Crews who rescued hiker on Mount Washington encountered 93-mph winds, wind chills 50 degrees below zero
By Troy Lynch
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MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (WMUR) — A rescue team encountered some nerve-racking moments as they completed a dangerous and complicated rescue of a hiker on Mount Washington this weekend.
The team was able to successfully get to the man from Portsmouth down the mountain. Officials say the hiker was not prepared for the elements.
The rescue, which took more than 10 hours, went smoothly despite very difficult conditions, but there was a disruption in the communications with the first three rescuers going up and officials were nervous that they might have to send more people to rescue them.
Sgt. Glen Lucas, who was coordinating the rescue team, said it’s difficult to train for a rescue that includes 93-mph sustained winds and wind chills that were 50 degrees below zero.
“You can’t really prepare for 93-mile-an-hour sustained winds, 50-below-zero wind chill, nine-below ambient temperature. Like, that’s a hard thing to train for because you wouldn’t really want to go out there during that, not by choice,” Lucas said.
Lucas said he wasn’t worried about his team’s physical preparedness, but in that kind of situation, it’s the mental part that was hard.
“The human mind and body only pushes so far. So you worry that, well, the elements get the better of them, not because they let them, but just because Mother Nature (is)stronger than us. So there was a few moments for me that I wasn’t real care-free as they’re going across the ridge,” Lucas said.
Lucas said that people who aren’t experienced hikers should not hike Mount Washington this time of year.
The Mount Washington Cog Railway helped take rescuers up the mountain to save time.
The hiker had hypothermia but survived.
No one on the rescue team was injured.
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