Costly Rescue Prompts Hearing

ANCHORAGE - Sen. Frank Murkowski has scheduled a field hearing here tomorrow to talk about whether climbers should be required to repay the government if they run into trouble and need to be rescued on the continent's tallest peak.

The Alaska Republican is responding to reports that the rescue in June of two British climbers high on Mount McKinley was the most expensive in the mountain's history.

The price tag for the rescue amounted to $221,818.

The dramatic rescue made headlines across the world when the two climbers were evacuated from their exposed campsite by hanging from a line beneath a helicopter.

Murkowski aides said a dozen National Park Service officials, some rescue coordinators and mountaineering guides have been asked to testify.

Jim O'Toole, a staff member of the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said Murkowski was interested in learning more about how rescue missions operate, whether they can be improved and if the Park Service should consider seeking reimbursement for rescues.

Murkowski chairs the committee.

At 20,230 feet, Mount McKinley is the tallest mountain in North America. About 1,100 climbers arrive each year in Talkeetna between April and June to try scaling the peak. Over the past decade, the National Park Service has averaged about 10 rescue operations a year.