Mt. Monadnock hiker, missing since Sunday, OK

[Greg]

Originally Posted by theunionleader.com

Mt. Monadnock hiker,
missing since Sunday, OK
By STEPHEN SEITZ
Union Leader Correspondent


DUBLIN — Mark Amico has made it off the mountain safe and alive.

Amico, 18, a Franklin Pierce College student from Plainville, Mass., had been missing since he left his hiking party on Mount Monadnock Sunday afternoon.

According to Dublin police chief James LeTourneau, Amico was spotted around 6:30 yesterday morning by a cleaning woman at a home when he emerged from the woods. She called police and reported a suspicious person.

“It’s one of those properties with a mile and a half driveway,” LeTourneau said. “She obviously hadn’t heard about him, but I knew who it was right away. He was at the entrance to Lake Road when I picked him up.”

Though he had spent a day and a half on the mountain, LeTourneau said, Amico seemed unharmed.

“He was very wet and cold, and he said he didn’t want any medical treatment,” LeTourneau said. “But he was on his own two feet and he was alert. I think he was pretty happy to be sitting down and getting some heat on his feet.”

LeTourneau first took Amico to the main entrance on the Jaffrey side of the mountain, where the hike started and the search camp was based. From there, Amico was taken to Monadnock Community Hospital, where he was treated and released.

Amico could not be reached for comment. Franklin Pierce spokesman Kathleen Williams said he had decided to take a few days off away from campus.

Amico was hiking with two other Franklin Pierce students when they began climbing the White Dot trail from park headquarters about 2 p.m. Sunday in a light rain.

State Fish and Game officials said a ranger warned the hikers against continuing to the summit with rain, wind and fog rolling in, but Amico insisted on going anyway. The other two hikers returned to the base of the mountain and eventually reported him missing. Amico carried no backpack and wore only a light jacket and sweat pants when he disappeared.

Park personnel conducted a five-hour search, after which the Fish and Game Department was called in. By Monday, there were 19 people, including Amico’s father, involved in the search.

The search was conducted in the pouring rain and unseasonably warm temperatures. By Monday night, the search had expanded to 25 people, including five dog teams from New England K-9 Search and Rescue and volunteers from the Upper Valley Wilderness Response Team.

“He told me he’d been an Eagle Scout in Rhode Island,” LeTourneau said. “He was able to stay under the leaves for protection, and had some survival skills. He made some bad decisions, but he made some good ones coming out of the woods.”

“It was nice to have it end this way,” said LeTourneau. “The Fish and Game Department has been taxed with tough searches lately. But quite a lot of effort went into this. They went up there and really pounded the pavement, or, I should say, the granite, looking for Mr. Amico.”

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