It was about 2:30 a.m. when a trio of hikers pulled into the Appalachian Trail parking lot in Randolph on Sunday, Feb. 17. They hoped to ascend the Valley Trail and reach the summit between Mount Madison and Mount Adams before first light so that they could watch the sunrise from above the tree line. After reaching their initial destination at about 8:30 a.m., one of the hikers, Will Chere, turned around and headed back to the car. The other two hikers, 30-year-old Alex Obert and 29-year-old Steven “Dewey” McCay, both of Arlington, Va., continued southward. Their goal was to hit all eight peaks of New Hampshire’s Presidential traverse and arrive at the Appalachian Mountain Club’s Highland Center at the top of Crawford Notch by 7 p.m., traveling a total of 19 miles in a single day. Chere would be waiting there to pick them up.

They didn’t show. Chere waited as the hours passed, but his friends did not arrive. He eventually contacted authorities and, at about 2:30 a.m. on Monday, word reached N.H. Fish and Game that two hikers were missing in the mountains.

Six rescue teams, each composed of three or four searchers, set out at first light on Feb. 18 and spent the entire day scouring the mountains for the two lost hikers. But heavy rains and high winds quite literally put a damper on their efforts. The rains, combined with unseasonably warm temperatures, produced flash flood conditions and caused streams to swell. The weather also made it impossible to use a helicopter in the search that day. The rescue effort continued well after the sun had gone down on Monday night, but the searchers turned up nothing.

The same conditions that hampered the searchers that day also made it difficult for Obert and McCay to find their way to safety. The adverse weather created poor visibility and made it difficult or impossible to traverse the swollen brooks. Fortunately, the hikers had ample equipment and years of mountaineering experience, enabling them to survive a second night in the woods. They were finally spotted by aerial searchers on the morning of Tuesday, Feb. 19. The exhausted hikers were making their way down the Dry River Trail, about four miles from Route 302. An Army National Guard Black Hawk helicopter hoisted them onboard at about 10 a.m. and transported them to the AMC Highland Center, where worried family members were waiting.

Neither hiker required medical attention. But the manpower and resources that went into the lengthy rescue effort were significant. The mission utilized several teams of highly trained mountaineers from Fish and Game’s Advanced Search and Rescue Team, as well as volunteers from the Mountain Rescue Service, the Appalachian Mountain Club and Androscoggin Valley Search and Rescue. In addition, the search called for a N.H. State Parks Snow Cat and an Army National Guard helicopter. All said and done, the intended day hike amounted to a hefty price tag for the state of New Hampshire. 

It wasn’t the first time the state was forced to expend significant amounts of resources on search and rescue efforts this winter. In fact, at least five separate incidents required considerable emergency responses in New Hampshire’s White Mountains in February alone. One of those incidents resulted in the death of 55-year-old Laurence Fredrickson, of South Sutton. Fredrickson and 36-year-old Manchester resident James Osborne got stranded in Franconia Notch after encountering severe weather conditions and below-zero temperatures while hiking on Feb. 10. Both were located the next day and transported by helicopter to Littleton Hospital, where Fredrickson was later pronounced dead. Osborne was hospitalized for several days with hypothermia and frostbite.

Less than a week after that fatal incident, 28-year-old Benjamin Davis, of Boston, got lost in Franconia Notch during an overnight outing, spurring another large-scale rescue mission. Davis used his cell phone to send a text message to his girlfriend and later called 911, which aided in his eventual rescue.

According to Lt. Todd Bogardus, of N.H. Fish and Game, all three of the aforementioned rescue missions resulted from a set of similar mistakes by the hikers. Although the circumstances were somewhat different in each case, all three situations turned ugly because of poor judgment.

“One thing that was underrated and under-researched was the weather conditions,” Bogardus said. “Not only that, but the failure to take into account the unpredictability of the weather in the White Mountains.”

Bogardus noted that, in all three cases, bad weather had been predicted in forecasts before the hikers departed. “They shouldn’t have been surprised by the weather that came in,” he said. Furthermore, the hikers in all three emergencies had made plans for long and difficult hikes that were impractical in such extreme conditions. Weather in the White Mountains is known for its sudden and rapid shifts.

“All three had aggressive itineraries and continued on at a time when, actually, predicted weather came in, but it was weather that moved in very quickly. It’s been equated to the flipping of a switch,” Bogardus said.

The fact that the two Virginia hikers were able to escape unscathed while the earlier incident involving the two New Hampshire hikers had such a tragic outcome can be attributed to a few main factors, according to Bogardus. For one thing, Obert and McCay had more mountaineering experience than Fredrickson and Osborne. For another, the Virginia men were much better equipped to deal with adverse conditions. They had extra clothing, crampons, snowshoes and a cooking stove, along with navigational aids like GPS units, maps and a compass. Although they had only planned on a day hike, they were prepared to deal with overnight emergencies. Fredrickson and Osborne, by contrast, had little in the way of equipment and provisions.

Benjamin Davis made other egregious mistakes. Unlike the hikers in the other two incidents, Davis had planned to spend a night alone in the mountains. But he did not adequately prepare for predicted weather patterns, Bogardus said, and he made an ill-advised decision to head into the mountains by himself.

Davis’ situation was unique in that he was able to contact people from the mountain with his cell phone. But Bogardus said that Davis should have immediately dialed 911 instead of contacting his girlfriend. He did not call 911 until prompted to do so by friends. Once he did, searchers were able to pinpoint his location with GPS coordinates.

Despite their differences, all three emergencies sparked massive rescue missions that have drained state resources. The N.H. Fish and Game Department operates on an annual budget of $200,000, which is funded primarily by surcharges on OHRV, snowmobile and motorboat registrations, Bogardus explained. In fiscal year 2007, the department exceeded its budget by about $64,000, and it is on pace to go over again in FY ’08. The exact cost of the most recent rescue mission has not yet been tallied, but Bogardus expects it to be in the thousands.

“If we continue at the rate we’re going right now, it will put our current budget pretty low,” he said.

Even when the missing individual is at fault for becoming lost, it is difficult to make the hiker pick up the tab for a search mission. The N.H. Attorney General’s Office is ultimately responsible for determining whether to push for reimbursement following a mission. But, the AG’s Office will not pursue a case unless it can prove beyond doubt that the hiker in question acted “recklessly,” making prosecution difficult. A bill currently before the N.H. Legislature would alter that language from “recklessly” to “negligently,” which would make it easier to seek reimbursement for rescues, Bogardus said. 

Rescue missions are putting a heavy strain on volunteer services, Fish and Game finances and, of course, the lost hikers. Why has New Hampshire seen such a sudden spike in emergency rescues?

“I think the trend is that winter hiking is growing in popularity, so that there’s basically more people that are gonna be on the mountain participating in that form of recreation,” said Lt. Douglas Gralenski, also of Fish and Game. “If you have more people, you have more problems.”

A number of hikers seem to be going for bigger hikes in sketchier circumstances, Bogardus added. “The allure of extreme sports is a factor in some ways, and I think people are just taking some steps and some chances for granted. They just need to take a second and rethink their plan and make sure it’s a good plan,” he said.

Another possible factor is that advances in winter sports gear have made people braver.

“Over many years, we’ve seen improvements in equipment that make people think they are able to do more than they can do,” said Rebecca Oreskes, of the White Mountain National Forest Service. She added that some people seem bent on pursuing “extreme adventures” without taking adequate precautions or turning back when it would be advisable to do so. “I think, in general, what we see is people really underestimating the weather and the terrain that they’re getting involved in,” she said. “They keep going in the face of very severe weather.”

White Mountain National Forest and N.H. Fish and Game partnered up to create www.hikesafe.com, a Web site devoted to educating hikers about safe outdoor practices in the White Mountains. The overarching mission of the Web site, according to Oreskes, is to reduce the necessity of search and rescue missions. “We all felt that education was an absolutely key component of that,” she said.

Although hikeSafe is primarily geared toward hikers, the same principles apply to ice climbers, backcountry skiers and other outdoor sports enthusiasts. Avalanches are not uncommon in the White Mountains, especially in the steep ravines that surround Mount Washington. A 39-year-old ice climber from Tennessee, Peter Roux, died in an avalanche while climbing in Huntington Ravine in January. Avalanche conditions and weather reports can be accessed through the Mount Washington Avalanche Center at www.tuckerman.org.

Perhaps the most important thing to remember when embarking on a winter outing into the White Mountains is that the weather is never predictable.

“The environment above tree line in the wintertime is always extreme,” Gralenski said. “A good day on Mount Washington is 0 degrees with winds of 40 miles an hour.”

The mountains aren’t going anywhere. If the weather turns bad, abandon the hike and head home, Bogardus advises.
“It’s OK to turn back and try it another day,” he said.

• On Friday, Jan. 18, 39-year-old Peter Roux, of Bartlett, Tenn., set out alone from a base camp in Pinkham Notch to climb a steep gully in Huntington Ravine on Mount Washington. He failed to return to base camp on schedule and was reported missing after 9 p.m. that night. Search teams found his body early the following morning and determined that he had been the victim of an avalanche. He was the 12th person to be killed by an avalanche in the Presidential Range since 1956.

• On Sunday, Feb. 3, 51-year-old Daniel Molloy, of East Sandwich, Mass., and 31-year-old Nilton Motta, of Plymouth, Mass., set out from the Cog Railway and began scaling Mount Washington. They encountered whiteout snow conditions by late afternoon and lost the trail. The hikers were well prepared, having packed extra clothing, provisions and climbing gear. Late that night, they sheltered themselves by digging a deep hole in the snow. They hiked down to safety the following morning and were discovered by State Police at their vehicles. Neither hiker required medical attention.

• On Sunday, Feb. 10, 55-year-old Laurence Fredrickson, of South Sutton, and 36-year-old James Osborne, of Manchester, embarked on a day hike to the summit of Mount Lafayette, traveling along a nine-mile loop through Franconia Notch. The men, who were not prepared to spend more than a day in the mountains, encountered a storm and were reported missing the following morning. After six hours of searching by several rescue teams, they were located that night on Haystack Mountain. Both men had suffered hypothermia and were transported by helicopter to Littleton Hospital, where Fredrickson was soon pronounced dead. Osborne was later airlifted to Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, where he was listed in fair condition last week.

• On Monday, Feb. 11, 37-year-old Dominic Pistasio, of Gorham, Maine, set out alone for an evening stroll up Auto Road on Mount Washington. Along the way, he ran into wind chills of minus-70 degrees. Rescue crews began searching after Pistasio’s family reported him missing. They found him three miles up the road at about 1 a.m. and escorted him back to his vehicle. He was unhurt.

• On Friday, Feb. 15, 28-year-old Benjamin Davis, of Boston, left for an overnight hike in Franconia Notch, traveling along the same nine-mile loop upon which Fredrickson and Osborne had gotten lost less than a week earlier. Davis was reported missing after he sent a text message to his girlfriend the following day, saying he needed help. He was rescued by helicopter at about 5:30 p.m. on Saturday afternoon and taken to Littleton Hospital, where he remained overnight.

• On the early morning of Sunday, Feb. 17, 30-year-old Alex Obert and 29-year-old Steven McCay, both of Arlington, Va., headed to Mount Madison with the intention of hiking all eight peaks of the Presidential Range in a single day. The pair became lost in Crawford Notch after encountering snow, wind and heavy rain. Weather conditions hampered rescue efforts, but the hikers were well equipped and managed to survive two nights in the mountains. They were rescued by helicopter from the backside of Mount Eisenhower at about 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday morning—some 54 hours after their hike began. Both hikers were unhurt.