I've been following this story really closely also. I'm really sad to hear that he didn't survive. I can relate what he was going through, and believe it or not, I think I would have done almost the same things as he had done. I actually make many of the same "mistakes" that he had made, and will probably continue to do so. I usually don't have a set itinerary, I regularly take backroads whenever possible, and I almost always deviate from my original plan. Honestly, I can't imagine ever doing it differnently. It would be pretty boring to go through life following the same path as everyone else, always following the same routine. Almost all of my memorable experiences have come from deviating from the routine and exploring the unknown. This doesn't mean i go out and take dangerous risks, but I also don't fool myself into think I can be fully prepared for every possible outcome. Nobody can be prepared for EVERY possible scenario, life is about taking calculated risks, if you don't want to feel unprepared you'd probably never leave your house.

About the only difference is I probably carry quite a bit more stuff than he might have in that same situation, and I don't have a family to worry about. If I did have a family, then I would have to adjust some of my priorities accordingly.

In this particular situation, I can almost follow his thinking right down to the moment he got stuck, because I think almost the same way. He was out visiting friends or relatives, and was taking a vacation with his family. On the way back home, he picks up a map (or looks up directions on the internet) and decides to head toward his destination. He may or may not have checked the weather, but decides to take the route shown on his map. I'm still not clear whether he knew that the road was closed for the winter. I'm assuming he probably didn't know, because if he did most likely he would not have continued. Some people have critiqued him for taking a different route, or straying from his itinerary. I'm thinking maybe he just wanted to drive a more scenic route, maybe he thought it was shorter, maybe the map showed it as going through. Either way, I normally don't call friends relatives when I'm on vacation just because I decide I've had a change of plans. I may give an itinerary, but more often than not it's just a rough and very conservative itinerary, because there will always be unforseeable delays and I normally don't like to vacation on a timetable, always trying to keep on schedule, or maybe he just forgot. I do that quite often, so I understand how he could get easily himself into that situation.

Even though some people might not think differently. I think James and his family were reasonably prepared for travel. Why? Because he was able to keep a family of 4 alive for 9 days out in the wilderness. If you were to equate that to a single person, that's over a month worth of surviving (maybe less since two of them were children). I say reasonably prepared, because most people are not thinking of spending a week out in the wilderness while on a family vacation, so to say he didn't have an axe, food for a week, winter clothes, 4 season tent, showshoes, snowmobile, etc.., is being a little too critical (from some other forum's comments I've seen). It's easy to say what we would bring if we were in that situation knowing what we would know now, but how much stuff would people actually take on vacation with them, especially with all of the normal stuff for 2 little kids in a small station wagon? Either way, I would NOT say he was completely UNPREPARED for travel. How many people here think they could keep a family of 4 alive for that length of time with what they normally carry?

After seeing the outcome, everyone would agree that he had made the wrong decision, but it's hard to say what exactly is the right decision in a case like this. Being in that same situation, I think I might also have tried to walk out and look for help. Generally, it is usually a better idea to stay with the car, but I don't think you can make a blanket statement to say you should ALWAYS stay in the car. He was there for 7 days and no signs of rescue, how much longer is he expected stay in the car and just wait while his family is probably close to dying? I'm pretty sure most people in that same situation, not knowing whether people were searching for them, or whether they had called of the search, probably would have done the same thing. Just like that family that was trapped in the RV for 17 days up in Oregon. They stayed put for 17 days, nobody came to rescue them, in fact, I think the searches were called off and they were assumed dead. It was only because 2 of them walked out for help that they were found. In a case like this, there are just too many variables to be able to have a strict set of rules on what should and should not be done. It could have easily been a different story had he found help, or had he stayed with the car and the whole family dies of hypothermia.

In this case it was just a series of wrong (not necessarily bad,) decisions and unfortunate luck. I wish it could have turned out differnetly for the family.