Peak Experiences: Danger, Death, and Daring in the Mountains of the Northeast

Two Lives Saved by Search and Rescue Teams

Edith Tucker Two Lives Saved by Search and Rescue Teams The lives of two middle-aged hikers who became disoriented while descending 5,774-foot Mount Adams in whiteout conditions above tree line were saved on January 10, 2007, by the combined efforts of two volunteers from the Randolph Mountain Club (RMC) and Androscoggin Valley Search and Rescue (AVSAR), and four New Hampshire Fish and Game Department conservation officers. The search and rescue team located a 55-yearold woman and a 50-year-old man at 12:52 a.m., huddled together in a sleeping bag that was rated as adequate to 20 degrees Fahrenheit. “It was –14 degrees with winds in the low 70s mph,” said Fish and Game Lieutenant Doug Gralenski. The two hikers were found below and to the east of Thunderstorm Junction, where the Gulfside, Lowe’s Path, and the Great Gully Trail intersect at nearly 5,500 feet in elevation. “It was a life-threatening situation,” Lieutenant Gralenski explained. “They probably would have survived the night, but we’ll never know whether or not they would have survived the descent down the Great Gully into King Ravine to the valley below, because they would likely have had to deal with both frostbite and hypothermia.” He said that although there was nothing wrong with the two hikers’ winter gear, they “were over their heads” as far as experience in tough winter conditions goes. The pair had spent Tuesday night at Gray Knob cabin. On Wednesday morning they hiked 1.7 miles up Mount Adams and had reached the 5,774foot summit at about 1:00 p.m. However, as they started down, the trail became shrouded in blowing snow, Lieutenant Gralenski said. At 3:30 p.m., the two hikers reached a stone cairn on the trail and they could not see how to safely proceed; the man called 911 on his cell phone. In piecing together the sequence of events, Lieutenant Gralenski said the pair thought they were on the Lowe’s Path, but they were actually about a quarter of a mile northeast of Thunderstorm Junction at the top of the Great Gully. He told them to stay where they were. Lieutenant Gralenski said that, given the very severe conditions, he 108 pe a k e x pe r i e n ces decided to call out members of the department’s search and rescue team: Brian Abrams, Greg Jellison, Brad Morse—also a paramedic—and Sam Sprague. As he called around for additional help, he learned that Al Sochard of Randolph was already dressed in winter gear and readying himself to hike up the Lowe’s Path to check on Gray Knob in the absence of the regular winter caretaker. Longtime AVSAR volunteer Mike Pelchat of Gorham also volunteered his services. In what Lieutenant Gralenski described as a “pivotal” decision, he gave the hikers’ cell-phone number to Sochard, which ultimately helped him to locate the pair. “I talked with the man three times, and it was a great comfort to him to know we were on our way,” Sochard said. When the rescuers found the two hikers in their sleeping bag tucked in among some boulders, yet still relatively exposed, they first fed them hot liquid Jell-O and some food. Then they outfitted them with dry outer jackets and hats, placed heat warmers in their boots, and got them back up on their feet to walk with them to Gray Knob, arriving at nearly 3:00 a.m. The two hikers and their six-man rescue crew slept at Gray Knob until morning and then started at 8:15 a.m. to hike down to Lowe’s Gas Station. Sochard reached the gas station at about 9:45 a.m. and the rest at about 11:30. View from Mount Adams. Photo by David White 109 r escues i n t h e m o u n t a i n s Late on the previous afternoon, Lieutenant Gralenski said he and Lieutenant Todd Bogardus had set up a command post at the home of Bill and Barbara Arnold. Arnold, a longtime member of both RMC and AVSAR, maintains radio contact between Gray Knob and his house every evening in the winter, and each rescuer carried a radio tuned to the RMC’s frequency. After all the members of the hiking party had reached the safety of Gray Knob...