Trying to salvage some good from the loss of James Kim....

From what I remember from Boy Scouts, this is what usually happens if you're not careful in keeping your wits about you:

Kim apparently traveled in an 8-mile circle and was found less than a mile, separated by a sheer cliff, from where his family's station wagon got stuck in the snow.

IIRC, it's because one leg is stronger than the other (we all have this problem), so your path is not straight. You have to constantly re-orient yourself in order to correct this.

The bad thing was that he had no food for several days and then tried to hike out in jeans, jacket, tennis shoes, and no hat. It's not easy to keep your wits about you when you're low on energy and losing lots of heat through your uncovered head. It's hard to make just 10 miles in good snow in one day before the night cold makes you stupid (James took off his pants near the end) and then kills you.

Apparently, they took a day trip in with their car and then got stuck in the snow. The rhyme I remember being taught for that is: "Use two-wheel drive to get into trouble, use four-wheel drive to get out of trouble". But, if you don't have four-wheel drive, you've got to dig yourself out.

Looking around, I found a story of a guy who made it out of the woods near New Brunswick, CA. The big difference was that it was late May, and he could survive overnight in the woods....

FYI, From the RISKS digest, someone pointed out that they may have been trying to follow Google Maps directions. That sucks....

RISKS just retracted the previous idea. Apparently they just missed their exit and then tried to re-route....