[pct-l] Paying for SAR

[Terry]

Brick, toe your argument is valid, to. a point. 

The problem we are discussing lies in dealing with people who are uneducated to the task at hand, under equipped and lack the experience to understand what they are doing. 
The biggest problem, within this problem is, there are more and more of these people hiking the PCT every year.  
Your statement of "Is it time to get rid of this commie, liberal,  un american  (American) free SAR?"
Brick, you have a right to your point of view and as the un-American (your words) that you are, you initiated this this political statement. I now ask you to review your county's budget for their SAR cost and figure out what it cost for all the "Commies" living in your county needing assistance from them. I do have a feeling you will soon realize, if you actually do the math, that the money spent rescuing a  very few people, far out weigh the money spent on most other socialized programs you expect to have offered to you. 

Some day, we may not have a choice but to close the "gate" just as they do in Maine on the Appalachian trail every year to late, and/or uninformed, under equipped and under trained hikers in the late season Northern Cascades to save them from themselves.

Terry





Sent from my iPhone

On Oct 9, 2013, at 11:02 AM, Brick Robbins <brick at brickrobbins.com> wrote:

> On Wed, Oct 9, 2013 at 4:21 AM, Ernie Castillo <erniec01 at hotmail.com> wrote:
>> the motorist certainly wouldn't object to calling and paying for a tow truck. Why would SAR be any different, especially if a hiker initiated an urgent call for help?<
> 
> Most of the time, the hiker doesn't "initiate the call" and it wasn't
> until quite recently that people stuck in the wilderness actually
> could call for their own rescue.
> 
> Take the case of Rocket Llama, http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=436514
> There was a SAR effort initiated to search for her, but she didn't
> call for it, and she walked out on her own so she didn't use it.
> 
> By this libertarian "pay for service" model, who should have payed for
> this SAR call?
> 
> I guess if concerned citizens are afraid to call for SAR for fear of
> incurring large costs, and people die because of that fear, then it
> will be OK with a sizable minority of the country... they already hold
> that view for healthcare. Do you think it is time to get rid of this
> commie, liberal un american free SAR?
> 
>> PCT Class of 1980 and a heavy trucker whose strategy was to carry everything in his heavy backpack he would need to live and survive in the wilderness for an extended period of time<
> 
> I find this .sig to be a bit pretentious. I'm sure you weren't
> carrying skis/snowshoes and snow gear in your "heavy trucker" kit, or
> 2 weeks of food for a 100 mile section of trail. I do multi day
> backcountry ski trips, and my kit for snow travel would be absolutely
> stupid to carry on a summer PCT hike.
> 
> This was an unusual "record breaking" storm, and caused havoc all
> across the country, and the cost SAR effort for the few hikers caught
> in it pales in comparison to the other disaster recovery efforts it
> caused.
> http://www.weather.com/news/winter-storm-atlas-kills-thousands-cattle-south-dakota-20131007
> 
> These hikers that were caught in the storm were not in trouble because
> of their gear, or lack of it... they had to hunker down and wait out
> the storm .. FOOD was the issue. No matter how much gear you carry,
> you can't travel in that much fresh snow until it compacts enough.
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