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HB2509 Approved by the House:
OpEd: Electronic locator beacons, a mountaineer's viewpoint
Published as a Guest Editorial
The Bulletin
Bulletin Reporter James Sinks broke the news that House Bill
2509 might require “mountain climbers” and guides to carry an electronic beacon
when they venture above the treeline on Mt. Hood.
A controversy erupted between experienced mountaineers and those who would
reduce government costs by controlling irresponsible thrill seekers asking for
expensive search and rescue efforts while endangering volunteers.
According to an Oregon State report, climbing accounts for 3.4% of rescues,
mushroom picking 3.0%, hiking 13.8%, vehicle, ATVs, snowmobiles 20.5%. Enough
said.
Bulletin Reporter Lily Raff wrote about the controversy in an excellent in-depth
nine column front page Sunday Perspective: “Locator Beacons, Lifesavers or
Unnecessary?”
Lawmakers recalled the 1986 Episcopal School Tragedy where seven teens and two
adults died in an unmarked snow cave while for days searchers combed the broad
snow slopes of Mt. Hood. The leaders had made many common sense basic
mountaineering errors. This tragedy led to the invention of the electronic
Mountain Locator Unit (MLU).
For ten days in December last year, the world’s media focused on the plight of
three experienced mountain climbers missing in a storm near the summit of Mt.
Hood. Two of the three north face winter ice climbers may have fallen, stranding
Kelly James. He called his home in Texas using his cell phone, triggering the
rescue effort. Days later, when the weather cleared, searchers quickly found
Kelly who had died from hypothermia shortly after his one phone call. Kelly did
not call 911 for rescue.
In February, eight adventurers challenged Mt. Hood by climbing north up the snow
slope from the parking lot to Illumination Saddle to camp in two snow caves. The
next morning, while descending the easy slopes in a forecast snowstorm, three
became separated from their five companions. Very poor navigation had led them
90 degrees east to a steeper snow slope. Three slid down uncontrolled, abandoned
two of their backpacks and then hiked for forty minutes until forced to spend
the night ill equipped and un-prepared. They called for rescue. Searchers found
them next morning, inexcusably wet, cold, hungry and thirsty. The group
committed a comedy of mountaineering errors.
Note that they called rescuers every hour by cell phone. None of the three had
their personal GPS to report their exact position or to find the nearby parking
lot. However, searchers easily figured out where they were from their phoned
information.
By chance, one of the two rented MLUs among the eight climbers was with the
group of three. Portland Mountain Rescue (PMR) used the Mountain Locator Unit
system. Searchers commented that the MLU was “hard to use and not very precise”.
PMR advocates the use of electronic communications with GPS receivers but does
not believe the State should require anyone to use “electronic signaling
devices”. I agree.
The following is my observation, speaking from the experience of a traditionally
trained mountaineer.
First, a rescue does not begin until a Responsible Person calls 911 if the
adventurer does not return by an agreed time.
Second, when a person becomes stranded due to serious illness or injury to themselves or
others, it may be better to phone for help then, rather than waiting for the
Responsible Person to call 911 hours or days later. Experience tells me to have
this option.
MLUs: Mt. Hood Mountain Locator Units are simple radio transmitters. They are
managed by Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office, which is liable for maintenance,
battery replacement, rental and user instruction.
Note that MLUs require a separate radio or phone call to 911 before any search
begins. They are only available on Mt. Hood.
PLBs: A better option is the Personal Locator Beacon. These strong radios
broadcast a signal to satellites that is relayed to the local County Sheriff
often within five minutes with GPS Latitude and Longitude coordinates. They cost
about $450 at local stores and do not require a subscription. The batteries last
for years. They weigh a reasonable 12 ounces. Serious backcountry adventurers
may want to own one.
SAT-CELLs: A third option is a Satellite Cell Phone. These units work like a PLB, but
you can verbally send your GPS coordinates and chat. They are heavy, expensive
and require a monthly subscription.
FRSs: "Family Radio Service"
Walkie-talkie radios are a low cost option, but someone must be listening.
Best option: Carry your own everyday Cell Phone and your simple GPS.
A good cell phone is FREE with a $20 per month, two-year subscription including
200 free monthly minutes. One can call for help and give their very accurate GPS
coordinates.
My friends choose to bring their own cell phones, GPS receivers, base plate
compasses, USGS topo maps, and the knowledge of how to use them together. The
cost of a quality map, compass and GPS is $136.
Robert Speik pursues an active retirement while writing for
TraditionalMountaineering.org
http://www.traditionalmountaineering.org/News_Lost_HoodGroup.htm
Oregon House Bill 2509 opposed by Mountain Rescue Units
MEDIA RELEASE
March 23, 2007
PMR Statement on MLU's and PLB's
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Portland Mountain Rescue’s (PMR) mission is to save lives through rescue and
mountain safety education. For the past 30 years, PMR has been readily available
to search for lost backcountry travelers, assist injured climbers, and provide
other ‘safety-net’ services for outdoor enthusiasts who have made a
miscalculation about mountain conditions or had an accident. Recent rescue
missions have attracted national headlines and inspired some members of the
Oregon State Legislature to sponsor House Bill 2509 that would require climbers,
on Mount Hood, to carry a two-way device (cell-phone or walkie-talkie) and a
Mountain Locator Unit (MLU) / Personal Locator Beacon (PLB) if climbing over
10,000 feet.
House Bill 2509 has generated much discussion in the mountaineering and mountain
rescue communities alike. Many of these organizations believe that the focus of
the legislation is somewhat misguided. Safe mountaineering requires skill,
planning, humility and common sense; and many feel that requiring the use of
MLUs/PLBs will diminish the value for learning the skills required to travel
safely in the backcountry or above timberline.
PMR agrees that MLUs/PLBs can make it easier to locate lost individuals in some
situations and we would prefer that more parties carry them. However, we believe
the emphasis should be on the front-end of a climber’s experience in the
outdoors: education. As part of that education process an aspiring climber
should become familiar with the use of a map and compass, global positioning
systems (GPS), MLU/PLB, a cell-phone or other devices that could assist in
finding one’s location.
PMR foresees three potential and unfortunate outcomes if House Bill 2509 were to
pass:
1. Devalues safety education – By providing climbers with a false sense of
security we have devalued the motivation to develop the proper safe traveling
skills and planning for unexpected situations, thus leading to more rescues.
2. More danger for rescuers - It will place volunteer rescuers in more danger by
fostering an unrealistic expectation that carrying government-mandated equipment
entitles climbers to rescue regardless of unsafe conditions.
3. Delayed rescue calls – Search and rescue experts indicate that if penalties
exist for stranded or injured climbers, who do not carry an MLU/PLB, they often
delay calling. This results in further danger for the stranded or injured party
and the rescuers alike.
PMR believes the emphasis should be on education that MLUs/PLBs are available
for climbers to use, along with other navigational devices, instead of
misguiding the public by mandating those devices as the “silver bullet” to
address an undefined problem.
http://www.pmru.org/pressroom/headlines/MLU&PLBStatement.html
MOUNTAIN RESCUE ASSOCIATION URGES OREGON LEGISLATURE TO POSTPONE HOUSE BILL 2509 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Rescue Leaders Say Mandating Safety Equipment May Actually
INCREASE Number of Search and Rescue Operations
(March 21, 2007) — The Mountain Rescue Association urges the Oregon State
Legislature to postpone indefinitely House Bill (HB) 2509, which requires
mountaineers to carry specific electronic equipment.
1. Rescue mountaineers nationwide believe that legislation
pertaining to any backcountry activity and the rescues of lost or injured
backcountry users
should be deliberate, and;
2. should include detailed planning meetings with the
backcountry user group as well as the mountain rescue community.
The Mountain Rescue Association feels that Oregon’s HB 2509 has been neither
deliberate nor included such important meetings, particularly with the rescue
community that serves Mt. Hood.
State and Federal lawmakers do have a duty to respond to public calls for action, but they also have a duty to the emergency medical service providers in the community. While Oregon’s HB 2509 responds to a public call for action, its path through the Oregon General Assembly appears to not include detailed planning meetings with the mountain rescue community or the mountain climbing community.
While HB 2509 has public support, the public appears to be
unaware of the dangerous unintended consequences that this legislation may
create – consequences that could actually increase the number of rescue
operations, thereby putting the rescue community in greater risk.
Under Oregon law, individuals can be fined for reckless behavior that results in
search and/or rescue operations. Ironically, Oregon’s HB 2509 could actually
increase the number of search and rescue operations on Mt. Hood.
The MRA agrees with Portland Mountain Rescue assessment that HB 2509 could foster “an unrealistic expectation that carrying government-mandated equipment entitles climbers to rescue.” We also share the concern of North America’s oldest organized mountain rescue team, Oregon’s “Crag Rats,” who believe that, “A hurried review in the middle of a legislative session is neither sufficient nor appropriate.”
About the Mountain Rescue Association
The Mountain Rescue Association (MRA) is "a volunteer organization dedicated to
saving lives through rescue and mountain safety education." The MRA, established
in 1958 at Timberline Lodge at Mount Hood, Oregon, is the oldest Search and
Rescue association in the United States.
With over 90 government authorized units in the US, Canada and other countries,
the MRA has grown to become the critical mountain search and rescue resource in
the United States. The large majority of our membership is made up of unpaid
professional volunteers who have been fully accredited in Mountain Search and
Rescue operations.
http://www.mra.org/documents/MRApositiononMt.Hood.pdf
HB2509 was approved by the Oregon House and sent to the Senate!
KATU NEWS. COM
Story Published: March 28, 2007 at 1:45 PM PST
http://www.katu.com/news/6753697.html
Note: Read the real story about the three people
"saved by their MLU and their warm dog"!
--Webmeister Speik
Note: See
the text of HB 2509, as approved!--Webmeister Speik
Oregon Bill Requiring Emergency Beacons on Mt. Hood May Not Become Law
Oregon Bill Requiring Emergency Locator Beacons on Mt. Hood
May Not Become Law (05/15/2007)
An Oregon bill that would require Mt. Hood climbers to carry emergency locator
beacons recently stalled in the Oregon Senate leading some to believe that the
measure will fail this legislative session.
Earlier this year the Access Fund joined the Mountain Rescue Association and
Portland Mountain Rescue in opposing a mandatory use of these simple one way
devices. See the Access Fund testimony on the bill www.accessfund.org/pdf/HR_2509_Testimony.pdf.
Find more background at
www.accessfund.org/pubs/en/e-news77.htm#_Oregon_Beacon_Bill.
Steve Rollins, who conducts SAR activities on Mt. Hood, says the legislature
can't mandate good judgment. “I'm a strong believer that the laws of nature are
going to be far more powerful than any law our legislators come up with. And if
we can educate people to respect the laws of nature more, that will go a lot
further than any law that we come up with.”
The bill, while a well-intentioned attempt at addressing recent high profile
rescue and recovery efforts on Oregon’s Mt. Hood, is a knee-jerk reaction and
will not prevent climbers from being injured or killed in climbing related
accidents. The bill simply adds a layer of red-tape to climbing a mountain and
at worst could actually give less experienced climbers a sense of false security
when presented with conditions out of their control.
Despite climbing groups and professional rescuers coming out against the bill,
in late March the Oregon House of Representatives voted 33-22 to require the
locator devices for all Mt. Hood climbers traveling above 10,000 feet. However,
the bill was referred to the Senate General Government Committee where it is
expected to not emerge with a vote in part because the legislation had no
existing enforcement capability and no money to fund its regulation. Critics of
the bill also note that the measure is “reactive, not proactive.” The Hood River
News reports that virtually every mountaineering organization in Oregon opposed
SB 2509 and pointed out that state statistics showed only 3.4 percent of rescues
statewide involved climbers. Many in the Oregon legislature are now focused on
efforts to fund search and rescue efforts conducted by county sheriff
departments. For more information contact jason@accessfund.org
http://www.accessfund.org/regions/news/or
The rest of the story
Deschutes County Sheriffs Search and Rescue Volunteer Coordinator Al Hornish, a 12 year veteran of DCSAR, stated the following in an interview published on January 26, 2012 in the Bend Oregon Source Weekly: "We have grown a lot over the past decade." "The nature of missions has changed as well. There are more Rescues and less Searches, mostly because of the better technology available." Read More. --Robert Speik, January 26, 2012
FIFTEEN WEEKS
Wednesday, July 7, 2010, or nearly four months since my fall off Mount Temple.
After so much time, there is much to dwell on. The negatives: the pain of so
many fractures, the sleeplessness, the drugs and the messed up things they do to
you. It’s easy to get stuck in the negative; yet some part of me is drawn there
by some morbid fascination.
How big am I then? Not very. I made a mistake, a pretty small mistake. Or
more honestly, I made a series of pretty small mistakes. I almost died for these
transgressions. I would have died if it had not been for a cell phone and the
chain of events it was able to put into motion. (I’ve owned a cell phone for
barely six years.) I might not have died that very day, March 25, 2010, but from
where we were, we were a long, long way from the medical care my injuries
demanded: a trained trauma surgeon in an Emergency Room. Perhaps I would have
lasted one night. Maybe not. It changes my perspective about what a day means.
Carpe diem no longer seems some frat-boy cry to party. Today, means everything.
The Steve House Training Blog
Deschutes County Sheriff's Search and Rescue Deputy Jim Whitcomb, assistant SAR coordinator reports on a recent 911 "false alarm". He notes that the inadvertent activation happened in a pack with an older SPOT-1 device. Whitcomb said it was a first-generation version that’s easier to accidentally set off while in a pack. “It is important to remember that technology can be a great asset, but can just as easily be a liability,” the deputy said in a news release, urging users of such devices to regularly monitor such gear. SAR will respond to all SPOT activations, treating them as an emergency, unless contact can be made with whoever is carrying the device, to confirm otherwise, Whitcomb said. Read More, Robert Speik, 07-22-2012.
WARNING - *DISCLAIMER!*
Mountain climbing has inherent dangers that can, only in part, be mitigated
Read more . . .
HB2509 mandates electronic locator beacons on Mt. Hood - climbers' views
Oregon HR 2509 as approved on March 28, 2007
ACCIDENTS ON MOUNT HOOD
Mount Hood - Three hikers and a dog rescued on Mt. Hood
Mount Hood - What happened to the three
North Face ice climbers?
Mount Hood - Solo climber falls from Cooper Spur
Mount Hood - climbing accident claims three lives -Final Report and our Analysis
Mount Hood - Notable mountain climbing accidents Analyzed
Mount Hood - Solo hiker drowns while crossing Mt. Hood's Sandy River
Mount Hood - Solo climber slides into the Bergschrund and is found the following day
Mount Hood - The Episcopal School Tragedy
Mount Hood - experienced climbers rescued from snow cave
Mount Hood - a personal description of the south side route
Mount Hood - fatal avalanche described by Climbing Ranger
Mount Hood - avalanche proves fatal for members of Mazamas climbing group
Mount Hood - snowboard rider dies on Cooper Spur
Mount Hood - fatal fall on snow, Cooper Spur Route
Mount Hood - fatal fall on snow from the summit
Mount Hood - climb shows the need for knowledge
Mount Hood - climb ends in tragedy
Mount Hood - rescue facilitated by use of a VHF radio
MORE
ACCIDENT REPORTS 
Lost and Found
Oregon State Search and Rescue Statues
six PDF pages
Missing California family found, dad dies from exposure and hypothermia
Missing man survives two weeks trapped in snow-covered car
Missing snowmobile riders found, Roger Rouse dies from hypothermia
Longacre Expeditions teen group rescued from the snowdrifts above Todd Lake
Lost climber hikes 6.5 miles from South Sister Trail to Elk Lake
Hiking couple lost three nights in San Jacinto Wilderness find abandoned gear
Expert skier lost five days in North Cascades without Essentials, map and compass
Climber disappears on the steep snow slopes of Mount McLaughlin
Hiker lost five days in freezing weather on Mount Hood
Professor and son elude search and rescue volunteers
Found person becomes lost and eludes rescuers for five days
Teens, lost on South Sister, use cell phone with Search and Rescue
Lost man walks 27 miles to the highway from Elk Lake Oregon
Snowboarder Found After Week in Wilderness
Searchers rescue hiker at Smith Rock, find lost climbers on North Sister
Girl Found In Lane County After Lost On Hiking Trip
Search and rescue finds young girls lost from family group
Portland athlete lost on Mt. Hood
Rescues after the recent snows
Novice couple lost in the woods
Broken Top remains confirmed as missing climber
Ollalie Trail - OSU Trip - Lost, No Map, Inadequate Clothing
Real Survival Strategies
FREE Clinic on Real Survival Strategies and Staying Found with Map, Compass and GPS together
What do you carry in your winter day and summit pack?
Why are "Snow Caves" dangerous?
Why are "Space Blankets" dangerous?
Why are "Emergency Kits" dangerous?
How can you avoid Hypothermia?
Missing climbers on Mount Hood, one dies of exposure, two believed killed in fall
Missing California family found, dad dies from exposure and hypothermia
Missing man survives two weeks trapped in snow-covered car
Missing snowmobile riders found, Roger Rouse dies from hypothermia
Olympic Champion Rulon Gardner lost on snowmobile!
Lost Olympic hockey player looses feet to cold injury
Expert skier lost five days near resort in North Cascades without map, compass, gps or cell phone
Mount Hood - The Episcopal School Tragedy
Mount Hood - experienced climbers rescued from snow cave
How can you learn the skills of snow camping?
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About Alpine Mountaineering:
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