Members of the Pemigewasset Valley Search and Rescue Team, show here during an incident earlier this summer, was one of the groups that responded to the hiker. (Pemigewasset Valley Search and Rescue Facebook Photo)
A 24-year-old hiker from Quebec, Canada reportedly collapsed and died on Saturday, October 10, while hiking the Falling Waters Trail near Shining Rock in Lincoln, New Hampshire.
New Hampshire Fish and Game officials received a report of a medical emergency on the Falling Waters Trail in Lincoln, NH. Witnesses reported that a 24-year-old male had collapsed on the trail and that cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) was in progress. The hiker was approximately 2.5 miles up the trail near Shining Rock.
New Hampshire Fish and Game Conservation Officers, along with rescuers from the US Forest Service, Pemigewasset Valley Search and Rescue, and Androscoggin Valley Search and Rescue, converged onto the trail. The New Hampshire Army National Guard was contacted, and a crew was assembled to attempt to extract the patient from the trail by air.
Prior to the helicopter arriving on scene, a ground crew was able to carry the patient to an opening in the forest canopy. A medic was lowered from the helicopter, along with a litter. The patient was then lifted through the trees into the hovering helicopter and was taken directly to the Littleton Regional Hospital. Passerby hikers and Conservation Officers maintained CPR throughout the event, however the hiker succumbed to his injuries. The NH Medical Examiner will be conducting an autopsy.
The deceased hiker had traveled to New Hampshire to enjoy a Columbus Day weekend hiking with friends in the White Mountains and is identified as Simon Deschenes of Chicoutimi, Quebec, Canada.