A hiker was rescued on Thursday after changing into misplaced and affected by hypothermia throughout a solo hike in central New Hampshire.
Patrick Bittman, 28, of Portland, Maine, had launched into a hike to see the dawn from Mount Lafayette on Wednesday night time.
Officers stated Bittman came across deep blowing snow close to the summit of Little Haystack on Franconia Ridge, forcing him to come back again down the mountain.
On his return, nonetheless, he grew to become misplaced and ended up transferring into the Dry Brook drainage, the place temperatures dropped to round 20 with wind chills close to zero.
After spending the night time misplaced on the mountain, Bittman referred to as 911 on Thursday morning.
He stated that his limbs had been frozen, he was experiencing hypothermia and that he was not capable of transfer via the snow, which was a number of ft deep.
Floor crews with the New Hampshire Fish and Recreation Division and Pemi Valley Search and Rescue Staff, together with an aerial crew with the Military Nationwide Guard, responded to his name.
Nevertheless, they confronted poor visibility from cloud cowl and intermittent snow squalls over the steep terrain and thick vegetation, forcing them to regulate their strategy to rescuing Bittman.
The primary floor rescuers needed to spend an hour bushwhacking 1,000 ft of vegetation off the path to achieve Bittman by early Thursday afternoon.
By then, he was discovered struggling extreme hypothermia and was positioned in an emergency sleeping bag for shelter and given heat, dry garments and heat fluids.
Two hours later, climate situations allowed for the Military Nationwide Guard to achieve Bittman with a medic.
They hoisted the younger man into the helicopter after which was flown to a neighborhood hospital for therapy.
“This aerial rescue saved a multi-hour carry out thru rugged terrain and is a testament as to how search and rescue works in New Hampshire with several different groups working together for a common goal,” New Hampshire Fish & Recreation officers stated.
