One man dies in snow; another tells of surviving

Just four days after Daryl Jane was plucked from his snowbound car after two weeks in rural Lewis County, he was driving to Oregon to help in the search for a man who had been missing for almost two weeks.

Perhaps no one could understand what was happening to James Kim better than Jane.

Jane was near the search headquarters Wednesday when he got the heartbreaking news that Kim, of California, had been found dead.

"I'm so broken up about the guy in Oregon," said a tearful Jane, 37, who was missing for two weeks after his car got stuck in the snow in a remote area southwest of Mount Adams. "I'm so sorry for that family. My thoughts and prayers are with his family."

Jane said Wednesday that when his water supply ran out on the eighth day, he wrote a goodbye note to his friends and family. But he never gave up.

"I knew my family wouldn't give up until they found me dead or alive," said Jane, who operates a transit company for the elderly and disabled.

Jane's ordeal began Nov. 18, when he left his home on Bainbridge Island to attend a sky-watching event at Trout Lake in the northwest corner of Klickitat County. Sky-watchers say they are a group dedicated to healing the Earth.

It was a clear, sunny day and he decided to take a shortcut on a U.S. Forest Service road that he'd taken before. But his tires got stuck in the snow, and then a blizzard buried his car.

When he ran out of water, he figured he would die. He ventured out in search of water and fell into a ravine near his car. As luck would have it, he found a trickle of water that he collected in a jug.

All he had for food were rice cakes and banana chips, which he rationed by eating one rice cake and four banana chips a day. He even had some rice cakes left when he was rescued Saturday by a snowmobiler.

"At first I worried about being buried alive," Jane said, "and then I thought I'd die of thirst." Every day he wiped off the top of his Jeep Cherokee, hoping it would attract helicopters he was certain would be searching for him.

But they weren't. Only one helicopter, owned by a friend of Jane's aunt and uncle on Bainbridge Island, flew over the area, and it didn't find him.

Jane said he had an umbrella in his car and planned to wave it at searching helicopters. That's the way Kim's wife signaled rescuers in southern Oregon, who saved her and her two daughters Monday.

Jana Wilkins, Jane's aunt from Bainbridge Island, said Jane was due back Nov. 19 to watch the Seahawks' game against San Francisco. She reported him missing Nov. 20. Since no one knew what route he took, she said, rescuers were reluctant to mount a search.

In the family's efforts to find Jane, they found that he had used his debit card at a grocery store in Morton, Lewis County, so they knew he was in the area.

The family went to Trout Lake, spoke with people who had attended the sky-watching ceremony and discovered that Jane had not shown up.

Lewis County search-and-rescue volunteers combed several of the Forest Service roads, including Road 23, where they searched for 27 miles before deep snow and fallen trees forced them to turn around.

"My husband and my son went through the horrible process of trying to find him ourselves," Wilkins said. "We didn't give up. If there was any hope, we were going to find him."

They contacted Jim Beslow in Packwood, with the Drift Skippers, a team of snowmobilers, who agreed to join the search.

Beslow, who has been riding snowmobiles for more than two decades, began searching for Jane last Thursday. He and three other riders took off Saturday on Road 23, suspecting that might have been the route Jane had taken. As the snow got deeper and deeper, Beslow plowed through on his own, leaving the other searchers behind. He went more than five miles beyond where the search-and-rescue crews had turned around. "It was nuts to do, but I was going to find that kid," he said.

Beslow figured he was on a recovery mission; there was no way Jane would be found alive.

He said he passed an intersection to Takhlakh Lake, went over Baby Shoe Pass and spotted the top of a Jeep. He figured there would be a body inside.

Then, he said, he saw something wiggling in the car. "Oh my God, he's alive," Beslow said. The door opened and Jane flew out.

"We high-fived. We shook. It was the coolest thing in the world," Beslow said. He said Jane told him, "I thought you were a dream. I couldn't believe it. I prayed and prayed and prayed and there you were."

Beslow gave him gloves and water and — after he retrieved a drum he'd bought for the sky-watchers event — put him on the back of the snowmobile and drove him to his frantic family.

Beslow lost his son in a car accident six years ago, and he told Jane that the spirit of his son was riding on the back of his snowmobile, urging him on.

What saved Jane, Beslow said, was a warm sleeping bag that he curled up in at night. Jane was wearing tennis shoes and jeans, and knew he wasn't dressed well enough to try to walk to safety.

"This is the biggest miracle that ever happened," Beslow said. "This kid shouldn't be alive."

Jane came out of the ordeal with no frostbite or other injuries, and was taken to the hospital to be rehydrated. He wasn't admitted.

The day that Beslow found Jane, Jane's family was preparing to snowshoe the entire 50 miles along Road 23 to Trout Lake to search for him. They had started walking when the snowmobiles returned.

Jane still sobs when he thinks of James Kim and a story that had such a sad ending, especially when his was so happy. What has he learned? "When you are going somewhere, let someone know your exact route. And stay in the car and wait it out. People will come for you."

Susan Gilmore: 206-464-2054 or sgilmore@seattletimes.com