[pct-l] Cost of SAR Airlift

[James]

I decided to weigh in on this discussion since I am a SAR member for Washoe County in Northern Nevada and I own a SPOT device.  Generally searches are under the jurisdiction of counties.  In Nevada they are under the Sheriff's department.  We have one of the most robust volunteer organizations with 5 different teams with as many as 40 members or more on each team.  One team, called the Hasty Team focuses on High Angle, technical and water rescue.  The team I am on provides logistics, 4 wheel drive trucks and backcountry search teams.  Another group provides quads and snowmobiles for transportation.  Two other small teams provide tracking and dog teams for both live searches and body recoveries.  In addition we have a squad of pilots who provide civil air patrol because we have large remote areas to search.  All of these teams and most of their equipment are provided by the volunteers themselves at their own expense.  A handful of vehicles are provided by the Sheriff's office in comparison to the massive number of vehicles provided by the members themselves.  Occasionally we get a tank of gas or a meal, but the majority of those out of pocket expenses are on us.  The only air resource that gets used by SAR is the Sheriff's Department's helicopter and that is only used part time.    In some situations it isn't available and the foot teams have to do the hard work of finding and extracting victims dead or alive.

Each county is different depending on their resources.  I would estimate that the closer you are to a large metropolitan area the more likely you are to have to pay for services.  That is because there are less volunteers and more stupid people doing stupid things.  Often the fire department and police unions are very jealous of volunteer organizations and fear we will cost them jobs.  That said I would say based on what I have heard from fellow team members, the public and accounts I have read, most counties do not charge.

As many of you, I do a lot of hiking alone and I have never come close to needing SAR services.  That said I make choices very carefully when I am alone and do not take risks I would take if I am with one or more individuals.  But when I am with people I always measure their's and my depth of experience and knowledge in terms of the choices I make.  For example I was with some of our best technical team members climbing the mountaineering route to Whitney when we were crossing the ledges just off the trail.  The team leader announces that we have to get across them before dark and we only had 45 minutes or so before it got dark.  I made the choice that I wasn't going to cross the ledges with a 60 pound pack rock climbing under that kind of time pressure so we all ended up turning around.  It ruined the trip for everyone but we all lived to climb another day.

I do carry a SPOT and I just renewed my contract.  It is dirt cheap for the services it provides.  It is only a $100 for the service and less then $13 for the "Rescue Insurance".  If you are serious about spending significant time in the backcountry I can't imagine why anyone wouldn't want the peace of mind especially if you do a lot of hiking alone.  Any of us with any significant amount of experience knows how things can go wrong very quickly especially as we get older.

Happy Trails!!
Jim