Paying for Search and Rescue?

Search and Rescue: How Much Are You Willing to Pay for Your Adventure?

By Amy Seigel, 7-07-05

It’s July, and by this time of the summer we’re all making regular trips outside to hike, camp, kayak, mountain bike, rock climb and generally attempt to find the most convoluted ways possible to get ourselves hurt, lost, or both while enjoying the mountains and canyons of Utah. While most excursions (extreme or otherwise) end uneventfully with nothing more than a few sore muscles and a sleepy car ride home, the risk of injury or even death is ever-present and usually under appreciated.

But what is even more remarkable than our propensity for wilderness disasters is that there are those who willingly put their lives on the line everyday to rescue us when we get in over our heads. Not only do these people risk life and limb saving perfect strangers from predicaments they usually bring upon themselves—either from inexperience or sheer stupidity—but most of them do it for free. The people I’m referring to, of course, are search and rescue volunteers. Did you get yourself into trouble rock climbing in Big Cottonwood Canyon? Never fear, the Salt Lake County Search and Rescue will help you out—and not charge you a red cent to do it. Stuck up a narrow canyon in Grand County? Don’t worry, you’ll still get rescued, but you better be ready to pay for it.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports that in 1996, Grand County became the first (and, to date, only) county in Utah to charge unlucky adventurers for their rescues. While the county does log the highest number of yearly rescues in the state, the decision to unburden local taxpayers by making visitors and residents alike pay out of pocket for search and rescue missions is not without controversy. While it might seem logical to charge only those who actually use the service (largely out of town visitors to the county’s famous recreation areas), one has to wonder about the kind of precedent being set by such a move.

Of course, it is easy to imagine situations in which asking individuals to pay for their rescues might actually be doing them a service—next time they’ll think twice about climbing big walls without the proper equipment or taking off on a day hike in the desert without water. But what about when experienced adventurers encounter the kind of unforeseen circumstances implicit in the very word “adventure�, or situations like this summer’s disappearance of Brennan Hawkins, the 11-year-old Boy Scout who vanished into the Summit County wilderness during a rather straightforward walk from the Scout camp’s climbing wall to his tent? Had Hawkins gone missing in Moab instead of the Uintas, his parents may have been left with a rather sizable bill for the search that ultimately returned their son home to them after four days.

But perhaps there’s a middle ground here. In my old stomping grounds, the high mountains of Colorado, a new system is giving experienced outdoor-folk the chance to guard against any fees they might incur in the event of a wilderness rescue. For $3 for one year or $12 for five years, the Colorado Outdoor Recreation Search and Rescue (CORSAR) card can reimburse search and rescue teams for costs incurred during rescues. Furthermore, owning valid hunting or fishing license in the state of Colorado gets you covered automatically.

Though the system is not without problems. Most of the people rescued from high-traffic locations like Pikes Peak and Garden of the Gods in El Paso County, are not experienced climbers with CORSAR cards, but rather tourists—individuals who are not supporting the Colorado Search and Rescue Fund. In these situations, several counties in Colorado have decided (like Grand County in Utah) to reserve the right to charge for their rescue services.

And while it’s unlikely that parents of children like Brennan Hawkins will ever be asked to pay for the massive searches undertaken on their behalf, one has to wonder if charging for rescues doesn’t risk endangering the lives of those who might be unable to pay and thus unwilling to call for help. Though I can’t imagine that anyone watching a friend be swept away by an avalanche or a flood-stage creek would hesitate for a moment to call for rescuers no matter what the cost, I do see the possibility for more mundane accidents to develop into full-fledged disasters if people are worried about calling for help right away. I shudder to think about what could happen if the inexperienced started attempting their own high-angle rope or river rescues.

While, for the time being, you won’t be charged for a rescue in most counties in the West, anyone considering heading outside for adventure should be aware of the risks involved and take it upon themselves to get educated about proper techniques and equipment. While paying $100 for a climbing class or avalanche safety seminar might seem excessive, just think of it as a little bit of insurance that might save you the cost of a rescue, or even save your life.

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