You might prefer something like the practice in Europe, where mountaineers purchase rescue insurance which defrays the cost of choppers and planes, etc. that get involved. I encountered one such gentleman on Denali some years ago. He came to us complaining of frostbitten feet, along with general malaise , etc. It was pretty clear that he wasn't having fun any more and wanted the NPS to whisk him off the hill right away (This was at the 14,500 foot advance base camp)which I gather would have been the practice back home. We directed him to insure that his feet didn't thaw until he reached the hospital, and start his journey there by skiing down to the airstrip (7000 feet). This was standard practice twenty-five years ago -I am not clear on current policies, but it worked fine back then.

Rescues and recoveries on Denali do get a bit pricey, but here is another twist on the situation. The popularity of Denali, one of the Seven Summits, brings a lot of high spending alpinists to Alaska, who pump a significant amount of cash into the local economy, enabling those pesky taxes