What would I do if I were James Kim???

What would I do if I were James Kim? That question has been in my mind a lot lately, starting with the announcement that he had gone missing, building with the news that his wife and two small children had been found and exploding now with the news that he had been found.

For the record, James Kim was a senior editor for C|Net and was well known in the technical world. He disappeared, along with his wife and two children, recently as they were driving back from Oregon. On the way back, they apparently got lost in the Oregon wilderness, and their car became stuck in the snow. They ran their car until it was out of gasoline to keep warm, then burnt tires for heat and as a signal fire.

Eventually, James left his wife and kids and trekked off on his own in the desolate wilderness to find help. His wife and kids were found in their car, alive and mostly well after being missing for 9 days. James was found yesterday, a very short distance from where he began after her wandered for who knows how long. To see how far he walked, how close he was to his family when he died, and how close they all were to possible shelter, check this link out.

So thats the background. And I am really very sorry for his family at this time, and I hope they will be able to put this tragedy behind them and move on.

What has been on my mind, however, is this question: What would I do if I were in the same situation? That is a macabre question that really has no answer. Ultimately, we will never know how we would react until we are in that situation. Sometimes even the most prepared person will lose in the end because the stress can be overwhelming. Personally, I think I would have fared better than James Kim did, but I still probably would have died for the effort.

I have had wilderness survival training, orienteering training and experience, search and rescue training and other related education. I have even put them to use a time or two, but that was when I was younger, and when I did not have a family whose lives were depending on my success. I can hardly imagine what was going through his mind when he set out. The fear for his kids and wife, the worry, the resolve to save them. He died only a few miles from what could have been shelter. If he had taken a different direction on the road he first started following, he would have quickly found shelter. Hind sight is always 20/20.

So what would I have done? For starters, I can build fires for warmth. He even had lighters, which would have been terribly useful. I also seldom travel without a GPS and Cell phone. I also usually have a Ham Radio, and if I were going to be in the mountains like they were, I probably would have taken along my portable HF radio as well.

I usually also travel with some water and in the winter a blanket or two. Sometimes I have flares as well. While that is all well and good, however, what about food? We would probably starve. And what about dealing with the fear. Fear of death. Fear of letting my family die. Fear of watching them die from exposure, or hunger, right in front of my eyes.

I do not have children, yet. But I know that if I did, I would gladly make the bargain to give my life to save theirs. I would do the same for my wife. So the answer is a no brainer. Sit for so long waiting for help, then try to find it on your own. In survival training, they always say that the safest thing to do is stay right where you are. That is easier said than done when your babies are cold and hungry and there is no end in sight to the ordeal.

I must salute James Kim. He may have died, and he may have broken the cardinal rule of wilderness survival, but he had huge brass balls. He set out to do the only thing a real man could do in that situation: Save his family any way possible.

It is easy to say I would have done blah, and I would have such and such. It's easy to second guess the guy from the comfort of my desk here, or my recliner in the warmth of my home in the middle of yet another mild season in North Carolina. But ultimately, I think I would have done the same thing he did. Set out to save my loved ones. And I probably would have died, just as he did, alone in the cold of the Oregon wilderness.