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Wow. A busy few days in the Whites - Source:
boston.com said:10-year-old Massachusetts boy missing in New Hampshire
By Associated Press, 10/14/2003 12:52
LINCOLN, N.H. (AP) Authorities continued their search Tuesday for a 10-year-old Massachusetts boy missing overnight after he decided to walk home through the woods by himself.
Fish and Game officers said Patric McCarthy of Bourne, Mass., decided to return to his family's condo near Loon Mountain ski area after playing with his brothers, but did not arrive Monday evening.
His family looked for him, then called Lincoln police. State police and National Guard helicopters, canine units, local and state police and firefighters and volunteer search and rescue groups helped Fish and Game officers search through the night.
By late morning Tuesday, there was no sign of him, a Fish and Game official said.
Patric is described as 4-foot-10, 85 pounds and blond. His family is staying at the Clear Brook condo complex on the Kancamagus Highway, across from the ski area.
Fish and Game Lt. Todd Bogardus said there's no reason to suspect foul play at this time.
The end of the Columbus Day weekend was a busy time for search and rescue crews.
Crews worked through the night Monday to carry out an injured hiker who fell 50 to 80 feet in Tuckerman Ravine on Mount Washington. That hiker's companion also had to be rescued from a ledge in the ravine. On nearby Mount Jefferson, another hiker had to be rescued late Monday; in Franconia, near where the Old Man of the Mountain once stood, a Massachusetts rockclimber spent the night on the cliff after becoming too tired to continue.
On Mount Washington, Anthony Valenti, 38, of Woodbury, Conn., and Elke Bengston, 28, of Franklin, Mass., were hiking down the Tuckerman Ravine Trail when the two got off the trail near the Headwall, a cliff area with waterfalls, said Fish and Game Lt. Douglas Gralenski.
Valenti fell at about 3:30 p.m., Gralenski said.
Bengston, who was stranded on a ledge, yelled to hikers on a nearby trail, who alerted officials.
Fish and Game officers and volunteers from the Appalachian Mountain Club and Mountain Search and Rescue team rescued the two.
''It was a technical rescue, meaning it required ropes and harnesses,'' Gralenski said.
Valenti was carried out to Pinkham Notch at about 5:30 a.m. Tuesday. He was taken to the hospital with a crushed foot and a possible broken pelvis, Gralenski said. He was in stable condition at Memorial Hospital at midday Tuesday, a hospital spokeswoman said.
Bengston was uninjured.
On Tuesday, volunteers from the Mountain Search and Rescue team were helping bring down a rock climber who spent the night on Cannon Cliffs, a popular rock climbing area.
Dave Grosser, 50, of Cambridge, Mass., was climbing the Lakeview climbing route with a partner when he became too tired to continue, Fish and Game Lt. Todd Bogardus said.
''He secured himself and made himself as comfortable as he could and his partner summitted and came down and requested help,'' Bogardus said.
At midday Tuesday, Bogardus said the volunteer rescue group had reached Grosser and was having no difficulty bringing him off the cliff.
Officials had few details on the rescue on a woman from the Caps Ridge Trail on Mount Jefferson on Monday. Gralenski said the woman was brought down from the trail at about 11:30 p.m. by Fish and Game officials and volunteers from the Androscoggin Valley Search and Rescue team.
''There wasn't an officer in the northern part of the state who got a decent night's sleep,'' he said Tuesday. ''Saturday and Sunday were quiet, but Monday made up for it.''