Aus loses on the idiot count

[ollster]

Just thought a few may find this article interesting.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/scien ... parks.html

[tasadam]

So I'm half way through the video, and I paused to disconnect the speakers, I just know there's about to be a fair bit of annoying screaming!

[ollster]

about to be a fair bit of annoying screaming!

Yeah, people get so selfish when they're being gored. "Geeze, shut up willya, I'm trying ta read!"

[photohiker]

when the hikers pressed the button again the following morning, park personnel gave them no choice but to return home. The leader was issued a citation for creating hazardous conditions in the parks.

They should have done both those things the first time the jerks hit an emergency button for a non-emergency.

[flatfoot]

This is via slashdot:

"The National Park Service is finding technology to be a double-edged sword. While new technologies can and do save lives, the NPS is also finding that unseasoned hikers and campers are now boldly going where they never would have gone before, counting on cellphones, GPS, and SPOT devices to bail them out if they get into trouble. Last fall, a group of hikers in the Grand Canyon called in rescue helicopters three times by pressing the emergency button on their satellite location device. When rangers arrived the second time, the hikers complained that their water supply tasted salty. 'Because of having that electronic device, people have an expectation that they can do something stupid and be rescued,' said a spokeswoman for Grand Teton National Park. 'Every once in a while we get a call from someone who has gone to the top of a peak, the weather has turned and they are confused about how to get down and they want someone to personally escort them. The answer is that you are up there for the night.'"

This is an interesting comment:

During a grand canyon in 2002 I was chatting with a NPS ranger during a rest and he mentioned that a helicopter evacuation cost $3,500. He said the biggest problem were guys in their twenties who thought they could hike from the south rim to the river and back up in 1 day in July with just a Nalgene bottle of water.

Are there similar charges here? Which states?


... and these quotes from the linked NY times article:

In an extreme instance in April, two young men from Las Vegas were killed in Zion National Park in Utah while trying to float a hand-built log raft down the Virgin River. A park investigation found that the men “did not have whitewater rafting experience, and had limited camping experience, little food and no overnight gear.”

“They told their father that they intended to record their entire trip on video camera as an entry into the ‘Man vs. Wild’competition” on television, investigators wrote.

and:

One of the most frustrating new technologies for the parks to deal with, rangers say, are the personal satellite messaging devices that can send out an emergency signal but are not capable of two-way communication. (Globalstar Inc., the manufacturer of SPOT brand devices, says new models allow owners to send a message with the help request.)

In some cases, said Keith Lober, the ranger in charge of search and rescue at Yosemite National Park in California, the calls “come from people who don’t need the 911 service, but they take the SPOT and at the first sign of trouble, they hit the panic button.”

The article is full of similar stories.

[photohiker]

Posted yesterday: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=4670

Charge them, I say!

[Son of a Beach]

Posted yesterday: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=4670

Charge them, I say!

These two topics have now been merged.