Commenting on an Oregon Issue.....
I am sure my big sis will chime in with a thought or two, but reading an AP Article online about a bill that has been proposed to require Mt. Hood Climbers to carry electronic locators, and the objections that mountaineering folks are tossing up to it jus begs for a common sense comment from the peanut gallery. And who am I to stay silent in the gallery?! Here, in particular, was one point that some climbers were trying to make.....
In recent interviews, mountaineers who oppose Lim's bill had argued that while it's a good idea for climbers to carry electronic locators, requiring all climbers to do so would infringe on their freedom to pursue the sport without government interference.
REALLY. Okay. Go forth my friends. The Government won't interfere. Climb away. But leave your cell at home, because not only will the government not interefere your pursuit of this sport....they won't interfere with your ability to use your "wits and good judgement" to get the hell down from the mountain if you get in trouble...it's part of the "climbing experience".
The Mt. Hood Search and rescue team would just like to say......."We will just see "you".....in the spring. A reminder to all Mount Hood Climbers....we may charge your estate an EPA fee should you get lost and not find your way back; after all, we have to treat your body as a bio hazard when we retrieve it."
In recent interviews, mountaineers who oppose Lim's bill had argued that while it's a good idea for climbers to carry electronic locators, requiring all climbers to do so would infringe on their freedom to pursue the sport without government interference.
REALLY. Okay. Go forth my friends. The Government won't interfere. Climb away. But leave your cell at home, because not only will the government not interefere your pursuit of this sport....they won't interfere with your ability to use your "wits and good judgement" to get the hell down from the mountain if you get in trouble...it's part of the "climbing experience".
The Mt. Hood Search and rescue team would just like to say......."We will just see "you".....in the spring. A reminder to all Mount Hood Climbers....we may charge your estate an EPA fee should you get lost and not find your way back; after all, we have to treat your body as a bio hazard when we retrieve it."
Comments
Um, well, um, I can see both sides, and tend to fall against mandating for Mt. Hood climbers alone. Even if I wouldn't dream of climbing without one.
I need to go digging for the precise statistics, but the ones who cost the most, S&R-wise aren't the Mt. Hood climbers. Mushroom hunters cost as much or more, and most S&Rs are actually for folks lost on hikes and kids who wander off and Christmas tree hunters who get stuck (Kims, anyone? Similar circumstances...).
Do you need MLUs for you and the Cadet and the King and D when you go walking in a state park? Each of you should have one, since you never know who might get lost.
The mountain rescues get lots of press because they have pretty pictures and are near big cities. Mt.Hood and MSH and Ranier dominate the skyline around here; Cascade Peaks are pretty isolated from each other, with lower mountains around them, so there's lots of good photo angles, and they're volcanic which has different kinds of rock.
There are two main groups of S&R folks around here (3, if you count the media). First is volunteers (Crag Rats, Portland Mountain Rescue, etc. around here) who are trained S&R, and climbers when they're not S&Ring. Second is military guys (currently based at PDX, our local airport, but doing rescues and things in, among other places, Afghanistan). These are training missions for these folks, and the cost is minimal because they'd be training somewhere else.
Sailors and surfers and beach combers clearly need to have MLUS as well. I've watched coasties do laps and S&Rs when we've been at Pacific City. Between the great whites and the sneaker waves and the logs and the 50 degree water year-round, it'll get ya. And helicopter searches are very, very spendy, and often fruitless. Half the time, it appears that someone only thinks someone is missing.
The same week that the 3 men went missing on Mt.Hood in November, a spendy boat washed up on shore near Newport, OR, with no sign of the crew (still no sign, last I heard) and another couple of folks were killed crossing the bar along the coast. Nobody complained about the costs of their S&R/Rs, partly because the crews in both cases were doing their jobs (fishing boat and delivering a yacht to somebody in Seattle).
Oh, and google "Jim Gray" and "Tenacious" for a more recent sailor gone missing. Jim had a profound effect on a lot of people's careers and lives in the database biz, including mine, back when we were both at Tandem. He shoulda been mandated to pay extra for an easy way to find him because the cost of the search for him dwarfs any freedom he might've had being out of cell range. Right?
Maybe more later, if I step back on this soap box. I've gotta go coach a 5YO through writing numbers under paperclips. 100s day: The Saga Continues....
I don't climb mountains and have no desire to do anything that requires more than hiking boots and a backpack (preferably a daypack) as special equipment. S and I did just buy some snowshoes to make it easier to go winter hiking when we're in Sunriver. But basically, living life on the edge and on an adrenaline rush just doesn't appeal to me.
But folks get lost in the mountains with fair frequency, a couple a year. Skiers mostly, who ski out of bounds or fall into a treewell and can't get out or even run into trees. There are a bunch of folks who went hiking on Hood and never came back; presumably they're still up there somewhere. Ditto for the ocean, and even for driving (the same week that the Kims were lost, another guy spent a week or two in his car just north of the Columbia, in similar circumstances).
I don't believe that we're paying significantly extra for Hood mountain climber S&Rs (or Rainier S&Rs, but that's a different state with different laws).
And I don't see how we could enforce a rule like this anyway, since it's a pretty big little mountain. I'd hate to be the ranger who's the Pearly Gates-keeper because it can get nasty up there. Or so I've heard.... And that only covers the south routes; north routes don't go through the Pearly Gates and they're best climbed in winter when the volcanic rock is locked in place by snow.
Still pointless and this law wouldn't affect me. But it seems like creeping statism, which I'm not real fond of for these things. Unless we mandate 'em for overnighters and day hikers in state parks too, since that's where the S&R money goes...