Fumbles, missteps hindered search. On a hunch, local pilot found mother, kids alive.

For four days, as the snowbound Kim family's food supplies dwindled and they used up their gas running their stranded car's heater, no one even knew they were missing.

It was two more days before rescuers narrowed the search to roads leading across thousands of square miles of western Oregon, and another day before cell phone transmissions helped to pinpoint the search area.

While the speed of the investigation in some ways was remarkable -- given what little authorities started out with -- it was dogged by early missteps and obstacles that handicapped investigators.

A Portland hotel where the family had stayed refused to provide credit card records that might have indicated which way the Kims had gone. An early search by air and land of the treacherous mountain route that James and Kati Kim drove out of Grants Pass yielded nothing.

The owner of a lodge on the road where the Kims' car was stuck had told authorities three days before Kati Kim and her daughters were found that he had seen tire tracks in the snow, but he hadn't been able to follow them in his snowmobile once he hit bare ground. No one followed up.

Thanks for the post Poseiden and I do understand where are you are coming from.

Couple of points to clarify:

1) Actually it is BLM responsibility to close and secure the gates - it is their policy and different BLM roads are secured at different points in the year. Stated BLM policy on the road that the Kim's accidentally took was supposed to be closed and locked on Nov 1st.

2) If you think their policy should change you should petition BLM to change it. BLM failed in implementing their policies in this case.

3) I have talked to several locals near the BLM road and most of them have stated there are other ways for hunters, etc to gain "road" access to this area and locking this BLM might be inconvenient for some it certainly does not block access to this area.

I take exception to your comment about technoids...I am one too but I am also quite experienced with the outdoors and survival techniques and quite frankly emergency procedures. Not all geeks are outdoor challenged. I think generalizations - although they provide a comfort zone for some - are a very dangerous thing.

Lastly, I do understand your passion for the outdoors and can appreciate how you feel about accessing the BLM roads. However, in this case BLM failed to implement its policies in this particular location and for no good reason.

The gate was clearly visible all the coast range gates are clearly painted yellow. When I pass a gate in the woods weither its open or closed I know I am entering rough territory. Kim passed clear sign's that said to turn back if their is snow he passed brightly colored yellow gates that should have turned on the light bulb in his head to turn around. Their are thousands of gates in the coast range they get washed away they get vandalized those gates are more of a danger to people in the woods trying to get out of the woods and being locked in than they are to people tring to get into the woods.
Most tragedies occur because of small mistakes adding up to one big mistake Kim made one big mistake immediately and that was not turning around on a unplowed road at the first signs of snow. His mistake was his own. everything after that was just icing on the cake of errors.

Like I said I was a hundred miles north of their around the same time and in one forty minute period it drizzled it hailed it snowed it blew forty mile an hour winds and widow makers (branches) were falling out of nearly every tree and It was a magnificent typical coast range winter and I loved it.

Kims mistakes were his own.

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