Hey guys...I havent been on in a long time. I got back from New Zealand right before Thanksgiving...

anyway...Im back home in Oregon and as you all may have heard there have been 3 missing climbers on Mt. Hood here in Oregon. They found one of the men yesterday and he was not alive in a snow cave.

I just want to throw this out and say that my thoughts and prayers are going out to those families....

And for all the climbers out there...stay safe...go big...but go big and stay safe.

Peace out.

ang.

This sad story is another reminder for everyone to be prepared in the mountains.

The most dangerous mountains in the United States are not some wild, cragged peaks in Alaska. The two most deadly mountains in the USA are Mt. Washington (NH) and Mt. Hood (OR).

Be careful on your adventures, and always read the weather report.

Why isn't this mountain closed at this time of year?

This comes right on the heels of the Kim family rescue; it is all so sad.

I don't mean this to sound callous, it is an honest question, but who foots the bill for these? Yesterday or so I heard that Oregon has a special tax to help pay for these types of things? (from what was reported here, the Kim rescue was greatly helped by private funds; the climbers rescue cost at least 2.5M$ by reports I've heard) Does this fund really exist?

In Canada I'm pretty sure that any SAR operations are funded by the federal government. This is because they don't want people to wait until it's too late to call for help due to the rescue bill. There are some SAR organizations, such as Foothills (famous due to Mantracker's involvement) that are volunteer operated and funded...

It's always a question, however. Should SAR be funded by the lost victims and their families? Or should it continue to be funded publicly? There is always debate that rages up here, especially on the heels of Laura Gainey's death off the Picton Castle.

When I'm not busy screwing off at my other job, I'm a search and rescue planner/manager and in my experience, a major search costs a lot of people a ton of money that doesn't usually get reimbursed. Whatever agency has jurisdiction ends up with the expenses of conducting the search - operating the command post, managing communications and logistics - it's like having 500 or more unprepared guests descending on you at once. Most of the searchers are volunteers. We get everyone from boy scouts to Citizens on Patrol. The most effective teams, who spend time and money on training and outfitting and often use dogs or horses, usually foot the bill for all of their time and equipment, and there can be a lot of zeros! Usually, if there is any "official" bill collecting, it goes to the agencies involved in the search. Sometimes grateful people donate to the volunteer organizations that found their loved ones, and we appreciate that.

I have mixed feelings about asking people to pay for their rescue. On the one hand, it's a huge expense, and the people who pay it for the most part are the same people who spent seventy-two hours slogging through the mud and snow or the blistering sand hunting for someone's sad ass. On the other hand, I would never want to think that someone decided NOT to call for help because they were afraid of the bill.

Some folks seem to think that people need rescue because they've done something stupid, but often that isn't the case. Weather, illness, equipment or signage malfunction and buzzard luck can get you lost in a minute. And, by the way, most searches aren't for people who are climbing mountains or rafting in the back country, although those are usually what gets media attention. People get lost driving, hiking or going to the bathroom at a campground, and those searches can be horrendously expensive and time consuming, although not so dramatic.

Personally, I think that people who engage in high risk sports ought to get rescue insurance and I wish it was more broadly available and publicized. I also think that a rescued person and their family should consider donating to the people who worked so hard to find them. But...I would never ask someone for their credit card number before mounting a search. Everyone deserves to come home.

La