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how very tragic. my heartfelt condolences to his family and friends.
and how very tactless to call him stupid. to sit helplessly while your family freezes … the urge to do something, ANYTHING must have been overwhelming.
I realize this is the internet, where uncouth behavior is the norm, rather than the exception, but to rip into the man for trying to save his family is just beyond the pale.
For a tech guy, I’m surprised he didn’t have a portable GPS and a cell phone to get some help to him.
Wow.. thats a hard way out.. my condolences to the family.
God we’ll miss him.
I’m not going to say what he did was the wrong decision but coming from someone with a lot of experience in winter camping you never leave the car. You start a signal fire and stay with your car. Also if you are in a group you never separate stick together if at all possible. If camping and are lost stay in one spot don’t go wandering around. The more you move the more area the searchers have to cover. Do your best to have a signal fire going.
Always stay with the car or plane. If lost, don’t try to hike out, instead, hunker down with lots of attraction-getting signs. Always leave word or a note as to your intentions. With water, I know adults will have at least a month or two. (Though cold could change that.)
But exhausted and scared and with internal resources used up and watching your family suffer; no rescue within the time you might have expected. No way of knowing if people can even figure out where you might be. Strength decreasing daily. I can see how someone might feel they had to do something. There are plenty of stories of people who did just that, and good thing too. And even more sad stories for having done so.
I think of James as a hero in the same way bona fide war heroes are heroes for up and doing unsound things for the possible benefit of the rest of the troops.
RBG
#2, that’s not too cool. If you know anything about those who run this site, TwiT, Tech TV, etc then you should know that you are disrespecting their good friend. With your attitude, it’s only fitting that you be “number 2”
Get some heart.
Would ofs, could ofs, should ofs don’t mean squat. James was thinking of his family and he parished in that act, plain and simple, now it is time for us to pray for his family and their loss.
# 26 captures the spirit of the matter. RIP james
#38. Ive been a fan for several years since Tech Tv and I know quite a bit about all of them plus I listen to many of the podcasts as well. I feel sorry for the guy but he didnt exactly have good common sense in his desicion to leave.
#2 and #41. It’s easy to be the armchair quarterback, isn’t it?
James Kim is a hero and his loss is a tragedy to his family and friends.
So sad. We truly have lost one of our own today, I have been watching James since the TechTV days. He was a reporter on Fresh Gear and I always liked his Cnet reviews. My heart goes out to his family and friends.
The TWIT army is with you….
42 – He’s a hero? No… he’s a tragedy.
It’s not about being an armchair quarterback – its about recognizing a bad decision. He made one, albeit for brave reasons, and now he’s dead.
It’s very sad, and hopefully his death can be turned into a reminder for everyone to not go somewhere unprepared.
I don’t care what anyone says. I am sure James was saying if we are all going to die I have to do something. Anything. Let them stay here and be some what warm. I am going to do what ever it takes to get them safe. I would do the same thing. I would stay with my family until I felt there was no other option. Then I would leave them to attempt to find help.
James will be missed by a great many people. To me James is a Hero. He is a great Man. He attempted to save his family, and any of you out there with children know that you would do the same thing if pressed. If you saw your children shivering and hungry, your wife breast feeding your children to keep them from starving (and in so doing depleting her own body) you would need to do something. Rest In Peace James.
Thanks you Gregory, well said.
James would have appreciated this:
“The key to finding them, police said, was a “ping” from one of the family’s cell phones that helped narrow down their location.”
http://tinyurl.com/yep3qj
RBG
My condolences to James’ family.
Condolences to the family. There is no cell service in that area. They had to boost the local cell tower’s power so they could see if they could get a ping off the cell phone. I am sure they guy tried using the cell phone to call out. There are a lot of places in Oregon that don’t have cell service.
I bet after a week he was getting hypothermic and very low blood sugar and so he might not have been thinking clearest and thus struck off on his own.
Tragedy, sheer tragedy.
At least give James Kim the honor of not starting up a debate in here over his death. This is the last thing his family and friends need to read.
I’m sure John and others are too pre-occupied with this occurrance right now to even look at this blog.
My sincere condolences to James’ family and friends. This is not the ending to the story we were all looking for.
He did the best he could for his family. Whether he made the right decision is debatable but he will be missed. I am very sorry for this outcome and see little point in second guessing him. I am guessing that the way he saw it, if he did not do something, it was highly probable that his family (his daughters at the very least) would have frozen to death. Had that happened, had he sat there for weeks and watched his children freeze to death and done nothing, I think the same people who are saying he should have stayed in the car would be criticizing him for doing just that. It is easy to Monday morning quarterback him but, as some have already said, but for an enterprising cell company employee, they might still be out there. Given that the children were already suffering from severe frostbite, I trhink the outcome could have been far worse. Perhaps Mr. Kim realized this and decided to take his chances. I think that he was probably less concerned about his own survival than he was improving the odds of survival for his wife and children. This back and forth argument about whether he should have stayed in the car or left is pointless. A good man did the best he could to try to save his family. He died and it is a tragedy. End of story.
49. Did they get a “ping” as #47 link says? What I was thinking is that someone had a mobile cell signal receiver to detect the cell ping. Such a thing must exist given it’s obvious usefulness as a location device. The cell signal would be used as a local location transmitter. Possibly enhanced with a searcher’s mobile transmitter.
RBG
Damn it, I look(ed) up to him as a fellow geek, now there is one less. My heartfelt sympathy to the Kim family.
This is just crazy sad.
My heart goes out to his family for their loss. This is a sad day.
Lets leave the hind sight and debate to another day and just say fare well to another human being that has left us way to soon.
This is incredibly sad. After seeing him on TV it’s almost like he’s family. My heart goes out to his wife and family and all the Tech TV family who are mourning his passing.
This is a time for compassion. I got interested in survival when I was told in 1976 that 98% of Americans would not survive if they were dropped off in the wilderness 25 miles from home. Jim was a bright and courageous guy who simply didn’t know the proper course of action to survive. He may not have known and understood how dangerous his trip was, being a stranger to snow and wilderness. If you think you are part of the 2% that would survive you should be smart enough not to make rude remarks when a good man dies trying to save his family.
The world is less without him.
As they (sort of) used to say on Hearts of Space at the end of every broadcast: “Safe journey, James, wherever you are…..” He will be missed.
Well these posts sadden me quite a bit. I was a boyscout, an eagle scout, and am currently a first responder/EMT with a local Vol. FD.
Think of it this way, you are without food or a viable source of water so you make due for 7 days and then no help has yet to come, sadly you have a choice to make, stay and starve to death or retrace your steps. Sadly he must have slid into some water somewhere and this caused the hypothermia to set in.
James is a hero for doing what he had to do in an attempt to save his family knowing in his mind that they more than likely had only 3 to 4 more days left until the end.
People that are playing arm chair quarterback on this message board are sad sad people and I can only hope if you where ever faced with a situation as James was you would have maybe 1/4 the cajones that he had. Don’t forget the reason his family survived is due to his outdoor survival knowledge, he wasn’t just an average SF computer reporter with no experience. I can see 60% of the people here passing away after the gas ran out in their car…
Give me a break.
56,
No…Im sorry , but NO.
you must experience all of what life has. Even sitting behind a computer, pluggling away, you should learn a few other things about life.
I will not debate this. but you MUST learn the basics if Life and how to survive FIRST, and foremost.
Im sory for the incedent.
Im sorry their car broke down on a back road to the coast when he was 10 miles from one that was probably Clear, Im sorry that he couldnt read a map, im sorry he didnt keep to the road when venturing out to find help. Im sorry he dint Go sooner when he had energy to Get someplace. Im am sorry.
He shouldnt have been there, he shouldnt have broken down, he shouldnt have taken a back road, there are to many shouldnt’s…
He made choices and the Dice didnt roll his way.
Good luck, and good voyage..
How about this to all the idiots on this thread that keep saying a bunch of BS: Just STFU and just give the family your condolences. No one cares what you think about him leaving to find help blah blah blah. Does this make you all feel superior to, as one poster put it, to armchair quarterback his decisions or teach us a lesson?
Hey, justify your ramblings all you want. It still comes down to the old saying: “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all”.
Rest in peace James.
My sincere condolences to the family and friends.
My sincere condolences to his family.
Looking at the location on Google Earth or MS Virtual Earth, you can tell they were seriously lost and unfortunately, nothing but wilderness for miles and miles.
After a week in the car with nothing left to burn for heat, two small kids starving and freezing, who knows what any of us would have done.
I’m glad his wife and kids made it out alive, at least.
peace,
Tormod in Stockholm