Talk about a bad situation. Getting stranded is already rough, but imagine getting stranded in the middle of winter in near-zero wind chill. Now, imagine getting trapped in waist-deep snow. It's no surprise that a hiker ended up with hypothermia after getting caught in the frozen winterscape of New Hampshire.
He was on a solo hike, which is a big no-no, especially at this time of the year. 28-year-old Patrick Bittman decided to go on a solo hike to watch the sunrise from Mount Lafayette. But as he was nearing the summit of Little Haystack on Franconia Ridge, he encountered deep snow. That forced the hiker to abandon his plans and attempt to make his way back to his car.
Hiker With Hyperthermia
But the hiker quickly became lost. He ended up going into the Dry Brook drainage. Temperatures were dropping fast with temps near 20 with a near zero wind chill. Unable to make his way back and lost and trapped, the hiker was suffering from hypothermia. He made the decision to call 911 for help.
The situation that Bittman described was quite bad. He said that he had hypothermia and that he could no longer move his limbs because they were frozen. He was also trapped in snow several feet deep. In response to his desperate situation, the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department and Pemi Valley Search and Rescue Team sent ground crews to his location. They also sent an aerial crew from the National Guard.
Unfortunately, they ended up facing bad weather as well. Ground visibility was low. The terrain was steep, and vegetation made moving difficult. It took more than an hour to bushwhack 1,000 feet of vegetation from the trail.
They finally found Bittman, suffering from severe hypothermia. They placed him in an emergency sleeping bag, gave him warm and dry clothes and warm fluids. When the weather conditions cleared, the National Guard airlifted him to a nearby hospital for treatment.
"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 & Game officials said.
