this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2023
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He was probably afraid to call for help due to the insane prices the search and rescue folks charge. Might have wanted to wait another day or two to be sure he was really lost before calling for help.
Is this a joke or is this actually a thing in the US?
Hahahaha no really the US is just a nightmare in ways you havent even thought of, yet.
It’s a U.S. thing! Yay! You can buy insurance for it if you do a lot of backpacking but that’s rare. I believe it’s in the five figures for a rescue. But apparently occasionally it can be free if you’re lucky enough to get rescued by the one agency whose name I forget.
MIB?
Unfortunately they only come if you need to be rescued from aliens.
A childhood friend of mine had to sign a waiver in New Zealand because her and her team were climbing down some canyon notoriously hard to get to except by rescue helicopter. She got stuck, and the rest of the team went to go get help. She paid $58,000 in 1990s money for the rescue. So it's not just the US.
It depends on the state and payment is more likely required if local officials deem you negligent or if youʼre a part of a common pattern in that location (e.g. Floridians visiting southern Utah every winter and getting themselves stuck in cliffs).
States with laws allowing search and rescuers to charge for rescuing them, according to this 2021-10-06 New York Times article titled “You Got Lost and Had to Be Rescued. Should You Pay?”:
God help you if your rescuers call you an air ambulance, though.
USA: die or get crippled by debt for getting saved
In all fairness. The USA has some fucking gnarly terrain and is sparsely populated.
Sending out a chopper team to get you off a cliff face isn't cheap and is completely self inflicted, so I kinda get why they charge you for that.
Getting cancer on the other hand, shouldn't bankrupt you.
Still not going to cost you in Australia, one of most sparsely populated countries on the planet.
If it's an ambulance chopper, it will. Police and fire are socialised