Snowcave Found! Oregon...

[PriusDrIVER]

Perhaps a good option for Hood and other peaks would be to require registration before climbing, with a nominal fee. This fee includes rental of a EPIRB that is owned by the state or another agency. Heck, make it a free registration as long as they take the EPIRB...for the cost of the search and rescue operation here, the tax dollars that could have been saved by the use of EPIRBs would have paid for a lot of them.

 

[Bill51]

Perhaps a good option for Hood and other peaks would be to require registration before climbing, with a nominal fee. This fee includes rental of a EPIRB that is owned by the state or another agency. Heck, make it a free registration as long as they take the EPIRB...for the cost of the search and rescue operation here, the tax dollars that could have been saved by the use of EPIRBs would have paid for a lot of them.

Great – just what we need is more government oversight of what we do and how we do it. Europe started this and it has driven the cost of climbing many peaks there out of the realm of the average sport climber. Mountain rescue insurance is available from many sources including The American Alpine Club and even Air Life of Oregon and by being voluntary it stays much more affordable than any insurance that’s turned into a monopoly by government mandates.

Somehow the idea of a government bureaucrat attempting to determine if I’m safe to climb a mountain is worse than some of the non-diving park rangers I’ve seen trying to determine if I’m safe to dive in what they start thinking of as “their” park even though we the people own it. I’m sure Paul Petzel and others could make a fortune selling certificates to climbers that have been at it for 50 years to prove that they’re qualified and safety would actually go down when people started sneaking on to the mountains to avoid the high costs.

Yes, I think people should be charged something for the rescue services they use, but the way the media presents the cost of rescues is pretty skewed also. Many times a large part of the costs of a rescue are offset by the training costs that are avoided as a real rescue provides greater training than most training exercises. And some times a real rescue involves much higher costs than any training, but there is a balance there that needs to be addressed on an individual basis.

As for requiring an EPIRB, that would rate right up with some fed telling me I couldn’t do 30’ dive on a reef in a federal park without a 40cf pony bottle. There are some times that an EPIRB can be very helpful, but during the summer months when people are doing rapid trips they are just one more piece of heavy junk to slow you down and possibly force you to spend more time exposed than need be. There is also a false sense of security that being able to be located is the same as being able to be rescued. I got stuck on the north face of the Grand Teton for 3 days one time because of a freak storm and everyone knew where I was, but there was no way I could move or anyone could safely get to me to help me move – so I had to just hunker down and pray that the storm lifted before I went crazy.

 

[Jcsgt]

Oregon is one of just a few states that can make you pay for your own rescue if you are reckless, and even then it is only $500. The law is the result of three college students who got lost on Mount Hood in 1995, only to be found safe in a tent after $10,000 was spent to search for them. It has only been enforced one time - for a boater. We are told this case would not apply because the men were prepared.