February 21, 2007
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I'm pleased as punch those stranded mountain climbers were rescued.
However, that said, I'm also tired to death of people's risk-intense hobbies/avocations requiring other people to risk their lives to save the hobbyists' sorry butts. Not to mention the expense born by the taxpayers.
Call me a Scrooge of the mingiest sort, but since these mountains are publicly-owned property, it wouldn't be unreasonable to require climbing permits, including a mandatory insurance policy to cover the cost of hauling men and equipment up the mountain to haul the climber back down if he gets stuck up there.
Comments (5)
That's a good solution. I've puzzled over this before -- I can't go with the folks who say, "Let 'em up there, it was their stupid decision." No, we as a society MUST continue to engage in life-saving ventures, even for fools. But I couldn't think of a way around it, short of requiring people to pay oodle-thousands of dollars every time they went up to such a site.
Duh on me. Insurance. Perfect solution.
That sounds like a great idea! You have to have a permit to fish and hunt, and a liscense/certification of some sort for sky diving. Why not mountain climbing?
Most of the people up there rescuing them were volunteers, or people in a job that requires them to do that kind of thing.
Presumably the reason there exists a job requiring someone to do that kind of thing is because of the people who think climbing mountains in the winter is a keen idea.
If people stayed off mountains in the winter, no rescues would be necessary, true?
True.
I'm not saying they shouldn't be able to do stupid stuff like climb mountains in February, but they should expect to shoulder the financial burden of their rescue, if rescue is required. They shouldn't view their possible rescue as being everyone else's responsibility.
That is a good idea, Anne, time to write your congressman.
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