James Kim

you guys in the States heard about this latest epic in my area ?

yep, a family decided to take a short cut in winter weather from my spot out the Rogue River on Merlin-Galice Road 18 miles and then up and over Bear Camp road with snow on the road to in effect over the Coast range and down some 60 miles to Powers and then Gold Beach on the Oregon Coast.

what were these folk thinking ? they got off the main road and went into the hills some 15 miles according to authorities and got stuck, ran out of whatever they had on hand and burned the tires on the car, the wife and kid ? were left with the car and were found while James decided best to set out alone in the frigid cold with lows in the teens at 4500 feet elevation going down what drainage ?, towards the Rogue River. Helicopters and search and rescue have been looking for him for days, and they found sadly his pair of blue jeans in the snow. what is so bothersome is this is a strong indicator of Hypothermia, where the body shuts down makes the brain think the core is too warm and you start to shed your gear, for all we know the guy is somewhere frozen in time completely naked ........

another very inexperienced couple with a possible end, tragic and in unknown territory. Can tell you unless you know our Mtn.s even in winter I would not want to be up there hiking as there are no real landmarks, small elusive canyons with no ending, ridge upon ridge leading to no-where. And people wonder why we call it here the "Platonic Sphere" ...........

they were using an internet map for directions for s short cut over our mountains. 2 centos worth of effort on their part would of saved them hours upon hours of pain

Yes this reall is a sad story, the mom had to breast feed both of her kids one of which was 4 yrs. old. The police are saying that supposedly there were 2 pairs of pants but who knows.

I hope he makes it.

__________________
The war against Russia will be such that it cannot be conducted in a knightly fashion. This struggle is one of ideologies and racial differences and will have to be conducted with unprecedented, unmerciful and unrelenting harshness. -Adolf Hitler

I hope he does too, but if you took one look at our hills even in summer .......... well you get the idea, it is incredibly rugged and not at all tame

Yes!! When I was watching Fox today they showed a clip of the ravine which they were searching. They said that they believed they were looking in the right place. However if it had not been for the jeans well then it would have been like looking for a needle in a hay stack.

__________________
The war against Russia will be such that it cannot be conducted in a knightly fashion. This struggle is one of ideologies and racial differences and will have to be conducted with unprecedented, unmerciful and unrelenting harshness. -Adolf Hitler

CNNhas reported that the body of the man has been located.

__________________
"Stand by to pull me out of the seat if I get hit" - Guy Gibson

they interviewed sheriff Brian Anderson and good young friend of mine for many eon's, we climbed Mt. Hood together back in the 1970's when we both lived in Portland. Brian was a real asset with his team in finding the chap. Brian looked like hell and broke down when interviewed on camera, the kid has such a huge heart for people.

James Kim was found lying face down in the snow in a canyon. rescue attempts by a/c and helicopter were almost put on hold due to the low visibility in the canyon by freezing fog. We are stuck in it thick, wet drippy and cold still.........
Now if the US BLM will act and barricade that wicked paved road with a iron/steel gate system till March. We had naother incident that made world news last year and RV load of a familie who made it out rescued at least they were well stocked. They wanted to go over to the coast as well and had no stinking clue in their journeys where they were headed, and promptly got stuck in a snowstorm that dumped 3-4 feet of the white stuff on them. They remained together and burned the RV almost to the ground and that what was spotted by low flying a/c and saved their butts..........idiots ! later after the heroes welcome in the valley it was found later that the senior members - mom/dad were drug smugglers with an active business of over the border in Cali to Oregon of the meth stuff ....

I just love it here in the Platonic Sphere

Very sad story Erich. I guess it's what happens when people with no local knowledge go out into untamed areas like that. Even so, you'd hope people would at least know basic survival points, such as stay with you're vehicle.

I guess the sadest thing is that it could have been avoided.

__________________
There's no honorable way to kill, no gentle way to destroy. There is nothing good in war. Except its ending.

The word local is superfluious in the above. If you are going to go wandering in the "wilderness" at least watch an episode or two of Survivorman! Come on, while this is truly tragic I have a bit of difficulty mustering any real sympathy for people who are so clueless when faced with an emergancy survival situation.
Is this possibly a Darwin Award nominee situation? Methinks it just may be.

__________________
Truth is stranger than bullshit!

TA, I guess what I mean is unless you know an area like that, have some idea of what the weather is going to be like and so on, stuff like this is bound to happen.

You should try living over here, we don't know what wilderness is. Something I realised on the Canadian prarie and in the rockies this year, in the UK if you ditched me in the middle of nowhere, as long as I had a coat and some water I'd be fine. Out there, unless you have some pretty serious knowledge of the area you're stuffed. Guess it's what happens when people aren't ready for what nature can throw at them.

__________________
There's no honorable way to kill, no gentle way to destroy. There is nothing good in war. Except its ending.

What a tragedy right before the holiday's, shame just a shame....... [img]graemlins/no.gif[/img]

__________________
The war against Russia will be such that it cannot be conducted in a knightly fashion. This struggle is one of ideologies and racial differences and will have to be conducted with unprecedented, unmerciful and unrelenting harshness. -Adolf Hitler

Yes, many people these days have never "roughed it" a day in their lives. Sad.
I grew up in what was the real "Old West." Sierra Vista / Fort Huachuca (aka Sorry Gulch /Fort Hoochie Coochie) 23 miles from Tombstone (yes, that one. Or, as we refered to it The town to dumb to die). I learned from day one how to unditch a car up to its floor pans in sand or even quick sand, how to drive on everything from open range to snow covered mountian tops (yes, southern Arizona has these in the winter). Typically, you carried several shovels, a pick, several jacks of various sorts, two spares, extra water, sand mats, an axe, and at least one firearm.
Maybe that's why I ended up doing Pro-rally (ie rally driving on dirt roads at incredible speeds while trying not to go over some cliff) for a number of years.
Even today my idea of camping is topo maps, "forest roads," and a compass. (one of those "make a left here onto this road"....while the "road" you are on is a boulder strewn overgrown track last travelled 30 years ago) then putting up a tent, scavenging some firewood (or cutting some if necessary) and cooking dinner on a rock because you have no cooking utensils (more room for important stuff like beer that way). Maybe shoot something (ala the Talking Heads song Flowers..."We caught a rattlesnake now we have something for dinner"...been there done that) to round out the meal. None of that whoosy GPS / cell phone crap! Tote either the 12 gauge or for most small stuff a .22. Serious game gets either the 30.06 or Sharps .554 with 550 grain minie balls.
In Canada I'd carry several cases of cigarettes and beer for trade in the remote areas...just a suggestion.... 15 or 20 extra gallons of gas in Jerry cans wouldn't hurt either.
As I've been to England more than once, I'd say camping there is like RV park or US Forest Service "campsite" camping here. Bring the RV or trailer with all the amminites. Hell, they even have toilet paper and you don't have to dig your own latrine! How utterly urban!

__________________
Truth is stranger than bullshit!

T. A. That deepends where you go camping in the UK, go out on Swaledale or the Moores and you can actually do it properly as whilst they aren't exactly wilderness they also aren't RV parks. Same goes for some of the Scots Highlands and bits of wales. The only real thing is that there are very few places where you are more than a days walk from help. Most places though I agree, it's pretty difficult to get out on you're own. Then again, few people think of England as including some areas of the North :wink:

__________________
There's no honorable way to kill, no gentle way to destroy. There is nothing good in war. Except its ending.

?????????? I really question the brains of this family

the signs were posted that the road they were on was closed during the winter months, so not knowing these Bay area folk, guess they don't seem to obey things like this and take chances, and look what it cost them .........

It's getting a bit weird, though - there's just been a 'tornado' about 250yds from where I live. Don't get too many of those in Central London.....

__________________
"Stand by to pull me out of the seat if I get hit" - Guy Gibson

Yeah, I've been keeping an eye on that, what with being from round there myself. No one seems to know where ti came from either.

You're ok though right Martin?

__________________
There's no honorable way to kill, no gentle way to destroy. There is nothing good in war. Except its ending.

well what a crap deal ........ he was so dis-oriented he nearly walked in circles

AN AUTOPSY SHOWS THAT JAMES KIM, THE SAN FRANCISCO MAN WHO DIED IN THE MOUNTAINS NEAR MERLIN, SUCCUMBED TO EXPOSURE AND HYPOTHERMIA.

THE AUTOPSY WAS CONDUCTED THURSDAY MORNING. OREGON STATE POLICE LIEUTENANT GREGG HASTINGS SAYS 35-YEAR-OLD JAMES KIM WAS FOUND, FULLY CLOTHED, ON HIS BACK IN THE BIG WINDY CREEK NEAR THE ROGUE RIVER.

A SEARCH HELICOPTER HIRED BY THE KIM FAMILY SPOTTED KIM'S BODY AT MIDDAY YESTERDAY. IT WAS ABOUT A MILE FROM WHERE HE SET OUT TWO DAYS AFTER HIS WIFE AND TWO DAUGHTERS WERE RESCUED FROM THE VEHICLE, STUCK ON A REMOTE ROAD.

INVESTIGATORS BELIEVE HE TRAVELED ABOUT TEN MILES ON-FOOT. ......... ( what ? )

KIM'S WIFE, KATI, AND THEIR DAUGHTERS FOUR-YEAR-OLD PENELOPE AND SEVEN MONTH-OLD SABINE WERE RESCUED MONDAY.

Fine thanks, Stefan - although I did come home early to check that the roof was still on ; the news bulletins were getting increasingly hysterical.

Slightly O/T but it makes you think - thousands get killed in Iraq, Bangladesh, Turkey or wherever and it just about makes the news. 'Small tornado - six injured' gets almost as much coverage as the outbreak of WWII ; maybe it's because it's about a mile-and-a-half from the BBC's head office....

I suppose the old saying still holds true - 'Dog bites man' = no news. 'Man bites dog'...that's NEWS ....

__________________
"Stand by to pull me out of the seat if I get hit" - Guy Gibson

That's good to hear Martin. It's weird the way smallish things like this are made out to be national emergencies, guess it's just because we don't get them very often.

Now who says climate change isn't happening?

__________________
There's no honorable way to kill, no gentle way to destroy. There is nothing good in war. Except its ending.

It is sunny and 10 C (50 F) here. It is supposed to be -5 C (25 F) and snowing here in this time of year.

__________________

"The victor will never be asked if he told the truth."
A.H.