One woman - rescued TWICE on the AT...

[SoaknWet]

It's nice to sit here, invisible, at the keyboard and judge our fellow humans for everything under the sun from size, color, religion and mistakes or weakness and then use that same invisible keyboard to hide our own! The girl made a mistake, wasn't ready to give up, made a second one big deal, didn't cost anyone here a dime! But made your day to feel good about yourself to judge another!

[egilbe]

Interesting: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/AazRWI...8TOOtrtOybWW0/

160 oz of water, all her containers filled ***. No wonder she needed rescue. Halfof that stuff needed to be left home, or in the dumpster.

[egilbe]

It's nice to sit here, invisible, at the keyboard and judge our fellow humans for everything under the sun from size, color, religion and mistakes or weakness and then use that same invisible keyboard to hide our own! The girl made a mistake, wasn't ready to give up, made a second one big deal, didn't cost anyone here a dime! But made your day to feel good about yourself to judge another!

I'm from Maine. My tax money paid for those two trips. To say it didn't cost anyone here a dime is foolish. I hike in NH. I drop money into the box at IME sports to support MRS. I buy A hike safe card. Hopefully I'll never have to use either service.

[FreeGoldRush]

Localities that depend on outdoor tourism for income have no desire to charge for SAR. But in recent years the proliferation of unprepared people calling for help has stretched budgets so that it has become necessary to charge negligent people in some areas.

Air ambulance is a different story. Those are private ambulance services, and bill up to $900 /minute from time the bird lifts off. Receiving $15,000- 50,000 bills is not uncommon. Better have insurance that covers it. The important thing to know....is insurance will only cover to nearest transfer point if not life threatening. An air ambulance has to drop you at closest trailhead/ground ambulance for a broken leg, or you will be on hook for every minute past that. The ambulance operators will ask you where to go...if you tell them wrong....its extremely costly.

My brother got a bill for $400,000 for an air ambulance trip for his wife once. They wrote it off because she died.

The amount printed on a bill and the actual cost of something are two different things. I can charge you $1,000 for an ice cream cone. It doesn't mean it costs that much to serve ice cream.

[cneill13]

I bet if they handed Ms Snowflake a bill after the first rescue she wouldn't have been so quick to call for the second one. She obviously suffered no personal consequence for the first rescue. At least she got a public shaming which she richly deserves.

On a sidenote, did you notice how many handlers there were carrying her. Her stupidity in going back on the trail was a personal risk to each one of them.

[egilbe]

Litter carries are very labor intensive. 6 to 8 people in, preferably, 3 to 4 teams, plus, the teams support personell. Not all of them are volunteers. Some are paid employees of the state: Warden service, police officers, Conservation officers, National Guardsmen. They get paid. So, billing g someone for being g stupid is a way to teach them. Education is expensive.

My friend, when he was younger, broke up with his high school girlfriend. For some reason, he thought he could fo better. Months go by, he's still single and she shows up to a party we are at with a new boyfriend. He gets all depressed and goes home and swallows a bunch of pills. He's sharing a trailer with my brother at the time. My brother goes home, finds him passed out on the floor, an empty bottle of Tylenol, or Advil, by his hand and calls the rescue service. Weeks later he gets the bill and said he felt like killing himself again. He never tried it again. 35 years later, two marriages and two divorces later, he's still kicking.

[nsherry61]

. . . So, billing g someone for being g stupid is a way to teach them. . . My friend, . . . passed out on the floor, an empty bottle of Tylenol, or Advil, . . . Weeks later he gets the bill and . . . He never tried it again. . .

Are you seriously trying to suggest that an attempted suicide can be prevented by fear of a large medical bill?!

NOT cool and NOT helpful!

Fear of large bills may be helpful in reducing the likelihood of doing careless and dangerous things, but suggesting that suicide decisions are, in any way, connected to such fears is silly, irresponsible, naive, and dangerous if you every want to truly help someone that is considering killing themselves.

[Traffic Jam]

All I know is she’s alive and this guy isn’t. Why no comments/criticism on that thread?

https://whiteblaze.net/forum/showthr...agazine-(blog)

[egilbe]

Are you seriously trying to suggest that an attempted suicide can be prevented by fear of a large medical bill?!

NOT cool and NOT helpful!

Fear of large bills may be helpful in reducing the likelihood of doing careless and dangerous things, but suggesting that suicide decisions are, in any way, connected to such fears is silly, irresponsible, naive, and dangerous if you every want to truly help someone that is considering killing themselves.

I don't care if it's cool or not. That's the story. If it offends you, well suck it up buttercup. I'm not here to spare your sensitive feelings.

[rickb]

Question:


Should the rescue personnel who administered what looks to be an IV in the photo I linked be fired for doing so in a situation where it was “clearly” not indicated?

[rickb]

If it was not clear, my last post was peppered with a bit of sarcasm.

That said, I think there are two things that deserve scrutiny whenever looking at those situations:

1. What did the person requesting a rescue do to put themselves in their situation
2. Was the rescue really needed

One thing to consider when pondering point number one is what couch potato / golfing taxpayers (even those in Maine) might think of ANYONE participating in adventure sports, and why doing so could reasonbly be considered bring on the situation yourself.

As for number two — that’s a harder call. From what I am reading hear it sounds like no one should have called authorities if they encountered the girl who was eventually rescued, right?

[nsherry61]

I don't care if it's cool or not. That's the story. If it offends you, well suck it up buttercup. I'm not here to spare your sensitive feelings.

Probably shouldn't reply to this publicly, but alas, I can't resist. This isn't a feelings thing.

There is nothing about your story that is offensive. It is your horribly missguided conclusions implying that the fear of a large medical bill can be helpful in stopping someone from killing themselves! Dude, that's just plain naive and potentially hurtful to people in need.

[Time Zone]

160 oz of water, all her containers filled ***. No wonder she needed rescue. Halfof that stuff needed to be left home, or in the dumpster.

That's not her gearlist.

If you look at the alt-text from mousing over, it explains that it is Andrew Skurka's starting gear list from his first AT hike. And checking this link -

https://andrewskurka.com/adventures/...list-starting/

indeed it is.

Still want to rush to judgment?

[Uncle Joe]

Not a fan of billing for rescues. It's something they've completely gotten away from in the Canadian Rockies for a very good reason: it deters people from seeking help. Billy doesn't call for rescue because Billy is afraid of incurring a $10k rescue bill. So Billy attempts to self-rescue after a fall and severe head injury. Billy eventually dies and his body is found and reported to SAR who has to go recover his body anyway. So now you have to one to bill for a rescue and are forced to do the job you're paid to do anyway.

That said, I see no problem with imposing fines for people that call SAR for trivial matters. Have a system in place for arbitrating whether the fine is warranted and I'm good with it. That alone accomplishes the stated goal of making sure people understand what SAR is for and that tying up limited resources for trivial matters will have consequences.

[LucyInColor]

That said, I see no problem with imposing fines for people that call SAR for trivial matters. Have a system in place for arbitrating whether the fine is warranted and I'm good with it. That alone accomplishes the stated goal of making sure people understand what SAR is for and that tying up limited resources for trivial matters will have consequences.[/QUOTE]

I think the problem is we don't always know if rescue is necessary when we're in the middle of it. I once broke my arm & was in such pain that I couldn't decide whether to be driven to the hospital. In that moment I thought the pain would go away if everyone left me alone. (Friends called an ambulance, thankfully, and insurance covered it). But, go back to the snake bite example I threw out earlier. You're bitten by a snake, don't know what it looked like, have no idea if it's poisonous, and you're alone and scared out of your gourd. If you hit the SOS button & it was a garden snake are you a snowflake? If you don't hit the SOS button & it was poisonous you could die. So, what qualifies as a big enough emergency?

[DownYonder]

Who pays is simple. Either obtain insurance or pay your own bill for the rescue. It’s called personal responsibility.

[OCDave]

She's an optimist. She's bold. She's an adventurer.

She attempted to stretch her limits. Did she fail? Or, did she succeed at getting farther than she otherwise might have had she not pushed herself?

Admire her.

[Venchka]

She's an optimist. She's bold. She's an adventurer.

She attempted to stretch her limits. Did she fail? Or, did she succeed at getting farther than she otherwise might have had she not pushed herself?

Admire her.

You go girl!
I just wish that somewhere down the road we would get an anonymous summary of what exactly happened to her from start to her second evacuation. A summary of her preparation would be nice too.
Information like that would be more beneficial to beginners than years of cyber hiking here.
Cheers Y’all!
Wayne

[Uncle Joe]

Who pays is simple. Either obtain insurance or pay your own bill for the rescue. It’s called personal responsibility.

Great! We can stop putting tax dollars towards SAR! Save the taxpayer some money since we have other ways to fund it.

[Time Zone]

It’s called personal responsibility.

Sounds great!

How do you think it applies to post #48 of this thread?