Being fat more expensive than rescues

To the editor:

As details about the two recent climbing deaths on Denali surface, I wanted to register my alarm at the character of public discussion surrounding such events. Coverage of climbing fatalities routinely draws the ire of those who object to taxpayer-funded rescue attempts.

Here is a typical reader comment from the Frontiersman Web site: “and who is paying for the rescue attempt? … they should shut down the mountain to all climbers, as it is unsafe, and just costs taxpayers too much money to maintain!”

I sympathize with these commentators, as there are plenty of things I too wish my taxes didn’t support. However, it is simple ignorance to claim, as many do, that climber rescues are a significant financial burden on the public. So let’s be empirical. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control estimate that obesity costs America $117 billion in medical bills and lost productivity in 2000. Doubtless the figure is higher today. The National Parks Service claimed it spent $742,000 on the entire Denali program in 1999. In other words, simply being too fat costs America more than a thousand times more money than Denali rescues do.

It would seem that by inspiring people to be physically and psychologically fit, mountain sports like climbing —- or sheep hunting — saves the taxpayer money overall. Whether we should publicly fund rescues is still an open question. But certainly our arguments will have to be more substantive if we hope to find an answer.

Will Elliott

Wasilla