Outdoors Impaired...

As I said in Cranial Malfunction a few months ago, "we are no longer 'required' to work as we once were" while in the outdoors...

Once I can afford the monitoring fee and the actual beacon, I want to get a SPOT locator. They are small and lightweight, and as long as you have a clear view of the sky, your chances of survival when in a scary situation multiplies exponentially. It makes me wonder how local and state agencies are going to start regulating when they will, and won't, go out for a rescue. With stories like this one found in the New York Times something is going to need to change:

Last fall, two men with teenage sons pressed the help button on a device they were carrying as they hiked the challenging backcountry of Grand Canyon National Park. Search and rescue sent a helicopter, but the men declined to board, saying they had activated the device because they were short on water.

The group’s leader had hiked the Grand Canyon once before, but the other man had little backpacking experience. Rangers reported that the leader told them that without the device, “we would have never attempted this hike.”

The group activated the device again the next evening. Darkness prevented a park helicopter from flying in, but the Arizona Department of Public Safety sent in a helicopter whose crew could use night vision equipment.

The hikers were found and again refused rescue. They said they had been afraid of dehydration because the local water “tasted salty.” They were provided with water.

Helicopter trips into the park can cost as much as $3,400 an hour, said Maureen Oltrogge, a spokeswoman for Grand Canyon National Park.

So perhaps it is no surprise that 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.

Pretty sure I don't need to comment on how ridiculous these guys are. I will say it a million times probably - some people just don't belong in the outdoors...

(Article originally found at Trout Underground)


Click here to see an additional story just posted this morning on The Goat about K-Mart employees putting batteries in the SPOT locators, not assuming that store patrons would activate the beacons just to see how long it would take for a helicopter to arrive...