Too Tired Hunters Rescued by Helicopter...

Gorilla · Sep 14, 2009

Can anyone find me the number for Life Flight Search and Rescue. I am going to add them to speed dial on my cell phone, so the next time I am too tired to hike out I can call them for a lift. Think of all the places you could hunt if you knew you only had to go one way and not consider a round trip. Do you think they would fly out an Elk as well?

They have set a bad precedence by air lifting these pansies out when no one was injured and not charging them for the ride out.

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=7908286

fishinghunter14 · Sep 14, 2009

i agree im sorry but if you hike into a place and get to tired to hike out you prolly shouldnt have been there in the first place. and then gettin a free ride out when even people that are injured end up payin for the ride through insurance thats just not right

$MAVERICK$

gb22 · Sep 14, 2009

I agree with you guys completely. How do we know there was "no charge"?

Within the shadows, go quietly.

alp75 · Sep 14, 2009

If they don't drop off at a hospital there is no charge. Just refuse medical service and it's a free ride.

gb22 · Sep 14, 2009

OK. I've now read all of the comments and they DID NOT HAVE TO PAY for the rescue. The one who tells the WHOLE STORY says all of the men are in excellent physical condition. I don't buy that. They rode to the top of the mountain on 4-wheelers and then chased the wounded goat down the mountain to where it was too hard to get back up.

They were totally unprepared and are not hunters. They are "city folk".

Within the shadows, go quietly.

Bullelk1 · Sep 14, 2009

That constitutes a lifetime revocation of the man cards.

foundation · Sep 14, 2009

Search and Rescue incidents along the Wasatch Front have become a joke over the last ten years . I blame a lot of it on cell phones , and just stupid people that have no business being in the hills .
On a lot of these I'm tired rescues there needs to come a point when the tired people are told to climb up or down them selves .
As a matter of pride I know that I would have to be in pretty bad shape before I would ever call for help .

antlerrick · Sep 14, 2009

Geeeeezzzzz If only ktc and I would have known this info on Saturday, we wouldn't be hurting so bad today!!! LOL...

Gator · Sep 14, 2009

LAST EDITED ON Sep-14-09 AT 09:19PM (MST)[p]Research you guy's need to do more research. LOL

"I have found if you go the extra mile it's Never crowded".

Gorilla · Sep 14, 2009

Gator.....please enlighten us!

gb22 · Sep 14, 2009

I did the research.

I don't know of my own personal knowledge (I wasn't there.) but I know what the people who were there claim happened. The "hunters" rode 4-wheelers to the top. They were there to help a handicapped hunter (I take two of them quite often.) get his goat. He shot it...non-fatally and six other guys followed it to the bottom of a steep canyon. They decided it was too difficult to get back up...they called for help. The one telling the story says they now realize the right thing to have done would have been to leave the wounded goat and never get in that situation.

I think they were unprepared. Period.

Within the shadows, go quietly.

hornkiller · Sep 15, 2009

thats why bear "man vs wild" makes his show for people like this if they got down there then really think about it they could get back out unless they was jumping of 30' foot ledges

Nova88 · Sep 16, 2009

i find this story pretty humorous actually. i liked the comment about turning in your man card good stuff.

bottom line if you can't hike back up what you hiked down don't do it. that should be common sense

http://www.mybinocularharness.com

HardcoreOutdoor · Sep 16, 2009

LAST EDITED ON Sep-16-09 AT 11:48AM (MST)[p]Based on 10 years of Mountain Rescue experience and another 4 years as a SAR Tech-EMT on the Sheriff's helicopter two things in this story sound out of whack to me.

First, it is always easier to up climb then down climb. It is extraordinary that they were comfortable climbing down the terrain but not up it. Most people have no problem going up but "get stuck" trying to go back down because they can't see their feet and the route as well. Unless of course they were doing the Bear Grylls (don't get me started on him) type jumps and simply couldn't climb back up.

Second, SAR calls are usually handled by county sheriffs or state police and they are the ones that usually call for an air ambulance resource if they determine one is warranted. Also, air ambulance services are for profit and notoriously conservative in terms of what they will and won't do and where they will and won't land. They are not rescue helicopters, they are air ambulances. They have Paramedics and Nurses on board not SAR Techs. It is usually the state or local law enforcement or military helicotpers that do the rescuing and then go back to a controlled LZ to transfer the patients to an air ambo so they can be transported to the hospital. If I decided to transport a victim directly to the hospital after I rescued them it had to be a life or death situation and even then I had to answer for it.

I doubt seriously that the air ambulance did this deal for free. Somebody got charged something or there was another reason they did it like some sort of VIP relationship or a public relations move.

There has to be more to this story and based on my experience, there almost always is.

Wade
www.HardcoreOutdoor.com