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Originally Posted by theunionleader.com Hikers safely returned in
White Mountain rescues
By TOM FAHEY
Union Leader Staff
Crews that weren’t searching for 10-year-old Patric McCarthy Monday night and yesterday were involved in three other White Mountain rescues, pulling hikers and climbers off Mount Washington, Mount Jefferson and Cannon Mountain.
Anthony Valenti, 38, of Woodbury, Conn., was seriously injured when he fell 50 to 80 feet down Tuckerman Ravine. Searchers rescued him from the ravine headwall on Mount Washington’s east slope in a 12-hour effort that required the use of ropes and rock climbing equipment..
He suffered a crushed foot and a possible broken pelvis in the fall, and was being evaluated yesterday for other injuries at Memorial Hospital in North Conway, Fish and Game Lt. Douglas Gralenski said. A hospital representative said Valenti was in stable condition.
On Mount Jefferson, rescuers headed up the Caps Ridge Trail Monday at about 5 p.m. when a woman suffered knee injuries after falling.
Volunteers from the Twin Mountain Ambulance company, Fish and Game and Androscoggin Valley Search and Rescue climbed up to aid Cybil Hopkins, 25, of Danbury, Conn. She had suffered back spasms that caused her to fall on her way down the mountain and suffer knee injuries, said Fish and Game conservation officer Kevin Jordan.
Volunteers climbed above treeline to reach Hopkins, then helped her down. They reached the trailhead at 1 a.m., where an ambulance met them and took Hopkins to Littleton Hospital. She was treated and released.
Mountain Rescue Service volunteers headed to Cannon Mountain yesterday morning to help a Cambridge, Mass., man finish a rock climb up Cannon Cliffs.
David Grosser, 50, became too tired to finish his climb up the Lakeview Trail on Monday evening, said Fish and Game Lt. Todd Bogardus. His companion, John Debach of Brookline, Mass., helped him to a small shelter for the night before completing his climb. Yesterday morning, Debach told Fish and Game that Grosser would need help. MRS sent two rescuers, who helped Grosser finish his climb by late morning. The trail is near the site where the Old Man of the Mountain once stood.
The effort to rescue Valenti was by far the most complex of the three.
“He was in a nasty place. There was no easy way to get to him, and once we got to him there was no easy way to get him out. It was a long, grueling rescue effort,” Gralenski said.
Valenti and a companion, Elke Bengtson, 28, of Franklin, Mass., wandered off the Tuckerman Ravine trail at about 3:30 p.m. after a successful climb to the peak of Mount Washington. They tried to continue their descent off the trail near the headwall. At 4:15 they were still about three-quarters of the way up the ravine in an area with cliffs and waterfalls when Valenti slipped and fell.
“It’s an area where ropes and rock climbing equipment are pretty much what’s required,” Gralenski said.
Bengtson was stranded on the ledge above Valenti, he said. She called out to nearby hikers, who went down to the Appalachian Mountain Club hut in Pinkham Notch and told staff the couple needed to be rescued.
More than two dozen volunteers from the AMC and Mountain Rescue Service in Conway joined Fish and Game officials. They found Bengtson, who was not injured, and used ropes and a climbing harness to help her to safety.
The first rescuer reached Valenti at 8:30 p.m., after spending an hour covering the last 100 feet of steep terrain in the dark, Gralenski said.
Rescuers strapped Valenti into a litter and lowered him by ropes. They reached the bowl of Tuckerman Ravine at the foot of the headwall at 1:15 a.m. They got to the AMC hut alongside Route 16 at about 5 a.m., Galenski said. From there, an ambulance took him to the hospital.
Valenti never lost consciousness during the ordeal, Gralenski said, despite being in pain.
He said work hasn’t begun to calculate the cost of the rescue, or to decide whether Valenti will be asked to cover it. The couple was properly equipped for a day hike, he said. |
Oct 15, 2003, 8:29 AM
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