Re: lost climbers on Mount Hood

On Tue, 19 Dec 2006 16:05:29 -0500, "Newby" <nobody@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:


"Seagull" <seagull@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:em9c7s51j5f@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
dold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
Ron Lee <nospamronlee@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I never assume cell phone coverage. Hence the PLB

[snipped]

Climbing mountains is dangerous. People spend hundreds or thousands
of dollars in acquiring the proper gear to keep them out of trouble,
yet so many stop short of spending the last $100 on renting a locator
that can help them if they /do/ get in trouble. It boggles the mind.


Cheers,
John

Relying on a cell phone under the stated conditions was stupid. According
to a report on the radio today, the climbers were not well equipped for the
climb. Looks like all 3 climbers may have paid the ultimate price. The
risk to those doing the searching was not small. Thankfully none of them
have been hurt or killed. The cost of this search has got to be enormous.
The climbers, or their estates, should have to foot the bill.

Actually, the cost is minimal. Nearly all of the searchers are
volunteers -- they do it for love, not money. From media reports, they
are also much more prudent about the safety of their members than the
people they set out to rescue. Have you never heard it said that they
often suspend the search to avoid putting the searchers into
unreasonable danger?

Some years back, a local hospital terminated their air rescue
services. Reviewing their data, they found it was a break-even
proposition -- as many lives were lost as were saved. This was usually
in circumstances where helicopter pilots judged the weather to
hazardous to operate in, but were persuaded to go anyway because,
"It's an eighteen month old baby who can only be saved if hospitalized
within an hour" or the like. So they guilt the pilot and a couple of
medical people to go out and the light crashes somewhere along the
way.

Years ago, I was on a Coast Guard training and radar
calibration mssion which went south off baja Califirnis in a ferocious
storm. Somewhere south of the border, a steward came down with
appendicitis late in the evening. Some time after midnight, the crew
was called out to prepare the fantail for a helo landing. After a
couple of hours, we put things back together and went back to our
racks -- neither the Coast Guard nor the Navy was willing to come out
in that weather to extract the guy. So we turned back into the storm,
whose center was still well north of us. The steward was offloaded to
a hospital, where he came through OK.

As for the military resources, they're generally chalked up as
training exercises, which are valued more highly than routine
exercises they'd be doing anyway.



Candidates for a Darwin award.

OK, so we can now be assured that you will not die in a
preventable accident. Yippee.
.

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