A hiker who became lost and suffered hypothermia while hiking alone in central New Hampshire was rescued Thursday.
Patrick Bittman, 28, of Portland, Maine, was hiking Wednesday night to watch the sunrise from Mount Lafayette.
Officials said Bittman encountered deep, blowing snow near the top of Little Haystack on Franconia Ridge, forcing him to descend the mountain.
However, on the way back, he got lost and ended up traveling to the Dry Brook drainage, where the temperature dropped to about 20 degrees and the winds dropped to near freezing.
Bittman called 911 on Thursday morning after spending the night lost in the mountains.
He said his limbs froze, he suffered from hypothermia and was unable to move through snow several feet deep.
Ground crews from the New Hampshire Department of Fish and Game and the Pemi Valley Search and Rescue Team and Army National Guard airmen responded to his call.
However, cloud cover reduced visibility and they were faced with intermittent squalls of snow falling on steep terrain and dense vegetation, forcing them to adjust their approach to rescuing Bittman.
Initial ground rescue teams had to spend an hour clearing 300 meters of vegetation away from the trail to reach Bittman by early Thursday afternoon.
By then, he was found suffering from severe hypothermia and was placed in an evacuated emergency sleeping bag and given warm, dry clothing and warm fluids.
Two hours later, the weather cleared and the Army National Guard, along with medics, arrived at Bittman.
They hoisted the young man into a helicopter and transported him to a local hospital for treatment.
“This air rescue saved several hours of rescue efforts through rugged terrain. How search and rescue in New Hampshire works, with several different groups working together toward a common goal. ,” New Hampshire Fish and Game officials said.
