In Sunday’s newspaper, I read “N.H. hikers may pay fee for rescue.” This is really strange.

In a 1983 Yankee magazine, there was a story of two young men from Pennsylvania who were rescued from the Great Gulf on Mt. Washington. Like two stubborn mules, they were told by the cabin caretaker not to go, for the temperature was 46 below zero with the wind chill.

These two men, Hugh Herr and Jeff Betzer, went anyway.

Well, they had so much suffering from the cold. Both of Herr’s legs had to be cut off and Betzer lost his left foot and the fingers on his right hand. Albert Dow, a young man who was helping with the rescue lost his life trying to rescue them, swept away by an avalanche.

I truly believe that if you get yourself in trouble, disobey the warning, and then you have to be rescued, you should pay for it. Others have risked their own lives — for your foolishness — including some who have families.

Perhaps you think I am a tough old woman. You bet I am. And, like my mother used to say to us as children: the first time you hear me, the second time you feel me, and she kept her word.

But, here in this country, everyone does their own thing, never mind who will get hurt.

Heidi Weber, Dryden

Editor’s note: New Hampshire passed a negligent hiker law in 2008 allowing the state to bill lost hikers the cost of the rescue mission if they were found to be careless during the hike. The state is now considering a bill that would allow anyone who is subject to a rescue to be charged a set fee.