Another Cost for Thru Hiking - NH rescue fee

[Miner]

I'd rather pay $18/year for the AMC to actually build safe trail rather then, in the words of one of their members I talked to, being proud at how difficult the trail in their section is.

[Another Kevin]

NH has to do something. Remember, no sales tax in NH. But seriously there has been just lots and lots of foolish people who have used their cell phones to get "rescued" who were ill-repared or just idiots. Many have just been caught in the dark without a headlamp because they started up franconia ridge at 3 PM or didn't want to spend a cold wet night until they could hike out the next morning.

A wonderful talking point. It's a pity that the stats don't bear it out. The stupid people you talk about get all the press, but the vast majority of SAR tasks come about because well-equipped and well-prepared people have the bad luck to take a misstep, fall, and break something, or else have an otherwise-unrelated medical emergency in the backcountry (heart attacks, strokes, hot appendices, and so on). And those are the people who will be hit with monstrous bills under NH's "negligent hiker" standard, which judges with 20/20 hindsight - if you got hurt, you must have been negligently going beyond your capabilities.

Note that NH has had a "charge-for-rescue" law already, but the previous standard was "recklessness." Surely recklessness would cover the cases you mention, but the law got changed because a "recklessness" standard wasn't bringing in enough money, simply because the cases you talk about are so few.

[Del Q]

Forgetting this thread for a moment, my section hike has me completing Damascus VA to Franconia Notch thus far...........Spring 2013 / TN - NC,

Fall hike 2013, Franconia to Maine............guess I will bring some LNT super-glue to keep me grounded.

I am stubborn, currently 230lbs + pack weight, are there really winds that will drop me to my knee's?

Where do I send my check for the sure to happen, pending rescue above the tree line in NH?

Side note, hope that the bill is not too high, could impact my annual ATC donation!

[peakbagger]

To answer Del Qs I expect his rhetorical question, heck yes there are winds year round on the ridgelines in the whites that will drop you to your knees and push you over a cliff when you are on the ground. With weight comes surface area so a heavy person is just as likely to get blown over. The Mt Washington Observatory usually has few good videos on youtube, of folks playing around on the deck of the Obs during hihg winds.

One thing you learn is that most folks greatly overestimate the actual wind velocity they are actually facing as the wind profile between the ground and up were the wind meter is can be a quite steep.

[fcoulter]

When the fire dept shows up at your house or wherever, they do not bill you...............nor do the police.

Here in the Florida county I work for, when the Fire Department sends an ambulance and you're given transport, you are billed. Most of the cost recovery comes from insurance or the federal government.

[swjohnsey]

We oughta charge folks from New Hampshire every time they leave their state. Maine, too.

[Slo-go'en]

Strange that it is rarely someone who lives in NH that has to be rescued. Mostly it's people from "away" who get themselfs in trouble...