Cost of rescue really depends where you're at though. In a national park like Mt. Rainier you aren't actually charged even if they have to helicopter you off the top of the mountain--rescues are paid for by the cost of a climbing permit that everyone pays to go above 10k feet. In other places SAR teams operate like volunteer fire departments and get funding from the county. But yeah, in some places a helicopter rescue is going to cost you directly and it is not cheap--at Mt. Shasta the rangers were telling me it was about $14k per incident.
Cost of rescue really depends where you're at though. In a national park like Mt. Rainier you aren't actually charged even if they have to helicopter you off the top of the mountain--rescues are paid for by the cost of a climbing permit that everyone pays to go above 10k feet. In other places SAR teams operate like volunteer fire departments and get funding from the county. But yeah, in some places a helicopter rescue is going to cost you directly and it is not cheap--at Mt. Shasta the rangers were telling me it was about $14k per incident.