Not sure where to divide the line, but we actually pay for many services through taxes. Sometimes hard decisions. Helicopter for a hiker, a pension for undocumented visitors, free needles that end up litering many city streets? If you work, or even don’t work, talk to your elected representatives so they know how to spend the money.
Great story. Stuff like that happened before cell phones. I have one of my own.
I was on a solo 7 day backpacking/fishing trip in the Pemi Wilderness when my father passed. I left with my girlfriend (now wife) the the AMC map and highlighted spots where I expect to be at any given night, with my camp. On the last day before coming out, I had planned to stay and fish from the Franconia Brook tent site which was three miles in from the Lincoln trailhead and parking. Well I got the tent site and found more people and noise that I want to deal with(I was/am used to and inclined towards my wilderness solitude). So I hike past the tentside, towards the trailhead, and basecamped somewhere off in the woods. So, the day before I was due to come out, my girl friend and co-worker and friend drove up to the Wildnerness Trail and hiked in to look for me at the Franconia Brook tent site. Not finding me, they hiked back out and the spent a night at a hotel in Lincoln. Next morning, they waited for me at the trailhead and met me hiking out as I had detailed in my itinerary. I was glad they did not asked for a search as there was/is a ranger station right at the trailhead. Now, if I didn’t come out as planned…
In terms of contesting a rescue charge, I assume that that would be some avenue. Heck, traffic tickets are given by the hundreds in a given day. Most folks just pay because they are “guilty” as charge. However, one does have an option to show up up at traffic court and contest. My wife (who is a very safe and conservative driver) did that once and prevailed.
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Again, I think (and you agree) that we are seeing more and more unprepared folks out there needing rescue. The cell phone is a contributer/enabler of this behavior. However, I think on the other extreme, albeit in lower numbers, there are those who claim more skills and gear also needing rescue. These are the “extreme” folks (I’m likely one of these) who push the boundaries and get themselves in trouble and in need of rescue. We see this every year up at Mt. Washington, between the ice climbers and the extreme downhill Tuckerman skiiers. For me, “fairness” should include charging these “experts” as well as the person who hikes up the ridges in late season without gear. If you want to play, you got to be willing to pay.
I think before cell phones, the committed outdoor folks tend to plan and leave itineraries. If these folks don’t return on time, folks at home would wait a bit and then call the authorities. I might be wrong, but I would assume most of these turn out to be recovery rather than rescue.
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I know where most of the rescue costs come from in MA and NH. It is from my year round sporting licenses in MA and NH. While a minor subset of residents, hunters and fisherman pay the bulk of the cost of land conservation as well as rescues led by Wildlife/Conservation rangers.
https://www.concordmonitor.com/Hikepass-41452099
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So I my father played a big part in teaching me to be comfortable in the woods with land navigation and general woods lore beginning for me in the 1960s. At first just following along woodland places near where he grew up. Few trails were ever used, just woods knowledge on where to go in the landscape. Then when I was older, going hunting with him and he sending me ahead out on watch to favorite deer watch locations he liked. I still remember him telling me: “If you get mixed up, just relax, sit still, have a sandwich, look at your map, and you will figure out where you are. If you have to, use your whistle.”
Long before anyone thought of a cell phone, and certainly before GPS, in the 1970’s I built upon that advice and taught myself the finer points precision land navigation by bushwhacking to remote locations in the Adirondacks, which was near my home, At the same time I joined the USAF and became an inflight air navigator, eventually an instructor and flight evaluator. Air navigation and land navigation have much more in common than you might think.
When going out solo in on long Adirondack treks I definitely left an itinerary with my wife, but at the same time told her that if the weather got bad, (especially if I was canoeing), I might delay an extra night for safety so don’t panic and call the rangers to hastily. That did happen a few times, but no one panicked and I made it home just fine.
Nearly 30 years ago, I joined a local state certified search and rescue team and then advanced to crew boss status. Over the years I have seen a terrible erosion of basic land navigation skills, and even the desire of the general outdoor going public to learn the skill or to know what to do when it comes to self-extraction from confusion.
The advent of the ubiquitous cell phone has a lot to do with that. The promise of instant rescue by authorities with the simple press of a button when only slightly confused is an easy out too easily and often taken. Few people these days seem to be of the mindset to sit down, relax, have a sandwich, look at the map, and figure out where they are for self-extraction. The weekly forest ranger reports are full of people who wandered a “short distance” off the trail, and they immediately resorted to calling 911. They do get found quickly at least, but they tie up the rangers from larger emergencies or duties. Excuses abound like: “I didn’t load that map”, or “my cell phone has a built in flashlight for me to use after dark”.
When to call rangers is an open question. No one wants to call the authorities to send a posse when 5 minutes later you find a kid who wandered off to be in a quiet safe place to read a book or throw rocks into the lake without telling anyone. Much depends on the age (extra young or extra old), inherent medical issues (needs regular meds or has dementia), known dangerous safety hazards in the area, weather (both now and predicted), time of day, you name it. There is actually a detailed go/nogo form to fill out that ranks and scores various such items, along with a formalized systemized algorithm process of “lost person behavior” suggesting what do based on statistical studies of thousands of past similar cases.
But too often, the worst mistake is a family will spend hours searching for a hunter, or a hiking group for a missing member, and as darkness approaches only then they decide to call for professional help. Too late to organize anything official before dark or bad or cold weather sets in. Too often the best that can be done then is to send a ranger or two on a hasty (Type 1) search along nearby trails, shorelines, roadside ditches and the like, on foot or with an ATV. Overnight they may gear up with callouts for more DEC resources, law enforcement, possibly trained volunteer SAR, and establish an overnight planning function to gather known data on the subject (phone number, experience outdoors, gear taken, family interviews, etc.). If deemed serious enough, accommodation must be made for the onslaught care and feeding and briefing of incoming volunteers, both trained and untrained locals, EMS, family, plus the press.
In my experience, I cannot say that “most” turn out to be recoveries rather than rescues, but depending on the many factors, the chances do decrease with delayed calls for help.
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I don’t think a sprained ankle is cause for rescue.
We were on a backcountry trip in Colorado in the MT Zirkel Wilderness.
My friend how had been a lacrosse player in college turned his ankle for maybe the 10th time.
We camped right there for 3 days. We wrapped his ankle tightly, and divided up everything in his pack with other 3 people. I made him some crutches and he walked out.
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I side firmly with the Pay For It proponents when it comes to going out unprepared.
The fact that true accidents occur does not mean being stupid is an excuse. If rescuers don’t risk their own lives and waste time on easily preventable disasters, they’re free to attend to the true accidents. Slipping on a trail while wearing appropriate hiking clothes will still happen, but that person is more likely to be able to help himself or herself survive than someone who went out for a remote run in summer running wear and no water, food, or extra clothing.
The cell phone does not substitute for having the right skills and gear! In addition, in many rural areas—even those not far from houses—there IS no cell reception! I live where cell coverage is either spotty/unreliable or nonexistent more than a very short stroll from the house. It has even crapped out inside the house, and not because the other person was driving into a dead zone.
True example of a near-disastrous outing that our ex-neighbors did soon after we moved out of our house in WA state:
The man and wife decided to take a late-December drive deep into National Forest backcountry. It had already snowed and more was coming down. They had a few snacks, a little water, and a blanket. And, of course, the God of the Millenium, the cell phone. Oh…and that other mobile God, the 4WD or AWD SUV.
After they got off the state highway and were driving the unpaved, unplowed, track towards their destination, they saw a Subaru coming their way, it having been turned around. Smugly assuming that their own larger God could go where Subarus had dared not venture, they continued onward…and got stuck. Really, really stuck. They didn’t have the kinds of stuck-recovery tools—or the convoy buddies—that 4WD groups tend to travel in when off-highway.
Both people were about 70 yrs old and in poor physical condition, and not only in terms of athletic fitness. The wife had COPD, among the other things that made them unlikely candidates for, say, hoofing it out to the highway.
There was no cell service (duh). They didn’t think they could walk out, and maybe at this point they still believed this all was a Grand Adventure for bragging about when they got back. So they ran the engine to keep heat on, occasionally shutting it off to save gas, and they tried to stay warm with the blanket. They spent the first night like this.
The next day, the husband tried to call out by walking to a higher point. But when he managed to make a tenuous call to another neighbor, he could not provide a good description of their location and just asked if the neighbor could drive out looking for him (in a Forester with ordinary tires). The neighbor frantically called the County, assuming a Search and Rescue Group existed. Nope.
The couple spent a SECOND NIGHT huddling together in their not-so-mobile God, hoping the gasoline wouldn’t all be gone before they were rescued. They did not think it was a Grand Adventure anymore. They thought they were going to freeze to death.
To make a long story shorter, the other neighbor eventually got in touch with a 4WD club far away, who contacted a snowmobile club, also far away. All of them volunteers. The snowmobilers had a clue where the couple were and got them out. They had to leave the SUV there for a few days till conditions allowed extracting and towing.
How do I know these details? The neighbor who made contact with the rescue volunteers told us in person a couple months later. Also, the husband rescuee wrote some long, drawn-out, almost sermony accounts (two monthly installments in his blog/newsletter, the third installment getting nixed by his embarrassed wife).
I doubt they will make that set of mistakes again, though. No idea if they were asked to make donations to those clubs.
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In CO, we can pay a trivial fee (I think it was $5 or $8) for a card that says we paid our share into the same rescue fund that fishing and hunting licenses pay into. Good for a few years. Mine was still valid when I checked in late 2021 but I should check the expiration date on it and renew when necessary.
Do we “have” to go out. No. A lot of us are volunteers, it’s a horrible hobby actually. We train a lot, do everything possible to minimize the risks, go out in the crappiest weather you can imagine, we meet people on the worst day of their lives, we see terrible things. We also form some of the strongest bonds a team can form and not one of us will tell you anything other then as hard as it can be, we do it because we love it.
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So, I sincerely appreciate what you did/do in pursuing this avocation.
My son essentially said the same thing about his volunteering, training and deployment in 101 Airborne. He was in Mosul, Iraq and will have life long physical issues from it. But, for me, I am still ambilavent (actually more on the negative side about him and his comrades deploying but he is his own man).
What you are describing is very much a human, social thing – the team work, bonding and “seeing it through” together. I used to be a youth worker and worked with adjudicated youth. It’s almost the same description in positive and negative contexts.
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Some of are so entirely obsessed with the “hunt” of finding a lost person, that if, while during transportation toward the incident scene, if we receive the radio or phone call that says “subject found, stand down, go home”, the first response may be “Good, Fouind, Thank God”. The second response may be an undertone of “aw shucks”, no woods walk today.
Hmm… I think you are being speculative and perhaps projecting. Even if a few feel as you described, I don’t doubt the overall “good intention” which goes with the effort (at the least from the perspective of the rescuee and his/her family).
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They are at least in the Whites
Religiously ignored.
We see this happen frequently living just over the Maine border .
Speaking of rescues, this was today’s practice on Little Traverse Bay (mock plane crash / ice rescue). Sunny, but cold and windy.
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I understand many of you Americans accept you must pay for many things that I take for granted, and I accept that sometimes a nominal Fee can be a deterrent for unnecessary calls for limited resources like ambulances, but I am strongly opposed to opening people to unlimited liability based on some arbitrators idea of what is reasonable or reckless.
Ignoring nominal deterrent fees [50-100 dollars] if you start charging for the “cost” of a rescue what does that include. is it gas for us to get there? prorated equipment costs? Lost wages of volunteers? 15000-35000 dollars per hour military helicopter costs? A large scale search could easily “cost” 100 thousand up to a few million dollars. If you save someone’s life only for them to become homeless and destitute, many would probably say you made it worse. [Insurance has its place but I don’t think this is it]
Many [most?] of the worlds “rescue” organizations started, and largely remain, volunteer. These organizations save Millions of dollars by simply providing free [or incredibly cheep] Man power. Locally [I Volunteer with a SAR team in the Vancouver Region], if someone goes missing the police can bring in 50 people for about the same cost of maybe 4 cops on overtime. This is hugely beneficial as your chances of being found in good health decrease the longer it takes for you to be found. anecdotally few of our lost or injured people are particular unprepared for there activity. often its just a slip, or darkness closed when they were not quite clear of the woods. Many of our searches are for mentality ill people [Psych ward/Dementia] or children. Lots of suicidal people, it wouldn’t be much good for us to find the guy threatening suicide, than hand him a 10k bill, not great if suicide prevention is the goal.
Also consider, every person on my SAR team is there, at some level because we know sooner or later we, or someone we know will need it. We ARE the backcountry users. I expect we would lose most of our skilled people, and our teams would collapse if people WE rescued were sent bills form the government because some public servant decided hiking was an unreasonable risk.
On the topic of risk, BCSARA, one of the largest volunteer ground search and rescue organizations in the world has had, If I remember correctly something like 6 deaths in its history, after [hundreds?] of thousands of calls, hundreds of disasters. of those 5-6? people about 3 of them were part of a single helicopter crash. We are very risk averse.
This brings on the reason all of us are strongly opposed to charging for rescue. Not calling fast and early results in worse outcomes, longer searches and increased risk of collateral damage. on more than one of our large searches, people have had to be diverted to go look for a well meaning searcher who got themselves lost trying to find the first guy…
It is soooo much easier to go out in the middle of the night, spend 2 hours to find the idiot who is 20 feet off the trail, bring him out and go back to bed, compared to spending a week and a half searching for, and half a day recovering his body.
Deterrence is not the answer, education is. Leaving a trip/float plan, trail head selfies, understanding forecasts, normalizing bringing basic emergency gear etc…
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Churchi, you convinced me. You make a point that many SAR volunteers are at the peak of their game. The accept the risks of extreme sports and could be the benefactors. It’s also true that they might be forced to face dangers they otherwise would have avoided. That’s where volunteer comes in. It is good to know that there are people daring enough to take on the task.
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One little point, we train and and acquire gear for the express purpose of reducing our risks, compare the risks lead ice climbing on ultralight ropes, to a top down rescue using 2 11mm ropes on the same climb. one is quite dangerous, the other is safer than crossing the road. A quick sar response can protect not only the subject, but also bystander rescuers [in many cases self or buddy rescues are great, not trying to discourage them]
There’s always exceptions to the low risk approach, but its always a last resort. Public perception of our bravery is always a little overblown.
First, thanks for what you do.
I agree ideally that “education” would be better than “deterrence”. But, we seem to be failing in educating (or our willingness to be educated) given the increased in outdoor rescues noted by our local authorities.
The resort to rescue fees is a response to the increasing calls. Is it an effective one, time will tell.
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It would be one thing if the person needing rescue were someone experienced, had the right gear, and just happened to have an accident or injury. Unfortunately that seems to be more rare around here in New Hampshire. More often than not, the person needing rescue is some out of stater on vacation thinking they can take on the mountains here with little more than a bottle of water, shorts and a t-shirt, a pair of sneakers, and a cell phone. No flashlight, no food, no extra water, and often not even a jacket or sweater. They start out late in the day, then get themselves lost once the sun goes down, requiring rescuers to go out, at night, sometimes in very poor conditions.
If these were rare occurrences, it wouldn’t be that much of an issue. But it happens ALL THE DAMN TIME here. From spring to fall, it is literally a weekly thing, and even sometimes in the winter. Between 2009 and 2019, this state averaged 190 rescues PER YEAR. It’s a huge burden not only for the rescuers, but for we taxpayers having to continually foot the bill, and we already have high enough taxes as is.
Too many people thing that the extent of needed"education" is the ability to rapidly use thier thumbs on a cell phone text app faster than anyone else.
[quote=“NHTrucker, post:60, topic:114101”]thinking they can take on the mountains here with little more than a bottle of water, shorts and a t-shirt, a pair of sneakers, and a cell phone. No flashlight, no food, no extra water, and often not even a jacket or sweater. They start out late in the day, then get themselves lost once the sun goes down, requiring rescuers to go out, at night, sometimes in very poor conditions.
If these were rare occurrences, it wouldn’t be that much of an issue. But it happens ALL THE DAMN TIME here. From spring to fall, it is literally a weekly thing, and even sometimes in the winter. Between 2009 and 2019, this state averaged 190 rescues PER YEAR. It’s a huge burden not only for the rescuers, but for we taxpayers having to continually foot the bill, and we already have high enough taxes as is.
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The NYSDEC Forest Rangers experience more than 300 SAR incidents each year according to recorded statistics in the most recent few years. Most are resolved quickly (in part due to increased cell phone coverage) and without the need to call upon trained volunteers, but many could have been prevented or self-rescued with a little more preparedness and careful thought on the part of the careless subject before automatically relying on their determined “right” to be rescued with the press of a button. SAR rescues are free in NY State, so far.