real life survival story?

[280plus]

I heard he made it 8 miles. That's pretty amazing. He had a lot of determination.

Good point on the wait or go. I'd say if you know where you are, you know how to get where you're going and it's not overly far, you go. Otherwise stay. The decision has to be made immediately I'd say. Don't wait till your already half frozen and starved before you set out.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

If you have water and shelter where you are, and if you're in an easy area for rescuers to locate you, then it's generally a stupid idea to leave. 

Yeah, it's impressive that he managed to travel 8 miles before succumbing.  It woulda been more impressive if he'd stayed put for a couple of days and survived. 

[Ron]

8 miles in rugged country in the cold.

He was probably seriously dehydrated and didn't even know it. Not to mention no food = no calories to burn in the internal furnace.

Unfortunately we all (I hope) learn from his mistake.

[280plus]

Yea, we don't want to lose anybody around here. We're not done arguing with you yet. 

[meinbruder]

If you have water and shelter where you are, and if you're in an easy area for rescuers to locate you, then it's generally a stupid idea to leave. 

Yeah, it's impressive that he managed to travel 8 miles before succumbing.  It woulda been more impressive if he'd stayed put for a couple of days and survived. 

There were a couple of interesting comments today on the radio.  The autopsy indicated that he had been dead for two days before being found.  That would indicate he stayed with the car for four or five days.  I suppose they hoped for rescue and he went looking for help in desperation. 

He was supposedly found in line of sight of some sort of privately owned hunting lodge.  I wonder if he knew it was there and tried to get in?  I'll be curious to hear more detail on the lodge.
}:)>

[280plus]

I'm still baffled actually. I just saw another film clip, this one was of the car where it sat. Looks like there was plenty of burnable brush and whatever all around it. Makes no sense to me.

[Ron]

Wow, that is some bad bad country to be stuck in. This link shows the area and his path.

http://www.layoutscene.com/james-kim-path/index.html

[Ron]

One of the pics from the above link.

[Cosmoline]

He must have figured he could get back to town by following the rivers. 

[gunsmith]

I saw a brief pic on the news of the stranded car, right in front of them was a big dead tree just waiting to be turned into fuel.
I bet if you used the car somehow to move the tree there would be plenty of disgusting crawling things
to roast and eat.
What is that green stuff that grows on the south side of trees? It probably doe not taste good but you can most likely eat it.
Are there birds of prey in the Oregon wilderness? why not steal a squirrel from a nearby  hawk?
A coyote or a fox is no match for a grown man, I'd take their food too.
there had to something around there, birds,bugs,squirrels,all those down trees are probably filled with bugs.

"A good rule is not to pass up any reasonable food sources if we are ever in need. There are many dead men who, through ignorance or fastidiousness did"
Bradford Angier, How To Stay Alive In The Woods

[Hawkmoon]

It's astonishing the way some supposedly-intelligent people think.

I remarried a few years ago. My hobby is Jeeps and all my vehicles since 1988 have been either Jeep Cherokees or Jeep Comanche pickups. I made it a point to equip each vehicle with a small emergency tool kit, and some basic survival stuff, such as a wool blanket, a couple of "space" blankets, first aid kit, survival knife, etc. When I remarried, I turned the newest Cherokee over to my new wife and I kept on driving Old faithful. The first thing my wife did was to remove ALL the emergency and survival gear from the Jeep because it didn't look "neat."

Then we went to visit her family in South America. Picked up a used Kia Sportage to get around in down there. So we set off, in a USED vehicle of unknown condition, for an 1800 mile trip across a freakin' desert -- and she refused to let me pack a quart of oil or a gallon of water! Guess what used vehicle broke down in the freakin' desert before the end of the first day?