[pct-l] "Death" at Walker Pass

[Eric Lee]

Steven wrote:
>
Just curious.  What does an airlift out of the trail cost?  Is it covered by
health insurance?  Or just provided as a free gov't service like calling the
fire dept.
>

It depends on your location and your circumstances.  Most SAR airlifts are a
free service, but not always.  If they're not free then then they can be
catastrophically expensive.  You can purchase specific SAR insurance that's
supposed to cover any costs you may happen to incur.

I know here in Washington SAR is mostly volunteer-run and airlifts are
usually provided by the National Guard who doesn't charge for the service
because their pilots need flight hours anyway so they figure they might as
well burn the fuel doing something useful.  Other areas may have different
policies.

Eric