Unprepared Katahdin Hikers Burden Baxter Park Staff
By Phyllis Austin, Maine Environmental News (www.meepi.org). 10/25/04
http://www.meepi.org/files04/pa102504.htm
From the story:
"The search and rescue efforts were highlighted by park director Buzz Caverly at the October 15 meeting of the Park Authority because "it was amazing" to have people in that age category on Katahdin. "Older people decided it was time to conquer Katahdin, without realizing you don’t conquer the mountain," he observed.
Dan Martin, one of the authority’s three members and head of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, responded that his agency is "seeing the same thing" with search and rescue of more older people outdoors. "These are people in their 70s, 80s, early 90s," he said. "They give out . . . are ill-prepared." It’s especially difficult for searchers to find lost seniors who have made "tragic mistakes" and paid with their lives, Martin said.
Baxter Park had 33 search and rescues during the regular 2004 camping season. Two people died – one of them on Katahdin. Caverly estimated that 100,000 people visited the park this year and that 50,000 of them climbed Katahdin, the state’s highest mountain. Thirty-three incidents may not seem like a high number, given park use level, he said, but search and rescue is increasingly costly to the park.
The park’s fiscal 2004 budget included $36,000 in a contingency account to pay staff overtime for search and rescue. Caverly said this year’s incidents ate up a lot of those funds. The costs to the park would be much high if not for the critical contribution of volunteer search and rescue organizations. Also, the Air National Guard does not charge for helicopter evacuations. The Guard absorbs the cost because they treat them as training operations."