Foo - CNET Editor James Kim found dead

I don't know if some of you were following the story, but they discovered James Kim's body today in the Oregon wilderness. You may recall him as the face of CNET's electronic video reviews - think back and you may remember him introducing to you the new iPod, talking excitedly about the latest Iriver, or taking a look at the newest Creative.

He and his family (wife, two small daughters) had been stranded and missing for nine days in the snow after a wrong turn down a closed highway. They used the heater to stay warm, and when the car ran out of gas they burnt tires for heat as well as for signal flares. He had fashioned a siphon to draw gas from their car in order to make a little more heat. When no help came by the ninth day James set off on foot through the snow to find help, promising to return by 1 pm if no one was to be found. That was the last they saw of him.

Mrs. Kim kept the daughters fed by breast-feeding them, and was finally rescued two days later by a search helicopter. The search effort went on for James.

In the past two days they had found a trail of clues in the form of extra articles of clothing he had left for trackers as he continued on searching for help for his family. This morning rescue workers dropped care packages in strategic locations where thermal imaging had showed 'hot spots' that were likely where James had been. The packages contained a sweatshirt, sweatpants, food, lights, hand warmers, signal flares, and a letter from James' father pleading him to return safely home.

They found him today at noontime. He was found lying in a forest river seven miles from the car.

In my mind, he was truly a hero. In the end, he sacrificed his life and body in exchange for a little more chance that his family would be safe. The part that really gets me teared up the most is knowing that he died hoping but without truly knowing that his wife and daughters were okay. I will really miss him. I've never been so saddened by the death of a guy I only knew and saw through the internet before.

RIP James Kim. He was 35 years old.

http://www.cnet.com/

Yeah I heard when I was in the shower. I feel really bad for his family but this could've been very preventable.

A car is not a tank, it will get stuck in the snow, even if it's a volvo. And where was his emergency kit in the car? Hell I have a kit at home packed into a small backpack that'll allow me to sustain myself for at least a week w/o food if I have a source of water, well into the months if I have a source of food too. Maybe I'm paranoid but if I had a family, I wouldn't go anywhere without being prepared, especially not into a full blown snow storm.

I used to go to cNet a lot for advice and reviews so he'll be missed.

Sad,sad, sad! They always say to stay with your car, in this case it was good advice. Don't know what I might do in the same circumstance. The best thing is to stick to the main roads in winter, they may look less direct, but they will get you there. Even in summer the back roads are hard to follow and SO remote, they are paved for log trucks, and give the wrong impression to tourists, they go into the deep forests. (pretty sweet for cycling in the summer)

I feel so sad for the family.

Yeah, that's pretty messed up for the family. But after 9 days, I'd be thinking they'd given up looking if they even knew to look. This is tough for the family especially around the holidays.

That's gotta be a tough one for his family. They waited for six days. He leaves to find help and they get rescued.

It's odd that he hiked down the road for a couple miles, then went off the trail down into a ravine. I suppose perhaps he thought he could shortcut to the road on the other side, but it looks like on the maps that it was about 2 more miles away, in deep snow, with almost no food for a week, and on bad terrain.


Maybe I'm paranoid but if I had a family, I wouldn't go anywhere without being prepared, especially not into a full blown snow storm.

He showed a mix of good and bad judgement in this kind of situation. He stayed with the car as long as he thought they could hold out, but he tried to push through a bad road (the road is not maintained at all in the winter), and when it got worse, he went down a side road instead of turning back. I won't fault him for it, because it's a tough call in those situations and it's easy to be overconfident in our modern world, but this really could've been avoided.

As a side note, his family mentioned that the lack of maintanance on the road they went on, after missing the highway they originally intended to take to the coast, were poorly marked. This death will probably change that. I remember a similar case last year, where a family was stranded in that area in their RV, but held out for a week because they did have supplies. I couldn't say if it was the same road or not.

I live about 20 miles from the area they were stranded. That is a maze of roads up there, and I wouldn't even think about going up there in the winter. The road is a route to the coast on the map, but its really not a good way to get there, even in summer. They should just close that road in the winter. This is what it looks like in summer on the rogue river in that area.

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f392/mcoine/IMG_0337.jpg

I knew something was bad when multiple people started calling and sending text messages at the same time. :(

I only had the opportunity to speak with him a couple of times, but he appeared to be a true, genuine guy.

RIP James.

Really tragic story.

It must have been terrible for the guy to die alone, not knowing if his family was going to survive. I first heard about it when the family was rescued and sadly I was correct in thinking that he was a goner when the story told of him going off to look for help. :(

He's probably in Heaven looking down. He knows his family is safe.......:)

thats unbelievable, he went to get help and hes the one who ended up needing help :(

It must have been terrible for the guy to die alone, not knowing if his family was going to survive. . :(

I think you are correct. The mental anguish of leaving his family in peril was probably worse to Mr. Kim than death itself. What a sad and tragic story for all. Who knows, maybe Mr. Kim went to heaven and helped guide the rescue team to his family.

The lesson here is to stay with the ship. Most survivors are found near the plane, car, ship that goes down no matter how much time passes.

This story has some strange aspects, though:

First, why would Mr. Kim go off into the forest rather than simply walking the road back?

Second, why would he take his pants off? I have been in the snowy mountains and taking of one's pants is a very un-natural thing to do. I know there is some thought that Mr. Kim was trying to leave a trail - but taking off his pants just doesn't seem the thing to do even if he was delirious. I almost froze to death once and I would have never taken clothes off anywhere through the experience. In fact, once you are that cold, you can't move your fingers to undo buttons, zippers, etc to remove clothes even if you want to.

Finally, how did he end up in the river? He is freezing to death and facing a liquid ice river. No matter what his dedication to the cause, fording that river would not make sense unless he saw something worth crossing it for. I can tell you that when you are cold and standing at the banks of swirling freezing water, everything about it says stay away. You don't even want to be close to the water because it feels extra cold.

There may be more to this story coming. Some things just don't make sense.

Whatever the whole circumstance is, this is all sad. Let us pray for Mr. Kim and his surviving family.

What I'm reading here is that he had on slacks over jeans, it was the slacks that he took off, they think to serve as a marker. He must have became hypothermic, in advanced stages of hypothermia your brain tricks you into thinking your too warm and victims often want to shed clothing. As far as falling in the water, if he was very hypothermic his coordination would have been very bad, stumbling into the water could have been a result, he may have been trying to cross the stream and slipped. That would have been all she wrote for the poor guy. The woods up there are very dense, terrible place to be lost and cold. Rules to avoid hypothermia, stay dry, eat and drink plenty, layers of clothing, stay awake if you are not warm. In other words, be VERY prepared for the conditions you may be experiencing, over kill is never a bad idea in the mountains in winter.

Actually going to the river was smart. It is lower altitude, so it was warmer. You have to realize, we are talking about southwest oregon, its not that cold at lower altitudes. Look at the picture above, last week there was snow on the tops of those hills, but not at the river. Also, the rogue river would have led him back to town. There is a maze of roads out there, but the river is a sure bet to get back to town. He may have even found some salmon to eat.

Shelter, if you can't stay warm, you won't survive the night. Water, without adequate amounts, you won't survive the end of the week. Food, without adequate amounts, you won't survive the end of the month.

I guess one should never be too overconfident in our modern amenities.

The only consolation is, by the time advanced hypotermia set in, he was in no state of mind to consciously worry about dying alone or anything.

It is a tragic story. I think Kim was heroic.

yeah it got me teared up too.
I heard that he is the reason why they found his family. His foot prints is what lead them to his wife and kids.

This story makes me so sad.

The coverage I read made it sound like if he hadn't left the car, the family wouldn't have been found because it wasn't until he left the car that his cell phone was able to be tracked by the towers, thereby giving searchers a general area to look for the family. I hope he knows that his efforts to find help weren't in vain, wherever he is now.

RIP James Kim. :(

yeah it got me teared up too.
I heard that he is the reason why they found his family. His foot prints is what lead them to his wife and kids.

His foot prints didn't lead to anything, they were most likely wiped out by subsequent snowfall. But it makes for a more emotional story should they decide to spin that side of it.
The reason why they found him was a cell phone technician figured out that he had received a couple of text messages, they triangulated the acknowledgement from the phone and figured out a general area where the signal could've come from. Then the tech (who was an avid fisher in the area) narrowed down the possible roads that were drivable in the area.

It angers me that he most likely did die in vain in a tragedy that was so preventable.

His foot prints didn't lead to anything, they were most likely wiped out by subsequent snowfall. But it makes for a more emotional story should they decide to spin that side of it.
The reason why they found him was a cell phone technician figured out that he had received a couple of text messages, they triangulated the acknowledgement from the phone and figured out a general area where the signal could've come from. Then the tech (who was an avid fisher in the area) narrowed down the possible roads that were drivable in the area.
well that's what they said on the news this morning, I think good morning america said that too, sorry if i had the wrong informations

well that's what they said on the news this morning, I think good morning america said that too, sorry if i had the wrong informations

Well it makes it sound better, I know if I died, I'd want the media to portray me as heroically leading the children to safety, rather than running wildly down the hallway knocking over old women and children before tripping down the stairs and knocking myself unconsicous in the burning building (which would be more likely to happen).

The only consolation is, by the time advanced hypotermia set in, he was in no state of mind to consciously worry about dying alone or anything.

I can tell you from experience that when advanced hypothermia, your mind is still working. You might be disoriented and lose your motor skills, but you keep thinking even as you start passing out. Mr. Kim surely knew he was dying, but he was most probably not afraid of it. He also was almost certainly thinking of the people he was leaving behind. Sad all the way around.

If you still had your pants on, you weren't going through advanced hypothermia. Your mind is so shot you can't even tell whether you're freezing or burning up. By the time you're at the point of cardiac arrest, you're pretty much like a drunk.

There's freezing to death slowly and rapidly. I think what you experienced was more of the slow kind, where you keep your pants on.

We had similar case not far from Eugene yesterday in the Cascade mountains, tourist from east coast looked at a map and saw a short cut to Crater Lake and took it. He got to the snow level and kept going until he got stuck. What is wrong with people???? poor judgement seems to be rampant. This guy rented a 4WD, no chains, I guess he thought he could go anywhere. He walked back in his tire tracks until he got a cell signal, called 911, and local volunteers went up and saved his dumb a$$.

Note to all people in the US: Oregon/Washington/California mountains get snow, it comes early and stays late into spring, it gets deeper as you climb in elevation (up the hill), you will most likely NOT be able to drive through it, even with 4WD, no one will be out there to help you, your cell phone will not work in most of these areas, your chances of survival are very poor if you take a short cut in winter. Stay on major roads, ask locals if you are not sure about a route. We like visitors, we don't want you to have a bad outcome, it makes us feel bad.

sad story... but i had a feeling the guy wouldn't be found alive. I was amazed any of them were found...incredible, but now they have to deal with his death. But at the very least, the kids were saved and that was one less tragedy.

Darwinism at work.

Darwinism at work.Not really. He had two kids.:rolleyes:

..a short cut to Crater Lake and took it. He got to the snow level and kept going until he got stuck..

This is my truck at Crater lake a few years ago. I didn't take the shortcut though. Crater Lake gets 40 feet of snow every year on average.


http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f392/mcoine/foto16.jpg

And the snowblower that cleared the road:

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f392/mcoine/foto17.jpg

And the road in:

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f392/mcoine/foto19.jpg

Darwinism at work.
Why don't you crawl back into your hole VagasVitriol.

To everyone who has something to prove of themselves by using the power of hindsight in this story I say get a life.

To everyone who has something to prove of themselves by using the power of hindsight in this story I say get a life.

What power of hindsight? People have been getting lost and freezing to death for ages. If you've just discovered this and consider it hindsight to you, then I guess you've learned something new. For the rest of us, it's not hindsight, it's common knowledge.

And to go into a snow storm, on a deserted road, in conditions your car has a 50/50% chance of handling, without proper emergency equipment, with your whole family in the car, is... even if you don't use any hindsight, what would you call it? Lunacy?

No one disputes the fact that this is tragic but I am angry that someone who's so smart can show such a lack of judgement (the road to hell is paved with good intentions).

Should we all go "get a life", see the best of ourselves in this man, that we can go beyond the limits of preparedness, equipment, and common sense without fail? Or take heart and learn something from this man's mistake? Or at least admit that he made a mistake to begin with?

So, so tragic :( I'm sorry the family suffered through so much but I'm glad at least the mom and the kids made it ok.

Seems that people often underestimate the mountains around here. It's no joke and logging roads are as confusing as can be. It can be dangerous even in summer.

Wow, that is sad. Its hard to know that he went off to find help, but his family was found. At least someone was saved.

As far as slvoids points go, I have to agree with what he is saying. Yes, of course it is tragic but at the same time what he did was not the smartest of things. He could have prepared himself for what he was about to do, and also have some sense in what he was doing. Of course in situations like this there are so many "Shouldve, couldve, what ifs" that could be said.

If you still had your pants on, you weren't going through advanced hypothermia. Your mind is so shot you can't even tell whether you're freezing or burning up. By the time you're at the point of cardiac arrest, you're pretty much like a drunk.

There's freezing to death slowly and rapidly. I think what you experienced was more of the slow kind, where you keep your pants on.

Well, my friend who was with me at the time froze to death and he had his pants on. That is for sure and I am pretty sure that is what you call advanced hypothermia.

I knew I was freezing and not burning and so did my friend. Mostly, our body started shutting down and we eventually could not move. Your legs just stop moving and you fall to the ground; conscious but unable to move. You can still move your torso, but not your legs and not your arms. Eventually, you get tired of fighting it and end up just laying there. It started with our extremities and worked inward. Eventually, we were paralized. When you are laying there freezing, you get a headache, you get dizzy, but your mind still works. You still think about things. Oh, AND you don't take your pants off. I will say this, however, once you are frozen nearly to the end, it doesn't hurt any more. It is not so scary all of a sudden. Probably, freezing is the best way to go.

Some replies really don't hit the mark. And the comment about 'darwinism' I seriously resent. Because there was a lot of emotion involved in this story, and I'm personally still devastated over the loss. I still miss him, as little as I personally knew him. Those who point blame or speak 'knowledge' behind the anonymity of the internet ought not to be so quick with assuming what they know about the actual story.

James was ultimately found in a river with no life-threatening injuries, apparently having succumbed to hypothermia. He was fully clothed.

For those interested in a more detailed account of what happened, though, I've posted the latest news story. CNET.com. http://news.com.com/James+Kim+died+of+hypothermia%2C+autopsy+reveals/2100-1028_3-6141886.html

An old podcast by James Kim. I teared up listening to this. http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-11455_7-6457370-1.html?tag=cnetfd.pdcst

:(

I rode 2004 cycle oregon and the Day 2 route was along the Rogue River not far from where they found James' body. In fact, if you read the detailed account given by his wife Kati, the town of Galice, incidentally our lunch stop that day, was James destination following a creek through the wilderness (which he thought was the Windy Creek but actually Rogue River).

Tragically and unbeknownst to him, Galic was 15 miles through some of the most wild, scenic river in this country and not the 4 mile straight shot it seemed from their Oregon map. He never made it the Rogue River, but instead succumbed on the Windy Creek tributary about a mile from reaching the Rogue River.

Here is a amazing map showing James path from the car.

http://www.layoutscene.com/james%2Dkim%2Dpath/index.html

Ironically, there was a lodge in the upper right on the rogue river but is closed in winter. The right fork where they parked the car led to the lodge down a steep road but they had no way of knowing that. Page 3 of the link shows the 2000 feet elevation change.

Even if he made it to the Rogue, he would travel 5 miles along the river to reach Merlin-Galice Road which undoubtedly would have involved water crossings. Another 5 miles leads to Galice. Here is a picture from my disposable camera at one of the numerous bridges criss crossing the Rogue just upstream of Galice. Sorry for the photo quality but it was my pre-digital days.

http://img376.imageshack.us/img376/9633/00707ee9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img452.imageshack.us/img452/2966/00505fo2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

The river is low flow because of September dry season but it would have been cold and probably swiftly running from the snow melt and would have been treacherous and freezing cold this time of year. If you've seen the movie rafting movie River Wild with Keven Bacon and Meryl Streep, it was filmed in this area and the sheer cliffs and walls would make it almost impassable on foot in good weather conditions.

http://news.com.com/James+Kim+died+o...3-6141886.html



Wow, those photos really show the situation well. You can almost see James' thinking pattern. He probably realized that walking the road could take days, so in desparation, he decides to bushwhack. His logic must have been to follow the river to some kind of civilization - a sound strategy in most cases.

Ten miles later, mostly on an empty stomach, he collapses. I am willing to guess that in his haste, he might have worked up a sweat. Perhaps that is why he abandoned some clothes. Then, all sweated up, he may have started to cool down too fast.

The really terrible thing is that he was SO CLOSE to Black Bar Lodge. If he had just rounded the corner maybe four more city blocks of walking downstream, he probably would have seen it. The sight itself would have given him the vigor to make it. The lodge was closed, but I would like to imagine he could somehow get in and recharge his batteries and get oriented, maybe even make a phone call. So close. He was so close. Never give up.

Probably, freezing is the best way to go.

I would think something unexpected, quick and however painful but brief would be the way to go.

Thanks for the photos and the link, PedalMasher. The road James' car was on is the main access road from Galice to Agness, right? That's a fairly harrowing road, even in the summer. It was closed when we were last there 2 or 3 years ago due to rockslides, and that was in July.

There's a good hiking trail along the length of the Rogue, but at the point where Windy Creek hits the Rogue, the trail's on the other side of the river. Probably covered with snow, too.

We get into these kinds of areas all the time and I've never considered carrying an emergency kit. But then, we usually have coolers full of food and all our camping gear with us, and we know the area pretty well. The emergency kit is advice well taken, though.

Not really. He had two kids.:rolleyes:

You know what, at this point I think VegasVic is just doing it on purpose.

He just sets himself up for a pwnage and he gets off of it.

Thanks for the photos and the link, PedalMasher. The road James' car was on is the main access road from Galice to Agness, right? That's a fairly harrowing road, even in the summer. It was closed when we were last there 2 or 3 years ago due to rockslides, and that was in July.

There's a good hiking trail along the length of the Rogue, but at the point where Windy Creek hits the Rogue, the trail's on the other side of the river. Probably covered with snow, too.

We get into these kinds of areas all the time and I've never considered carrying an emergency kit. But then, we usually have coolers full of food and all our camping gear with us, and we know the area pretty well. The emergency kit is advice well taken, though.

The car was not on Bear Camp Road. The latest information is they took a spur road BLM 34-8-36 that was gated November 1st, but vandals had cut the chain and opened the gate. In the snowstorm, they obviously inadvertently took this turn.

I have a detailed Oregon atlas and traced their route and they ended up 15 miles north of this turnoff. So they drove quite a while on this twisty road with many logging road spurs. The map link only shows about the last 5 miles of their route, none of which was one Bear Camp Road. The turnoff was the high point, so as they drove further from Bear Camp the conditions got better (more rain, less snow) as they descended that's why they got stuck when they finally tried to turn around. The snow was to deep to turn around, climb up to the high point, and back down even if they could have followed their tracks back to Bear Camp without taking other wrong turns.

An overshadowed survival story last week is too unbelievable to be true. A man survived too weeks in his jeep after driving 33 miles down a logging road near Mt. Adams, Washington. Apparently, this guy got stuck and decided to wait until morning to help himself, but snowed 8 feet overnight and his vehicle was almost totally buried. Here's the story.

http://www.theolympian.com/130/story/54595.html

I've got a coworker who for no good reason spends about 36 hours w/o any food or water every week. He literally eats dinner, goes to bed, goes to work, does everything he does in a normal day, goes to the gym, goes home, and wakes up, then eats and drinks again once a week. It's absolutely insane but he said when he was in russia they used to be able to go for a week on what amounted up to a few power bars.

I can't go for 36 minutes w/o food and water.