I have been more or less offline these past few days with my laptop in the shop, but I found a wrapup of the James Kim story at my local blood donation center today, after my appointment. There was some mention of it on a news roundtable on the radio today, with some reporters relating they were hearing both sides, that Kim was a hero or a unprepared fool. Interestingly, one panelist, stationed here from the Netherlands, said she didn’t realize when she came that you could die in the wilderness: they don’t have any wilderness in the Netherlands. But someone within driving distance of real wilderness should know better.
The story isn’t pretty. When you read passages like:
They passed signs warning Bear Camp Road may be blocked by snow but kept going. At times James Kim stuck his head out the window to see through the falling snow,
I can’t help but be infuriated. Maps are important, but common sense is more so. I mourn the loss the family must feel but a cascade of mistakes — missing the turnoff and not turning back to the known route, following seasonal roads in the off-season, turning off the seasonal roads, driving in unsafe conditions, and finally leaving the car (cars are always found, and the car was located before his body was)– all of which were avoidable, make me hope someone else learns from this.
The vandals who enabled the Kims to travel that road — someone cut open a gate — are partly to blame, but there were a lot of choices that could have been made differently. And that made the difference.
More, better-written, and to the point commentary here.