ok, so wasn't hew hampshire the state that drew a lot of ire here at ets - go here - because they wanted to charge for search and rescue?

go here to see why (IMHO) it's a good idea to charge.

Good grief. This is almost as bad as calling 911 because you were shorted on McNuggets.

You might not have noticed, but those are the people who didn't get a rescue mission sent. How much do you figure SAR should charge for saying "NO."

I am willing to bet he had to pay his own phone company for the cell phone call though.

I never argued that there are no idiots doing dumb stuff, there are plenty of them.
What I did say was that you can not just let Darwin's Rules play out, no matter how tempting that is.
You can not do it for social reasons, and you can not do it for economic reasons either.

I'm a bit divided on the issue of paying for rescue. On the one hand mountaineering is not typically a poor man's sport and anyone with substantial means should be wiling to contribute to their own rescue. Justified or not.

On the other hand one of the best way of maintaining a robust rescue capability is to keep the rescuers busy. Training helps but there is simply no substitute for an actual rescue with real world stress and fear and pressure. The real thing, even when it turns out to be a frivolous waste of time, feels completely different.

In theory if they hadn't spent their time and effort rescuing this fool they would have spent a similar amount of time and resources on a training mission.

IMO if this guy has money he should be presented a bill to both dissuade him from doing something this foolish again and to pay for resources expended. But if the fools have few resources I see no point in making them paupers.

Did the Ghostbusters charge for removal? I think so.

Seriously. I don't think this is a always charge, always free situation. I think at some point LEO or the county attorney should make a determination to charge or not.

I am not a LEO, but I know that there are plenty of investigations done by officers where they feel there is nothing there but send it too the DA, or county atty, and they make the final decision on it. And vice versa.

What really needs to be addressed is the ability to enforce those fines.

"He asked if there was a helicopter available."

They should have said Yes, and then given him the phone number of the local air charter service.

"What I did say was that you can not just let Darwin's Rules play out, no matter how tempting that is."

Party Pooper!