[pct-l] Lost Hiker Found

[Diarmaid Harmon]

As to the cost of rescue, and I will only speak for Oregon, the SAR folks are all volunteer and the air search is conducted by the National Guard. They have to fly a certain number of hours anyway and rescue flying meets those training requirements so there is no loss to the taxpayer. The only cost is the one or two Sheriff deputies assigned to the search. As one SAR guy told me they fear charging for rescue would make people less likely to call for rescue until they are in worse trouble then they are first in. 

Hiking Irish.   

Sent from my iPhone

On Apr 5, 2012, at 10:22 AM, Lisa Peru <lisaperu2011 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Plain old PRB would be cheaper, but in this case it wouldn't have helped, since he wasn't lost and didn't know anyone was searching. Still, I'm sure it would help in many cases. They can be rented cheapo, and most folks would lend you one for free. 
> 
> I'm still wondering what emergency equipment the rest of us are skipping in favor of gadgets. I carry rope, knife, fire, tarp, compass, map, first aid, etc. just like I did when Perry Mason's car phone was the state of the art. 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
> On Apr 5, 2012, at 1:02 PM, "James Vesely" <JVesely at edmsupply.com> wrote:
> 
>> I wonder what would be the cost effectiveness if the state or federal
>> gonernment were to subsdize something like SPOT for outdoors people?   
>> 
>> A couple of helicopters circling around for days and dozens of people on
>> the ground searching can't be cheap.  
>> 
>> Jim
>> 
>> ------------------------------
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> From: pct-l-bounces at backcountry.net
>> [mailto:pct-l-bounces at backcountry.net] On Behalf Of Ken Murray
>> Sent: Thursday, April 05, 2012 9:45 AM
>> To: .
>> Subject: Re: [pct-l] Lost Hiker Found
>> 
>> I may be confused by your narrative, if I misunderstand, sorry.
>> 
>> In SAR operations, there are often MANY teams sent out, each of which is
>> given a specific area to cover.  The teams should NOT go anywhere else.
>> Part of the skill that SAR uses is "mantracking", which involves
>> tracking boot/shoe tracks.  Having a bunch of people running all over
>> the place destroys that evidence.  This can be critical in the
>> situations where a person is off-trail.  It drives them crazy when a
>> bunch of volunteer go in and destroy those clues.
>> 
>> It is easy to look at things "after the fact", and say "AHA!  If they
>> just send hikers out in a radial pattern, they'd have found the person
>> faster.  The problem, of course, is that they DONT know those answers
>> prior to a person being found.  So there are processes that are designed
>> to work the maximal percentage of time, with the shortest AVERAGE search
>> time.  For a particular search it may work out to be not the fastest,
>> but you can't know that in advance.
>> 
>> BTW, if you are trying to get the attention of a helicopter (it is
>> UNBELIEVABLY hard to spot someone on the ground!!), the best way to do
>> this is to light a small fire, and throw some leaves/needles on it...a
>> lot of smoke.  Easy to spot from the air, will never be thought to be
>> normal.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> =============================
>> I saw the rescue searchers on foot stop at the county line going up the
>> mountain. They need to recruit some PCT hiker volunteers who aren't
>> stopped
>> by county lines and give them a radio.
>> 
>> I saw the S&R helecopter miss the hiker while it was flying up Mission
>> Creek - I had to point and signal and wave, eventually scrawling a
>> message
>> in the sand - they 'found' him a half hour later. Again, in this case, a
>> hiker on the ground would have been better, faster and less expensive.
>> 
>> 
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