CNET Editor's body found by Searchers (Update #941)

Dang, you were lucky! I'm a-skeered of power lines.

Four cartons of live bees? That I'd like to hear about.

I'm a PPL, too, not active either. The owner of equipped.org is a long-time friend of mine and a pilot, too. It's a great site.

Thank GOD!

I just heard the family had hired a cellphone expert to do the ping work to triangulate their position... So two things...the family hired the helicopter pilot and the right phone tech to focus the search!

It might work considering they have a likely given radius to work in. But I've never heard of a rescue using the phones chips in that remote of an area. There's a lot of IF's riding on that outcome. If this one works some magazines dealing with amateur radio and scanner monitoring are gonna have some interesting writing for a while.

Kati Kim holds her daughter, seven-month old, Sabine Kim, in the back of a helicopter after they and her other daughter, Penelope, 4, were rescued from a remote area of southern Oregon, Monday, Dec. 4, 2006. They were airlifted to Three Rivers Community Hospital in Grants Pass. James Kim, 35, Kati's husband is still missing.

Kati Kim, right, talks to rescue personnel Monday, Dec. 4, 2006, after she and her two daughters, Sabine, 7 months, in yellow, and Penelope, 4, were rescued in the mountains of southwest Oregon about 35 miles west of Grants Pass, Ore.

Kati Kim, center, of San Francisco, talks with her father-in-law, Monday, Dec. 4, 2006, in Merlin, Ore., after she and her daughters, Penelope, 4, and Sabine, 7 months, were rescued in the mountains of southwest Oregon about 35 miles west of Grants Pass. Four members of the San Francisco family had last been seen Nov. 25. A search continues for the woman's husband, James Kim, police said. Sabine Kim is in a yellow blanket and being carried by a rescuer at right.

In general, that would be most prudent advice. However, Thanksgiving there was a I Shouldn't Be Alive marathon on.

One of the episodes was a skier Dad and his son got caught in a white out at some resort in Turkey. This happened about 3 P.M. and their initial plan of trying to ski down the run next to the chair lift soon went awry and they got themselves thoroughly lost, and on the back side of the mountain to boot.

Dad and his 12 year old boy found a cave and sought shelter there for the night (it gets dark quickly in the mountains anywayhs). Meanwhile Dad's other 8 year old boy was at the base waiting for his dad and brother as the buses are getting ready to take off. By now its pitch black.

The resort left the chairlift music blasting all night, and the snow grooming machines also had the speakers going with music in the hopes that the lost couple would hear the sound and be able to make their way to it. Needless to say they were on the other side of the mountain inside a cave and didn't hear any of that.

The next day it became apparent that there was no telling between a snow drift and a tree covered in snow. 6 or seven days later the search teams disbanded. Only a team of 15 U.S. Special Forces remained engaged on the search. The Colonol of the unit visited the husband's wife and show here hundreds of arial photos of the surrounding area, and told her that we've all but given up hope, and the hope that remains is that of finding a needle in a haystack.

It was at that time that Dad realized they both were going to die in that cave, and so he chose to hoof it down the mountain (leaving his sone behind). At the end of a full day's travel the dad came upon a cabin and decided to hole up there for the night. He took his ski boots off and made a fire in the fireplace. Except that he had frostbite in his feet. And by the next day it was clear to him he wasn't going to be able to get his feet back into his ski boots. He spent another two days and nights in the cabin by himself (his son alone in the cave several thousand feet avove and miles away from him).

On the third day he crawled to the front of the cabin and sought to gather some snow in a coffee pot and a pan in order to make drinking water. As he struggled on the front porch doing this, he heard a commotion from some ways off, and he seen a couple 4-wheeled drive vehicles in a pretty stuck situation, the occupants trying to deal with their predicament. He began to yell, and clang the pot and pan together. All the guys, stood there, mouths agape, and stared. But they knew instantly who he was. He and the boy's plight was major news all over the networks nationwide. The guys was a group of loggers that were returning to their camp after being evacuated because of the snowstorm. After telling them what happened, they hiked up the mountain.

Many many many many many many many hours later the guys returned carrying a huge bundle wrapped in hundreds of blankets. His boy, weak, dehydrated, hypothermic, frostbitten, and hungry, was very glad to see his father again.

The pair were reunited again 12 days after the ordeal began. Nobody would've found either one of the two (probably for years), if but for Dad hoofing it out to go get help. This theme was reiterated several times on Thanksgiving.

The rules for survival are explicite: STOP

Stop, Think, Observe, Plan.

There are only a few fundamentals to wilderness survival. You must maintain your body temperature at or near 98.6 degrees (fahrenheit). Too cold (hypothermia) or too hot (hyperthermia) and you can die. You need to conserve energy. Don't waste it by "doing" before "thinking." Water is vital for your body and mind to function properly. You need both working as good as possible. Finally, remember that your only responsibilities are to stay alive, and if at all possible, make yourself easier to find by actively working at attracting attention to yourself. Shelter comes before fire, fire comes before water, water before food. Nevertheless, and that notwithstanding, sometimes the situation is SO dire, that remaining motionless is certain death. I for one will do ANYTHING whatsoever, so as to avoid a perceived certain death through inaction.

That being said, I believe that prayer would be prudent. As an aside, I believe that the man probably is well equiped: he set out on snowshoes. I don't think he took off in a bathing suit on snow shoes. People dont take up snowshoeing without some sort of training and experience. I believe that what Dad needs at this time are some serious prayers to Jesus, that the Lord's will be done on Earth (as it is in Heaven) and that he will be found before too long. It is my hope that he's not already dead, and that if he's freezing, I pray that the Lord grant him strength not to go to sleep before he is found.

I was a little afraid of a downdraft pushing me into trees or powerlines but nothing of the sort happened. I was at least 500 AGL the whole time and often more.

A coffee tin with tealights can give an incredible amount of heat.

As has been stated earlier in the thread, that road requires adequate preparation even in summer conditions (when you can have a flash flood cutting off access, etc). At least the mother had the good sense to take winter clothes and some preps. Bless her for saving the kids!

We now notify people on both ends of our journey or at intermitent points when we should arrive there. Two ways, cell phones (but not necessarily reliable), flares, mirror.....waterproof matches. In other words, look in a scouting manual.

Three members of missing family found alive

Monday, December 04, 2006

Three members of missing family found alive Three members of a family missing on vacation in Oregon were found alive today in Southern Oregon.

Kati Kim and her two young children, missing since Nov. 25, were spotted by a helicopter crew as Kim and her children were waalking along Bear Camp Road west of Grants Pass at about 1:45 p.m. today.

The helicopter was able to land and lifted them to a Grants Pass hospital. Authorities said they are in good condition at Three Rivers Community Hospital, although one child would be admitted to the hospital.

James Kim, Kati Kim's husband, is still missing. Police say he left the family in their car at 7:45 a.m. Saturday to go for help and had said he would return by 1 p.m.

Additional search crews and resources are being diverted to the area to help try to locate the father. Authorities said they were tracking what they believed to be the footprints of James Kim.

Josephine County Undersheriff Brian Anderson said crews will continue the search through the night, if necessary. Searchers planned to add dog and horse teams Wednesday morning, if necessary, and might deploy searchers on the river.

Authorities said the family apparently got stuck in snow. They had some provisions in the car and managed to keep the heat going until the car ran out of gas. When the gas ran out, the family burned tires to stay warm.

"The three “are in good condition, Kim and the kids” Linda Rankin, vice president for patient care at the hospital, told The Associated Press.
“Mom arrived in an ambulance smiling and waving.”

Nursing supervisor Cynthia Russell told the Associated Press that the mother nursed Penelope, 4, and Sabine, 7 months, while they were lost and that there was no food or water in the car. “They spoke of dad trying berries in the area, but they were not sure if they were poisonous,” she said. The baby will be admitted and the other two will stay overnight in the same room, she said.

The mother had chicken and mashed potatoes and a vegetable, the regular hospital diet, and Penelope had a hamburger and pickles, Russell said.

She said the mother asked for McDonald’s fish filet, “and we’re going to get it for her.”

Oregon State Police Lt. Doug Ladd told the Associated Press that the family was seeking a scenic route to Gold Beach. Roads in the area are commonly used by whitewater rafters on the Rogue River in the summer but are not plowed in winter.

Ladd said there is “a very reasonable chance” that he is still alive and that the family said he had some outdoor experience.

Searchers this morning had focused on an area west of Glendale and north of the Rogue River after determining that the family’s cell phone had triggered a ping on a cell tower near Glendale.

The cell tower on Wolf Peak recorded two pings about 1:30 a.m. on Nov. 26, the morning after James amd Kati Kim and their two young children were last seen in Roseburg, according to Josephine County Undersheriff Brian Anderson.

The Kims' cell phone went through an area covered by the cell tower and received a text or voice message. The tower recorded two pings; each was one second in length separated by four seconds, Anderson said. The area covered by the cell tower extends west from Glendale about 26 miles.

More than two weeks ago James and Kati Kim had loaded their two children in to the car and drove to the Northwest for Thanksgiving. They spent the holiday with family in Seattle, visited friends in Portland, and were scheduled to stop in Gold Beach before returning home.

The Kims own this shop in San Francisco. The couple's worried friends are filling up this guestbook with their thoughts and concerns about the family. And here's a link with more information about the family.

- David Anderson and Noelle Crombie

Really? I had no idea! Thanks for the help!

Nooooooo!!

You have probably noticed that I am not the brightest person on this thread, so please don't give me one word replies.

I have no idea what you mean.

But before you rip me, let me make one more point about aviation frequencies.

When I quit, there were 760 civilian aircraft frequencies.

In the boonies, especially over higher mountains, all aircraft will be on a center frequency. Most communications over center frequencies are fairly cryptic and not very often unless you are pretty close to a terminal area where there will be a lot of descents to and climbs out of the terminal area with the appropriate hand-off calls.

Maye if the crew has flown the same route so many times that they recognize a controller and like him, there might be a little chitchat on a late night run when things are quiet. But the usual communication is something like: "US Air 620, descend to and maintain FL xxxx". And the crew responds "US AIR 620 is out of FLxxx for FLXXX".

And that is it.

So what does this mean? You are sitting in a snowbank with your butt freezing. You hear a jet go over, barely, as he at 30,000 ft. Forget flight levels as I am trying to explain this to a non flier.

Quick, what frequency is he on? Unless you have a Jepp chart of that area, not very likely for the average person stuck in the snow, you have no idea. So while you madly switch from freq to freq, he disappears in the distance.

It is not even likely that he made a communication.

It used to be that a lot of aircraft monitored the emergency freqs., but it is my guess that you could transmit on that all day and not get a taker.

I know when I flew I had one radio set up on the freq I was working and the other radio set up on the next one coming up so a simple flip of the switch had me communicating with the next guy. That took the fuss out of communicating when you had something else going on like switching tanks, reading the radar or trying to find that darn intersection on the map that you were supposed to cross at xxx altitude.

The point being, you only have so many radios. I don't know a lot about airline flying other than traveling under them and trying to keep from being turned over by jet blast, but even with all of their radios, they have the problem of talking to the company in addition to the ATC communications.

So how many of them monitor emergency freqs all day?

I would not count on that.

One more thing. I would never ever use MapQuest for anything other than finding out which side of town that new store is on.

Use something like Delorme Street Atlas and you can look at it and tell what kind of road it is. If you don't like the looks of it, you can ask or choose another route by putting in a rest stop at some point that forces it to choose a better route.

I never have used a Garmin, so I don't know what it would have done for these people.

Where can I get one?

Thanksgiving there was a I Shouldn't Be Alive marathon on. One of the episodes was a skier Dad and his son got caught in a white out at some resort in Turkey.

Hey, I saw that episode! Right after we watched it I told my kids that for Christmas I want a couple of those Magnesium block and sparker firestarters so I can carry one in my car and one in my ski jacket!

Trust me, you key up on 121.5, and they'll find you all right. They'll be R-E-A-L-L-Y unhappy, but they'll find you.

They don't use the chips in the phones for triangulation. As I understand it...

You always have two towers you have contact with (in fact when you drop a call it is because you lost contact with one of the towers).

So they measure the signal from reaching the cell tower...translate the strength of the signal into distance you know you can figure out the point of the call.

In this case they had a ping from the cellphone tracking to one tower. So he probably determined the strength and calculated a radius around the tower to determine the search area.

The big difference is that they weren't tootling around in a large steel manmade object...that helps.

They were also in a third world country..that doesn't

As has been stated earlier in the thread, that road requires adequate preparation even in summer conditions

I'm amazed just reading that. I hope my mom & dad are paying close attention to this story. They've been in OR for about 5 years now, L.A. transplants but they're pretty outdoorsy so they'd drive down these roads with little preparation for anything like what this family went/is going through.

Bless her for saving the kids!

In post 291 (?) I posted an article which said that the mother nursed both of her children while they were lost. God Bless her indeed, and her little ones. Continued prayers their father comes home safe to all of them.

Dunno, tried googling it with an umlaut, nothing in particular came up.