Pardon me for pointing this out, but the "guy in Utah" (Aron Ralston
http://www.geocities.com/aronralston/) didn't get rescued by SAR. He did what he had to do to rescue himself. Having soloed all of the CO 14ers in winter, it is reasonably certain that he understood and accepted the risks.
Mountaineering is inherently dangerous. People have accidents and sometimes die, even using the buddy system, even using trasceivers, even when climbing with a belay. The only way to make it completely safe is to not go. Soloing 5th class terrain in winter is not exactly pushing any alpine climbing standards. That said, the report of a 30 foot groundfall certainly makes it seem that the author of the post under discussion may have been a bit out of his element.
As someone in the SAR field, I am sure that you would like to emphasize that being adequately prepared for self-rescue is by far the safest way to go.
Travelling among the mountains brings freedom. Let's keep it that way. The safety nannies are now requiring that hikers and climbers carry cell phones (and maybe GPS?) in some areas. In most areas we are still free to go into the mountains in our own style and using our own judgement. We all need to remember that with that freedom comes responsibility for ourselves and our partners.
