A Safety Net

"The Defense Department regrets to inform you that your sons are dead because they were stupid.” [Top Gun, 1986]

There appears to be a rise in SOS calls to public safety departments for the rescues of soft adventurers who bite off more than they can chew and find themselves outside their comfort zones. (“Soft adventure” is a term used to describe a type of adventure tourism that requires little or no experience)

A shift in attitude has been noted by Search & Rescue agencies in the growing number of folks who venture into the wild without proper training and/or equipment.

Perhaps it is the easy and inexpensive access to GPS systems, personal locator beacons, and satellite phones…quite frankly, I’m not sure why this is happening at an increasing frequency…folks behaving in an unsafe manner because they think they can rely on personal technologies to get them out of trouble.

I describe it as a “Theme Park Mentality” – making the conscious choice to go into a dangerous situation with a lack of experience and expecting to be bailed out or rescued if it gets too uncomfortable.

More and more National Parks Services, Fire Departments, and Search & Rescue agencies are starting to charge fees (or at least seriously considering it) to folks calling for a rescue – particularly if the SOS falls into a false distress or non-emergency category.

In the past, hikers, campers, and other wilderness adventurers were more self-sufficient.

"In the past, people who got in trouble self-rescued; they got on their hands and knees and crawled out," says John Amrhein, "We saw the increase in non-emergencies with cell phones: people called saying 'I'm cold and damp. Come get me out.' These take it to another level."

With personal locator beacons, Search & Rescue agencies do not know in advance the nature of the emergency….or if there is an emergency at all.

There was an incident in Alaska either this past summer or the summer before, when a couple of tourists were flown into the backcountry for a week long camping trip. They activated their personal locater beacons not once, but two times – for non-emergency situations: It was dark! And they were cold. [oh my] Unfortunately for the tax payers, the Coast Guard and National Guard were called in to “rescue” them from themselves.

Perhaps initiating a fee system for rescue isn’t such a bad idea after all.

References

EKRon (November, 2009). PLBs and uncessary rescues. Educated Guess Work. Retrieved January 25, 2010, http://www.educatedguesswork.org/2009/11/plbs_and_unecessary_rescues.html