Another Cost for Thru Hiking - NH rescue fee

[peakbagger]

The likelyhood of having to pay for the privilege of being rescued in NH has been brought back to legislature again and this time it has a lot of traction. The big change this time is the option to pay a $18 per year fee to cover getting rescued, otherwise if you are rescued you get billed the states costs including helicopters.

All sort of issues that havent been answered, like

What if you are injured and dont want to be be rescued, does the F&G leave you there to die or do you have the option to call up some friends to rescue you?

What happens if someone else call in a rescue, (mom calls F&G when junior doesnt show up at home, while junior has bedded down with a new "friend")

Who decides if the $18 covers gross incompetence? (An "AT hiker" had a high profile rescue years ago when he bought a fifth of whiskey in Gorham NH and then hiked up Moriah on the AT and ultimately had to be resucued.)

Given that the state makes millions off of tourists, its pretty counterproductive to drive them away from actvitites that the state advertises but what can I say.

[Hosaphone]

$18 for all the free helicopter rides I want for a year? Sounds like a cheap date.

Seriously though, I dunno. In theory, it doesn't seem so unreasonable, but a lot of things need to be determined ahead of time as you point out.

[StylinLP38]

Its kinda like insurance. Alot of poeple pay it and those fee's would cover the cost of one rescue. It only works if enough people pay it every year to offset the cost of so many rescue's

[Datto]

Is there Creme Brulee involved with the rescue? You can't get that brought to the huts in New Hampshire, even from the Concierges. They just roll their eyes and say under their breath, "Another thru-hiker...".


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[Datto]

You would not believe the number of unprepared people I saw in The White Mountains on my AT thru-hike who were completely incoherent, ice-covered and unable to speak due to shivering. I was wearing every stitch of clothing I was carrying (gobs of clothing, multiple coats, two pairs of gloves, long-johns, the works) and I still was frozen to the bone -- the tourists I saw were in T-shirts and shorts. They had come through the same raging storm where I had been literally tossed up off my feet and deposited onto my head on the rocks several times on my way to getting out and to cover.

One of the tourists who had been told by the rangers to sit on the floor against a wall -- he was beyond his faculties when he struggled to get up and stumbled over to the rangers when I was standing there covered in ice. It took that tourist at least 90 seconds to get his repeated request understood by the ranger while I was standing there (I couldn't understand one hoot of what the guy was trying to say but it was just in a days work for the ranger). Finally it was understood -- the tourist wanted the ranger to go out into the storm and see if the ranger could find the tourist's dog who had run off in the storm.

A few hours later I would hear over the emergency radio that a hiker up near Eisenhower had broken his leg along the AT -- this was a 9:00pm. Rescue people went up "the hill" in the middle of that gawd-awful storm and got the guy down and to a hospital. I couldn't believe that anyone would have gone out in that huge of a storm, must less carry the guy down and get him to a hospital. Completely unbelievable.

The next morning I saw two other thru-hikers and had asked them -- individually and at two different times of day -- what they'd thought of that storm last night. Both thru-hikers said it was the only time during their thru-hike where they had feared for their life.

Those rangers and rescue people do not get NEAR the credit they deserve for rescuing so many tourists every year in The White Mountains.


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[Old Hiker]

So, I pay my $18 and get a free helo-ride-rescue. Does the $18 cover if the helo goes down and I have to be rescued by another helo? Or does the state just refund the $18 to my widow if it's decided that the first helo went down because the helo-driver was DUI (FlyingUI??)?

Sooooo many questions. Sooooo little time. Sooooo little do I care.

[Rasty]

So, I pay my $18 and get a free helo-ride-rescue. Does the $18 cover if the helo goes down and I have to be rescued by another helo? Or does the state just refund the $18 to my widow if it's decided that the first helo went down because the helo-driver was DUI (FlyingUI??)?

Sooooo many questions. Sooooo little time. Sooooo little do I care.

It's only paid to you. They figure your wife saves money by not having you spend money hiking anymore.

[atmilkman]

I'm not understanding. Who pays and what do you get if you do? Some type of card or what? What proof do you have? Is it something that you'll carry on you?

[jeffmeh]

How about somewhere to register:
1) I take full responsibility for myself
2) No one is compelled to rescue me
3) Anyone who does attempt to rescue me, does so voluntarily, does so at his own risk, and releases me from any liability

[Datto]

I'm not understanding. Who pays and what do you get if you do?

All hikers pay and are required to have the following dangle from their backpacks. Otherwise, no rescue.


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creme01.JPG

[hikerboy57]

i would think that if people actually paid the fee, some would feel entitled to that rescue that he wouldnt call in otherwise.
not a good move.

[Del Q]

Tough one. I served on a SAR team, did it for the right reasons.

Two sides to this debate...............the State or whoever covers the operating costs and/or they are volunteers. Side note - SAR volunteers live for calls to duty! Those are good days - time to get out there and do your job, money is a non-issue. They are there to save and rescue people, for whatever reason, dumb or not. They are still souls that need to be saved.

Other side............there is a cost to rescue and therefore, we will bill you. If you were in really deep doo-doo and made "the call", would you pay $5,000 to live / get rescued.

My guess is that payments over time would be accepted.

[Dogwood]

I'm fairly certain, under the NH law that was LAST considered, the state or rescuing agency had to prove GROSS NEGLIGENCE by the rescued party/parties for a rescue fee to be assessed. It sounded like, at least to me, NH wasn't seeking to charge everyone a rescue fee. I'm also fairly certain determing gross neglience could be debated in a court of law IF a rescue fee was assessed. I don't know all the nuances of the CURRENTLY proposed law, how it would be implemented. or how it would be enforced, and I'm sure the law, if passed in its current form, opens the door to possible abuse by money strapped state budget legislators. BUT since I don't venture off into the outdoors in a GROSSLY NEGLIGENT way I don't have ANY issue with NH raising the severity of this issue to the point where WE MUST CAREFLLY CONSIDER HOW PREPARED WE ARE before we venture into the outdoors in HIGHLY DANGEROUS SITUATIONS or we face the possible costs of being rescued IF we are found to be negligent.

It seems to me, The White Mountain Rangers and SAR in the region have ALL TOO OFTEN had to rescue folks who shouldn't have been up there in such HIGHLY dangerous times. An increasing population venture out into these dangerous situations ill or non-prepared and it weighs heavily on budgets and other folk's lives. I guess some in the SAR and governing bodies have seen enough of this wiilful ignorant life threatening behavior; they don't want folks to be so foolish, especially at the increasing expense of the state and increasing threat to SAR and other's lives. The message seems clear to me - head up there in HIGHLY DANGEOUS and LIFE THREATENING situations, ill-prepared, acting in a grossly negligent way and don't expect a free ride down, to the morgue, or to the hospital!

[Lyle]

Well, if they want public support for any of their plans, they should use some common sense and not do things like charging the Scout a couple of years ago for an extremely expensive, and totally unnecessary rescue. The scout was heading to Mt. Washington, and walked to the vehicle under his own power, yet was charged and exorbitant price, because they could. They paid countless professional F&G personnel overtime to "Oversee" the volunteers(who were way better trained than the F&G personnel). I would bet every off-duty employee got paid big time that weekend.

Because their own helicopter was off doing some PR or Chaufer duty, they rented one from the State of Maine and charged double or triple the actual cost. This was a Scout who followed AMC employee recommendations for routing, was adequately equipped, and had substantial experience. He made a couple of bad decisions made worse by unexpected flooding and was late making it out. The State charged him for every paperclip they could possibly think of.

[moldy]

It won't hold up in court. Most won't pay the 18 bucks, most won't pay the bill. Any attempt to collect will end up in court. The state does not charge to come to your rescue in town, in the countryside, down a dirt road. Why should they charge hikers for the same service that is free elsewhere in the state. Remindes me of the Roman Senator who owned his own fire brigade who would show up at your house fire and then negotiate a price to put out the blaze. They get more out of state hikers in NH than in state hikers, how are they going to administer this thing and make out of state hikers aware? The first time someone dies on the hill and there is some vague hint that this system delayed deployment of rescue for 1 second the lawsuits will come in and we will see it in the national news. They need to think it over.

[swjohnsey]

Sounds like New Hampshire alright.

[RCBear]

Legislate, don't legislate, rescue, don't rescue.... Not 1 bit of this topic nor its outcome changes in the least my preparation for and my style of hiking or backpacking.

[Old Hiker]

If you don't pay up front, but have to be rescued later, can you have a $20 bill in your bleeding fingers as the rescuers show up? Stapled to your forehead?

[RF_ace]

Just get a SARSAT beacon and purchase the optional SAR/ MEDIVAC insurance, emergency medical transport from inaccessible areas ain't cheap

[cliffordbarnabus]

live free or die
pay $18 and live

for me, the former