James Kim was found dead yesterday. I’ve been reading/watching him on CNET for a couple years not and it’s hitting me a little harder than I expected. Perhaps because I was hoping to see a happy ending to this story and started to visualize the coverage of one family’s quest to survive while stranded in the snowed out wilderness. Here are some things I’ve been reading:
As a former Air Force Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) Instructor, I thought I would add a little spin on the rule of three’s.
3 weeks without food
3 days without water
3 hours without shelter
3 minutes without air
But not three seconds without hope.
I agree you cannot ultimately know what he was thinking or second guess his decision to leave the vehicle. He made a lot of good decisions. The “hug a tree” approach to survival is only as good as the response from search and rescue assets to beginning a search. He couldn’t have known when or where those assets might have been looking.
Posted By Scott, Portland Oregon : 3:52 PM ET
These people waited (and some died) for seventy-two days before two of them climbed over a ridge and found help on the other side in a day or three: Uruguayan_Air_ForceFlight 571
Mike Couillard and his 10-year old son waited eight days before Mike climbed to the top of a plateau and saw some cabins.
And James Kim may well have understood that he was cutting his own odds to increase the odds for his wife and children: if he made it, they got saved. If they were found and he did not make it, they were saved.
No, he should not have stayed.
Posted By Ken Tilton, Wall, NJ : 5:05 PM ET
I’m surprised no one has mention the one thing that would have rescued the family within hours. A PLB (Personal Locator Beacon). For around $600 this device can call for help anywhere in the world. Cell phones and ham radios don’t always work in remote places, but a PLB will. Sure it’s not cheap, but what is _your_ life worth?
Posted By Bill Holman, Charlottesville, VA : 4:45 PM ET
He did some smart things like burn tires to attract attention. Waited a week in his car w his family. But broke the golden rule of surviving when you are stuck out in the wilds w your car: Dont leave your car, you will be found. Every year, someone else leaves their car and is found dead of exposure days after the car was discovered. And always travel with plenty of water.
One BIG dont: dont torch the forest to get yourself out of a mess you got yourself into.
Posted By Paul, Phoenix AZ : 5:30 PM ET
Nearly everyone, it seems, has a better idea. But at a time of such tragedy for this brave man’s family, I believe it it sufficient to say only this:
“Greater love has no one than this,
that he lay down his life for his friends.” – John 15:13
Posted By Roger, Copperas Cove, TX : 5:32 PM ET
I grew up in rural southwest Colorado, and have always been very aware of how driving conditions can deteriorate, even in the summer. That being said, I hope that the average traveler will learn from this tragedy, and carry survival supplies in their car whenever setting out on any journey. My dad was stranded in a snow storm in the mountains once (before there were cell phones), but was prepared with his sleeping bag, down jacket, winter boots, shovel, food and water, which he always had in his car. He was snoozing the night away when a highway department snow plow stopped and gave him a ride into town. My thoughts are with the Kim family, and I hope that other people will learn to be more cautious in future.
Posted By Corrie Welch, Laporte, CO : 5:41 PM ET