I've been watching this topic without comment for a while and can understand both sides of the argument. It would be great if Oregon (and Washington) could just blow off the SAR for those taking excessive risks on these ultra-dangerous mountains - sorting the fools out, as Bee suggests - but we all know that will never happen. Anyone missing or in trouble in the wilderness is going to be searched for, regardless of how they wound up in that situation. Signing a waiver wouldn't stop that - it's just not how government agencies work.
I've spent time hiking some of the big boys in the PNW - Rainier, Hood, Baker and Adams - and I can personally attest that they are in a different league than most of the trails I've hiked over the years in the Sierra or Rockies. Aside from the fact that they are glaciated, which increases the You're-Gonna-Die factor substantially, the weather is just brutal. The day I did a section hike of the PCT on Hood - just above Timberline Lodge at about 8500 feet - was the scariest hike of my life. It started out in traditional PNW fog/mist (I've yet to actually see Mt. Hood in all its glory), then turned into sleet, snow and howling winds - while still remaining foggy! At no point during the hike was I able to see more than 60-70 yards ahead. Also, this was in mid-September. Two days before this I was enjoying a hot, clear hike on the Fremont Lookout trail of Mt. Rainier, which was one of the most beautiful treks I've ever taken. A day before that, I was hiking in cold, foggy mist on Mt. Baker. The last day of my trip I returned to Rainier - where it was warm and beautiful a few days before - and I couldn't even get to the trailhead at Paradise because almost a foot of snow had fallen the night before.
What I took away from that hiking trip was that the Cascades are a different breed of animal. ""Good weather" is a very relative term in that part of the country, and I was always below the snowline (which is ridiculously low compared to the Sierra or Rockies). Visbility constantly sucked, and I never knew from one day to the next what Mother Nature was going to throw at me. Again, this was September - theoretically one of the two or three best weather months of the year for that part of the country. I'm not sure what the annual weather statistics are for Hood, but Mt. Rainier averages about 500 inches of snow per year. Think about that. An average, run-of-the-mill year brings over 40 feet of snow to that mountain. The year I was there (2008), it was over 1000 inches - and that was not a record.
Having experienced 9 hiking days of the PNW's "good" weather, I have a healthy respect for what winter mountaineering must be like on Hood and others in Oregon and Washington. I personally would not like to be mandated to wear a PLB if I was heading up Hood in the winter (completely theoretical, 'cuz it's never gonna happen), but I have the greatest empathy for what SAR personnel must have to go through on those mountains in winter.
