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Comment by sgregnt | Hacker News Reader

Why not sell individual permits and make it so expansive that it covers the rescue?

Rescues above 7000m aren't really an organized affair. When I traveled to the Himalayas I carried rescue insurance and it specifically excluded any efforts above 7000m. When you hear about attempts made to save people at high altitude it's typically opportunistic rescues or folks going back for their friends.

When Scott Fischer was stricken, his friend Anatoli Boukreev climbed up to him with oxygen. Same with Francys Arsentiev, her husband Sergei went back for her and died. On K2, Ger McDonnell attempted a solo rescue of three incapacitated Korean climbers. It isn't like there's a strike force of Reinhold Messner clones waiting at Base Camp ready to run up and pluck tourists off the mountain.

Edit: Hell, rescue below 7000m or 2000m isn't guaranteed. Back in 2009 one of my friends turned around on Aconagua just before the summit due to weather. During her descent she passed an ascending party. That group got disoriented and trapped by the storm. By the time rescuers reach them four days later two climbers were dead or dying.

It's hard to put a price on the certain lives of rescuers that will be lost (given enough rescue missions).

Just tell the climbers in advance they will not mount rescue missions for people who do not meet a minimum threshold of competence and preparation.

How about not mounting publicly funded rescue missions at all? You can pay for insurance if you want someone to risk their life to come get you.

they already do this. theres a huge amount of luck that factors into a summit for a ton of climbs. they spend weeks just acclimating let alone the amount of preparation prior to their climbs (and the fact that people who want to just pay to summit are not physically capable or even allowed up, theres actual physical confrontations by guides to head back more often than you'd think).

theres a reason people are left for dead and walk back to camps in the middle of the night (beck weathers is the de facto example) and its because they are so incredibly competent and prepared that they are able to survive but at extreme costs to themselves and those around

Its not that hard to put a price on it. As an avid mountaineer, I would attempt a rescue for a cool 10M USD.

Curious of extent to what climbing have you done and what extent of alpinism you have been around if you think price is the right way to gauge a rescue attempt? Im a climber myself and while not really interested in alpinism I know quite certainly that most rescue attempts aren't prevented or attempted because of monetary reasons. Alpinist (http://www.alpinist.com/newswire/) probably has at least a story or two a year of rescue attempts on a variety of places less 'dangerous' than himilayas that are well funded that result in nothing or sometimes pilot/guide deaths.

Who would even put a price on the cost of a human life? If you don't want to rescue someone on Mount Everest then help out a child in Yemen. They didn't even choose to put themselves in harm's way

Health economists. It's their job

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