Gadgetgeek wrote:As much as its not the preferred choice, maybe zoning areas as needing a qualified guide, or at least setting a threshold where someone could prove through prior experience, references and such that they were capable. Also as much as I don't like it, maybe we need to start seriously considering some areas to be body recovery only. Its hard to say that, but there are large parts of the Canadian wilds that its pretty well understood that you are on your own unless the EPIRB goes off. In some of these mountain areas maybe we need to start saying, look, this place is awesome, but you need to have your rescue set up before-hand. This would help limit traffic, and yes, if done for-profit, some operators would take the cash and walk away, but they would eventually get caught out. Yes some people would die, but at least in the mean time more people would have the rescue needed, and at the same time reduce the load on the normal resources.
how much winter alpine experience do you have?
NZ law guarantees everyone free access to all of the conservation estate at all times unless there are very extenuating circumstance like act of god events which are almost always eruptions here.
where does that happen in the developed world? ye you can argue its the fair solution but its not a nanny state and in free countries the masses would be repulsed by that setup,,, the way the outdoors works is, its all on your own head... do your homework, go prepared and accept the risks or accept the consequences. it doesnt limit traffic at all when you demand people pay for their own rescue, just more people who don't get rescued and die and then people cry its inhumane in a first world country where the majority of people expect that someone will come and rescue them, if you make people pay then they delay calling for rescue till the situation is more dire and more resources get spent on trying to save the people needing rescuing....
look at mount taranaki, there are so many ways into the park and to the top that its not practical to police at all and its the same for all the major north island volcanoes and no one controls the road access.
people will always die needlessly in alpine areas and you cant leglislate for it, the more expensive you make it for people the more they will just circumvent the process and cause more problems, they started charging for tramping hut use in NZ, now two thirds of trampers avoid paying their fees when they can get away with it... why when you are in a country that can afford to rescue people for free would you make things far more difficult for them to get rescued? this isnt Nepal where its a third world economy where most of the time no one can afford to send a helicopter if you're not paying for it. here we pay taxes to cover rescues if we're local and the resources are still there for now to cover foreigners, its proven around the world that when people know they have to pay for their rescue they put off calling for help far to long and cause bigger problems in the long run
th mountain is in direct site of major towns, would you feel good about loosing up there knowing people are dying because someones asking for money up front to rescue them?
from the land of the long white clouds...