[Hikerdood]

http://komonews.com/news/local/wilderness-rescues-on-the-rise-in-king-county-officials-point-to-social-media

[Stefan]

I don't agree with the article wholeheartedly. We have influx of new people in this area. That contributes. And not only a normal influx but lower age people who are more active. I saw the data once, but I can find the age or demographics....

[neek]

Yawn. While I deeply respect the work of SAR, I doubt many of them are experts on social media. Also what could a local news source possible have against a force that's killing them.

[thunderhead]

I do like how WHC gets called out specifically(haha), but the population growth and growth of outdoor sports in general is a big part of it.

[Ski]

(numbers corrected below. I think I was still asleep when I posted this. BK 14:40 PDT )

[coldrain108]

[AlpineRose]

Not going to argue the rescue statistics here. But a big contributor to the increasing amount of rescues is because technology has made it easier than ever to call for one. This site provides ample illustration of that. Look at the numerous discussions of devices used to call for help and/or notify stay-at-home partners who panic if they haven't heard from their partner in the last hour. It's ironic to see the number of otherwise burly hiker/climber types who won't leave home without their rescue gadgets. Nanny state indeed. People call for rescue because they CAN. As well, they now expect it. And some feel entitled to it in a timely manner. RE: the family who sued because a recent Mt. Hood rescue wasn't fast enough for them.

[Ski]

serious typos there. estimated population 2015: 7.17 million 2010 population (US census): 6.72 million actually more like a 6 or 7 per cent increase - depends upon which website you're looking at since there was no census during 2009, which is the year they're citing in the article. those numbers are statewide, though. the article is focused on King County, which has unquestionably seen the largest population increase during that time (in terms of total population.)

[Joe Biden]

People are eating Tide Pods and burning their arms intentionally on stoves.......of course rescues are on the rise.

[Kim Brown]

[Slugman]

Pretty sad article. A newspaper story posted online is not "social media". And Franklin falls is not wilderness. Isn't it inside the freeway, between the two directions? Yes. Nothing but some garbage opinions backed by "because I said so".

[graywolf]

[Kim Brown]

[Ski]

^ Good question. You'd have to go back to the 1980s or early 1990s, when most of us were still sourcing information from "100 Hikes" or "Footsore" guide books. It would be a rather daunting task to try to quantify what impact print stories in local news media might have had then - it was pretty much limited to little articles in the "B" sections of the Seattle Times, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and Tacoma News Tribune. Just a wild guess, but I'd say they did not result in significant increases in visitation. It's doubtful there would have been as many SAR calls simply because the population was much lower then - 4.9 million in 1990 - and the "outdoor" thing was pretty much limited to a small user constituency.

[Pyrites]