And I Thought My Life was Rough...Follow

Would have stuck with the family. The more body warmth in the car, the better the chances of survival for everyone. The worst the blizzard could have done was last longer than a week.

Oh, and I never go on long road trips without a fully charged cell phone.. I don't want to trivialize the suffering or plight of his family or anything, but the guy did work for CNET for crying out loud.

This might explain why they gave the 360s HD-DVD addon a 7.5 despite the fact that it isn't HDCP compliant and thus a brick in the making.

I wouldn't have gotten my family lost in the backwoods of Oregon.

In the event that it did happen, however, I would have dismantled the car to make shelter and lived off the land. There must be plenty of hardwood, small and large game in the area. They could have lived for weeks like that!

The guy did everything wrong in the book, whereas his wife did everything right. Every survival guide states you stay by your vehicle and wait it out. The part I don't understand is why he lost his pants...

Totem

A GPS might have been a good idea.

I blame hillbilly yetis.

Yeah, I dunno. From here it looked like a clear mistake; but I wasn't the guy sitting in a car with his wife and two hungry kids four days after getting stuck.

I mean, once you've burned the tires for heat you're going to be thinking, "I've got to get us out of here."

Cold and hunger do weird things to people. I've read that a person who's freezing to death actually feels overly warm at some point, and would tend to try to take off clothing if able. I forget where I read that, now.

From the news reports, I'v heard and read. After a few miles out, after leaving his car and family. Police stated they found bear tracks following his tracks. Perhaps there was a chase. So maybe he knew the bear was after him, and tried to distract his predator by tossing his pants away, then cutting into the woods.

Risky actions if so, or he may have gone nutz from the hunger, cold, and pressure to find help. Either way, a raw way to go. To bad he was a mile from his family.

I would have stayed with the car, the shelter. His wife has breast milk, snow makes water, and they can suck and eat foliage. As well as attemping to hunt.

Also maybe his wife badgered him to go out for help...


edit: I also heard that the family was only found because of an item he dropped accidentally. On his way to find help. So do you think Hero, is a worthy title?



Edited, Dec 8th 2006 6:28am by SothsayerAtlantis

I'm not sure he "accidentally" dropped much. He left stuff in such a way that it would be found - hung onto limbs where it wouldn't get covered with snow, etc.

The pants were originally reported to be one of two pairs he had with him, so I assumed he got wet and changed out of the damp ones and left them as a clue rather than carry them. But I dunno!

They were found because the phone signal, though not strong enough to carry a call, was strong enough to act as a beacon. Also Mrs. Kim got out of the car when she heard helicopters and waved an umbrella, which a search team eventually saw.

What he did was heroic, but stupid. It bothers me that the papers are saying "heroic" without adding a qualifier that this is not the best course of action under these circumstances. All people are hearing about is how brave he was; and he was - but he was also misguided at best.

When we drive to VA, I'm filling the entire car with army rations.

" Why bother stopping, honey? Let's just get there already!"


" I need to go to the bathroom!"

" Are we there yet?!"

Edited, Dec 8th 2006 9:44am by Abadd

If you get it in an audio version you can listen to it while you are trapped in your car.

Right or Wrong I'd have done the same thing, or something similar.

Some of these are assumtions to help explain the mood:

6 days in a car, you've fed your kids all of the crackers and berries.
Your wife is running out of breastmilk because she's starving.
You haven't eaten or slept for days
You're out of gas
You've burned every flammable item you have, including your car tires.
Wood won't light because it's too wet and cold.
Now you're running out of lighter fluid.
You have nothing to hunt with (no tire iron won't help you're not that fast), no tools to make a weapon, and no heat to cook anything you catch anyways.
As far as you know, NO ONE is looking for you.
Snow turns into water...but only if you have heat.
You're not going to eat the snow because you're already freezing.
Now you're watching your children dehydrate, starve and freeze to death.

I'd have started walking LONG before day 6...like day 2 after I realized I couldn't dig the car out, while I still had some strength left, and in the direction I came from so I knew what to expect.

Chances are pretty good that he used his laptop to access MapQuest.

The Rand McNally map has it as a logging road, apparently: