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Aussie rescue angers Alaska
AN Australian who went unprepared into Alaska's winter wilds faced a frosty response after his $US93,000 ($144,000) taxpayer-funded rescue.

The man, who told rescuers his name was Dave Roberts before fleeing the US after the public backlash this week, spent more than two months on his planned 161km trek in the Brooks Range wilderness.

He was picked up by a seven-person rescue team after he set off a long-distance distress call, with the US Government paying for Roberts' accommodation and transport after the ordeal.

Locals and Alaskan media have branded Mr Roberts as stupid and arrogant, saying he was lucky to be alive after ignoring the advice of residents who warned him against heading to the isolated area.

The manager of the Alaskan resort where Mr Roberts stayed after his rescue said she was unimpressed government-funded agencies paid for his $US325-a-night suite and flights out.

"He was pretty arrogant for having just been rescued. He definitely wasn't humbled by the experience,'' Bettles Lodge manager Jamie Klaes said yesterday.

"It felt like he was being rewarded for stupidity. He got a free hotel room with a jacuzzi tub, free meals - a free rescue. Then he had the audacity to complain that we didn't have the internet here.''

She said Mr Roberts, thought to be in his late 40s or early 50s, said before setting out that he was writing a book about his experience.

Mr Roberts was slammed by Alaskan media yesterday, with The Anchorage Daily News running the front-page headline ``Into the wild without a clue, hiker rescued, then gets rude''.

Ms Klaes' brother Tyler, who operates Bettles Air Service, said he refused to fly Mr Roberts out to be dropped off for his expedition back in late September because he did not have adequate gear.

"We told him to go back to Fairbanks and gear up and he said, `I don't have the money for that','' he said.

Alaska's Rescue Co-ordination Centre sent a C-130 Hercules and Pavehawk helicopter from Anchorage for the three-hour flight to where Mr Roberts' beacon was set off about 80km west of Bettles.

Rescue Co-ordination Centre spokeswoman Maggie Moonin said she could not confirm the cost of the federally-funded operation but said it was considered a training mission.
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