well... she kinda did politically... replaced by the even kookier Bachman

Maybe some widowed Alaskan moose has finally taken it's revenge.

She could see the hiker from her house.

Palin escaped the limelight for a break from all the ignorant liberal fools parroting lies for no other reason than ignorance.

You fools live for political news, don't you? If there isn't a political angle to a news item, you will insert in, regardless of how inane doing so is. Whatever will you do after this election cycle is over. getting a real life of your own would be a vast improvement over the status quo...

My ex boss used to go to Alaska salmon fishing just about every year. He told me they have signs posted at the rivers if you fall in you have just a very short time to get out or you will die from hypothermia. (I can't remember the exact time he told me that you had to get out. But I do remember it wasn't very much time.)

DevilDog - and yet, you could JUST AS EASILY have ignored these comments and moved on, taking the higher road and being the better person you are pretending to be.

but you chose not to. congrats, you're just like the trolls you are lamenting about.

HIGH FIVE BROTHA!

funnybuddy,
"I thought the article was going to say Sarah palin fell off a cliff."

____________________________________

Typical, boneheaded remark by a typical blogger on MSNBC. But hey, that is more than I can say for Owebama. He is taking OUR WHOLE COUNTRY OFF A CLIFF.

Give the hiker a Darwin Award.

Yes, that is truly wild country. Sad ending to an awesome adventure. Godspeed, brave dude...

Right, lets all go back to living in caves.

Or Bristle or Minnow.

Just jump on that bandwagon.
Too bad it wasn't you.

Jim,

"One" of them fell in the river. Not "both".

They were on a cliff (story) and one slipped off while the other called for help.

Have a nice weekend.....

Assuming they had 1 sat phone, lucky the guy who didn't fall had the phone at the time of the accident.

My condolences to both of these guys family.

that's not being very liberal. oh wait. if it was you you'd want tax payers to pay for it. but since it's someone else that's ok.

Making people pay will stop these freaks from taking unnecessary risks and putting the rescuers lives in danger.

So people better stop doing anything that involves some sort of activity that you could die doing, such as driving to work, because you could be in an accident that puts rescuer's lives in danger! Without these 'freaks', those rescuer's wouldn't have a job anyway, as there would be no need for them.

So people better stop doing anything that involves some sort of activity that you could die doing, such as driving to work, because you could be in an accident that puts rescuer's lives in danger! Without these 'freaks', those rescuer's wouldn't have a job anyway, as there would be no need for them.

Bite it, Ky...before you embark on one of these high risk adventures you need to be mindful of the burden you are putting on our rescue people AND our tax dollars. Gee, let's go do something risky, the Coast Guard, Fire Department, Police will save us if/when we f*@& up! In these econimically strained times, especially, we should not be spending hundreds of thousands of dollars for rescuing some foreign thrillseekers that screw up. In any of our National Parks, a back country permit is required before setting out into the farther reaches of the parks. Let's step it up a notch. Require a bond to be posted for the rescue costs. Make them sign a waiver - they cannot sue the U.S. if they are not rescued, for whatever reason. Make the cost of thrillseeking rescues the responsibility of the thrillseekers themselves, not the armchair second-guessers that saythat the thrillseekers were stupid..they are not stupid; they are living life to the fullest, in their own eyes. However, they should be responsible for their own choices. Let's face it, people have to be rescued, regardless of the risk they are taking. Driving to work is indeed a risk. People are required to have automobile insurance. Require thrillseekers to have rescue insurance.

BTW, no, I am not in the insurance business. I am just realistic. People are going to do s#!t. They should be responsible for their own actions and the consequences that result from those actions.

And if they do not have insurance, send them a bill...they pay a debt like any of the rest of us. Or they don't pay and their credit is f#@k&d... just like the rest of us.

Coast Guard pilots have to log a certain number of hours per month. This can be considered "on the job training".

Chris...everyone needs to grow a pair and be responsible for themselves.

Matt...sure, it's good practice. But anytime you introduce the element of human interaction into the rescue effort (i.e. dumba$$ hiker that screwed up) there will be unpredictability that puts the rescuer in danger. The degree of difficulty is higher than having a rescue swimmer lower a basket to pick up a mannequin during drills. You have to deal with a guy that just saw his buddy die and who wants to do everything possible to save him (ignoring safety, which, obviously, was SOP from the start).

Naturelover-3195767

I get what you're saying, but the marginal cost of conducting a resue like this is minimal. The CG air station is already manned and the helicopter is already being maintained. Sure there are some fuel expenses, but they pale in comparison to the amount of money spent on fuel for training. It's really not worth getting worked up about.

Well, one guy already paid...in full.

Naturelover... you need to learn the definition of SARCASM... and YOU bite it, go back and read the comments chucklehead... No one was giving him a "pass" for what he did... No one was blaming the Coast Guard or anyone else... Not one word was even mentioned in the article about suing anyone...

It's obvious the commenters on this article are not aware of the US Coast Guard's involvement in Alaska, Alaskan geography, nor Alaskan activities which puts people outside in all sorts of weather conditions, and subsequently in potential harms way. Consider yourself lucky if there's a CG rescue helicopter within 100 miles, or a rescue vessel within a half day's travel time. Nor are the commenters familiar with the dangers the rescuers face once they arrive on scene. It's not like they can get to you and get to a hospital within a half an hour. It's more likely they can get to you and contact your next of kin within a day or so. You have three minutes in the water in the winter, and ten minutes in the water in the summer without a survival suit. Your legs will start to turn purple before you can wade out to your knees, and your muscles will start to fail you, the water is that cold.

If you want to meet some truly brave people, Alaskan Coast Guard is a damn good place to start. They go out when no one else does, into the storms and cold and darkness, where there are brown bears, and glacial ice, and jagged cliff faces, and huge breakers on the shorelines. The fact that people are stupid and get out in conditions they don't belong in sometimes, doesn't relieve the CG of the responsibility to go out and attempt a rescue and recovery.

Suzie...it is diffifult to READ what many uneducated, ill-communicating posters mean, much less figure out if they are sarcastic or stupid.

What I was addressing was the constant need for our rescue forces to save the people. There needs to be more accountability by people for their own actions and less burden on everyone else to clean up after them.

And don't EVEN PRETEND to think that many people don't consider litigation in order to get their "fair share"...the Alaskan government was negligent because the cliff was slippery, the Coast Guard was mean to me, pain and suffering for the loss of my friend, etc. Everyone wants to turn a tragedy into $.

Nature, Your comments are far from logical. Im not even sure where to begin. I hope you never need to call the police or use the fire department. If you do, I think you should have to pay the entire bill. What a @!$%#ing joke. Everyone pays a small share in order to protect themselves in the event that they need help. Its basically insurance. Not sure how this escapes your mind.

@Steve Herbert

It's obvious the commenters on this article are not aware of the US Coast Guard's involvement in Alaska...Nor are the commenters familiar with the dangers the rescuers face once they arrive on scene

Stationed Cordova, AK 1996-1998 USCG.

...you were saying?

DingleB... Stationed Homer, 1971-1075. Semper Paratus!

DingleB...Stationed Homer 1971-1975. Yes I was saying. Been from Nome to Ketchikan and out past Attu.

I don't think that most folks realize that Alaska has over 30,000 miles of coast line, and that if you put Ketchikan on Miami, Florida, Attu would be roughly at San Diego. If the northern boarder of Alaska, ( Barrow ) were matched with the northern boarder of Minnesota, the Coast Guard Air Base at Woman's Bay, Kodiak, Alaska, would be about Oklahoma. The Diomede Islands. ( Big Diomede/Little Diomede ) is the boarder between the US( Alaska ) and Russia. The northern boarder of Alaska faces the northern boarder of Russia, ( though North isn't a pertinent term at the geographic North Pole ) and the two countries are separated by the Chukchi Sea, and Beaufort Sea that The Democrats on Sarah Palin's case didn't own up to for not knowing geography. Alaska's population is about 500,000 people. The Coast Guard has a long long history of caring for Alaskan aboriginal peoples as well as fishing numerous others out of "the soup".

Always a pleasure meeting fellow Coasties Steve, especially tender sailors. We spent some time sitting in the mud at low tide in Homer a few times. I distinctly remember whooping the Sedge at Round up though. :)

DingleB... I was on the Ironwood. We put a towing hauser on both the Sedge and the Confidence... but did scrape the bottom in Cordova at low tide, too. One storm took a 9-38 buoy at Dora Reef 600 miles to Cold Bay through the Shelikof Straits. The wind didn't get below 80mph for two weeks on a tanker that grounded there.

Yeah, one day we backed off our mooring in Cordova and grounded on the gut pile just off the cannery. I've never smelled anything so foul.

We had a few buoys break loose out in the gulf too (seems like it was always Seal Rocks).

A lot of good memories from up there. I would love to go back someday...now that I'm married.

I agree. Lot of armchair automatons on here that just do the 9-5 thing and spend the rest of the time watching tv. Life is full of risks, but seems nowadays you get all the insults if you do something other than just sit on your rear all day.

We don't. But without evidence (like recovering the guy's body with a knife sticking out of his back or gunshot to the back of the head) or a confession from the survivor, the prosecutor couldn't do anything. Assuming these were two friends, it just sounds like a tragic accident. But it could be the perfect crime. But probably not. Now go write a novel and make a zillion dollhairs!

Really, DaBears??!! Really?? Seems as if you need something productive (for a change) to do. Pathetic comments. Grow up!!

Yeah...life's a sad, cruel thing....I think I will go back to my nice, warm corner, cry it off, and read some more dreary, depressive English theory.

His "mistake" probably isn't anything anyone could "learn from." Probably just a slick spot, loose rock, etc...inadvertently stepped in the wrong place, at the wrong time. Just another thing that profound intelligence or meticulous planning couldn't have averted. Everything's a risk, if no one took risks...nothing would ever get done and life would be a depressing bore (reminds me of the English environment...and the folks who never took a risk to see what the New World was like).

Well actually, "meticulous planning" probably could have helped. That is, if you consider "don't get too close to the edge" to be meticulous planning.

I've been on several hikes in the mountains where a bunch of people go and stand right on the edge of a cliff as if it's no big deal, and I always get really nervous because it would be so easy for someone to accidentally or purposefully nudge someone off the edge.

Sarita: ".....adventure of a lifetime? I have to question the intelligence of anyone who is willing to risk his/her life for an adventure. I'll bet their skills look great on a resume for a job. Speaking of which, I wonder if they even had jobs or were spoiled snots with no other goals in life. I can only imagine interviewing someone like this who tells me his greatest accomplishment was travling to Alasking, spending a few weeks freezing his _ss off, and risk falling to his death to climb a mountain.

actually i knew the hiker that died and he was a very popular and much loved surgeon. i don't even have the capacity to insult you the way you've insulted him and everyone that met him because i can tell you this for sure - anyone that was ever lucky to even spend a minute with this guy was blessed. i don't know what lesson if any you can learn from that but how dare you make such ignorant cruel comments? this man has family and friends that are mourning their loss. you jealous hateful person.

When you join the Coast Guard, you are well aware of the types of jobs you will be called to do.

Are far as "costing the tax payers", so my comment above. These event are already paid for. It falls under the category of "running a country".

Who the hell said they wouldn't have to pay for their rescue? Quit jumping to conclusions... and at least these guys had more spine than YOU obviously do... sorry to see that one of them died for his effort but where the hell would people be TODAY if it wasn't for the adventurers of the past?

Adventurous people fought to make our country independent of England, while sensible people helped the Redcoats or cowered in their homes.