario and prepare for it.

# C. Carry a survival kit with extra clothing, non-perishable food, and drinking water. Also, when assembling the kit, be aware of three key necessities: shelter, fire and signaling. (

I saw a report about this on TV last night that the gate was actually closed before, but vandals had cut the padlock off and left it open. The Kims just drove on thru afterwards. It's possible the authorities may launch a criminal investigation about the gate opened by vandals.
Update: Here's the link about the vandalized gate.

we were told this at orientation when i started grad school if we had a car. that we should always keep water and a big fleece blanket in the car plus that even a large, old used coffee can and a candle (with matches of course) would produce enough heat to keep us warm if we stayed in the car. and that we should stay in the car and not trek out. i cannot tell you how many times i got lost on those logging roads just taking day hikes.

Okay, I didn't grow up in mountainious area, but we had wicked storms and ice storms, we were always told to take a survival kit in the car with us. I sort of laughed about it, even after I was a girl scout leader and spent weeks at survival camps.
Then I had a 50km drive back home one night in Manitoba (no hills, flat, but that wind) in a snowstorm- wasn't a blizzard, just a storm, but the wind was so strong, I made my brother lay in the hatch (for weight so I wouldn't fishtail), this stretch of highway is called Death Alley, even though its straight and flat, the wind polishes the ice on the road, making for a very dangerous drive. At one point I did go off the road into the ditch, but thank god I had a shovel in my car, we got back on the road, and since that day, I always traveled with a survival kit - blanket, waterproof matches, candles, shovel, water and some crackers, beside the normal first aid kit.

My heart goes out to the family, its a sad loss.

Has anyone heard the latest on those three men lost on Mt. Hood in Oregon? I'm regularly checking any updates. The rescue authorities are going out all the way with teams of searchers. 80 climbers taking part in the rescue search. Right now the weather's improving, but they've been missing for about a week or so.

Well I know they received a signal from the mobile of that bloke who is apparenly holed up in a snow cave. He turned the phone on briefly. No doubt he will do this every few days or so as the battery must be running low. Who knows. The fact is that this sort of weather is to be expected on Mt Hood at this time of year and many climbers say that they would not go near the mountain at this time. So you have to ask the question - how much does pure stupidity play a role in this whole thing?

One climber found dead. Two others still missing

Those two poor guys are still missing as of today. I hate to say it but I think they're finished

I think you are right. What a waste of human lives. Maybe they should have listened to all those warnings and not tried to climb the mountain, but, hey, hindsight is a wonderful thing...

I guess the extraordinary amount of money spent on the search and rescue operation will not be billed to the families. That would be a bit tasteless...

Every year someone attempts this. Mt Hood is not the most dangerous mountain but climbing in the middle of winter does not make it any easier. I am afraid that the last two will be found dead although survival is not out of the question. The sad thing is that with the difficult terrain it can take a while to find the body let alone retrieve it.

The rescue mission has now been called off and they will start a recovery mission once the weather improves. Apparently the climbers did actually reach the summit according to pictures found on the camera that was recovered. And, they were travelling light for speed and obviously did not expect such extreme weather conditions that are to be expected at this time of year.

So now there's another rescue mission that's been underway for a few weeks - this time in China. The search area for Americans Christine Boskoff and Charlie Fowler has now been narrowed to a single mountain in southwestern China. I hope this one turns out to be 100% successful.
Search for climbers in China narrows to one mountain.

They seem to have found the two climbers.
1 Missing Climber's Body Found In China

My ex-roommate worked for Climb Max in Portland Oregon and you should see these guys talking about the mountains it is admirable if not a little psycotic. It is sad to see people like these two die but they at least died doing something they loved so respect. I know right now my old roomie Eric is saying right now in Portland "better to burn out than fade away".