Mr. Kim Lost In Oregon Wilderness

[ScubaJewel]

Always travel with a survival plan in mind, Carry sleeping bags, Food, Water, Signaling devices etc.

I understand that this stuff all takes up space but you would be amazed at how often you can use it, even when not stranded...

There is a company called "wiggys" that vacuum packs sleeing bags into small little bricks. These bags rebound when the bags are opened and don't take up much space.

 

[Al Mialkovsky]

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As a Cnet member I was wondering if this trip had been rescheduled recently and they may have felt pressured to get home and back on schedule. .

They were on their way to a nice lodge over on the Oregon coast so they weren't in any hurry. If they were in a hurry they would have stayed on I-5

 

[Jcsgt]

Very sad story.

I understand that the road which the Kim's took and eventually were stranded had been gated off. Vandals apparently had removed the gate. Does anybody ever stop to think of the possible rammifications of their actions?

I drive in remote areas of Oregon fairly regularly. In addition to carrying survival supplies, GPS, etc. I always leave a map with somebody clearly outlining the route I intend to take on my venture and indicate the LATEST I expect to be. If I'm not heard from by a certain time, somebody will call for help.

 

[Midnight Star]

Does anybody ever stop to think of the possible rammifications of their actions?

Like "man slaughter"? I hope they find the one(s) who did it. They probably decided to "explore" a gated off area, then just decided they didn't need to put it back.

-----

Mike.

 

[Al Mialkovsky]

As far as the gate lock being cut it's a standard procedure that BLM does the day after hunting season ends. It seems more logical to do it a week or so after the season ends in case you've been locked inside of the gate.

Still the bottom line ends up with Kim being responsibile for his own actions. Not with a gate being opened. The snow was getting deeper, turn around please. In fact if he had turned around on the freeway a few hours eariler and gone back to his missed exit this would have never happened.

Todays local paper mentioned that he had actually walked about 16 miles during his quest which in that country is amazing. While he lacked some basic common sense his will to live was incredible. I'm certain his love of family drove him past normal human endurance.

 

[mrjimboalaska]

Al,
One question for you, had he walked back on the road(was this a forest service road) on which he drove in, how far to pavement(traveled road) would he have had to walk?
I grew up running in the mountains of Idaho, I can't imagine getting into a position where I could not walk out of overnight, even a long walk in Tennis shoes in the snow, the car surely wasn't moving in deeper than 1 foot of snow, and when they discovered the car, from the Video footage, there was no snow on the road.
What a shame this happened, but some bad dicisions were made from the getgo I believe.......

 

[Al Mialkovsky]

He was on pavement when he walked away from the road but there was so much snow he couldn't have known that. He didn't stay on the road when he walked, he went deep into canyons where there are no trails at all. It was a fatal mistake but again, he wasn't a backwoods type of person. He was a typical city dweller who had no survival skills at all.

A couple of days after he was found the snow was totally gone.