New York Department of Environmental Conservation police officers and forest rangers. (NYDEC Facebook Photo)
During their search and recovery efforts for Hua Davis, the hiker who died in the Adirondacks last weekend, New York forest rangers found themselves in a dangerous situation when they needed to be rescued themselves.
After completing the recovery operation in difficult backcountry terrain on MacNaughton Mountain, as forest rangers hiked out one ranger fell through the ice of a brook and was submerged chest deep while carrying a 50-pound backpack. Fellow rangers quickly pulled their colleague from the icy water, changed his clothes and stabilized his core temperature while the outdoor air temperature was in the lower 20s.
The rangers requested an emergency extraction to prevent frostbite and hypothermia from overtaking the forest ranger. New York state police and forest rangers, using night vision goggles, preformed a difficult, nighttime rescue operation in the Adirondack wilderness to secure the rangers and transport them to Lake Placid Airport. The ranger who originally fell through the ice was determined to be in stable condition and after warming up was sent back into service.
DEC Acting Commissioner Basil Seggos described the incident as “life-threatening” and commended the quick-thinking and actions of the rangers involved.
“From this weekend’s operation, it’s clear that the unexpected can occur anytime in the backcountry even to the most experienced,” said Seggos, “and I commend our forest rangers for using their skills and training to rescue one of their own.”