Two hikers who became lost and stranded in New Hampshire’s White Mountain National Forest were rescued with the help of a National Guard helicopter early Monday morning.
New Hampshire Fish and Game officials were alerted to a pair of missing hikers at roughly 1 p.m. on Sunday. The hikers, Christopher Hart, 25, an Allison Porcelli, 24, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, activated their personal locator beacon when they became stranded in deep snow in the Dry River drainage south of Mount Washington.
Conservation officers began the rescue from the summit of Mount Washington. They hiked to the Lakes in the Clouds shelter, then down the Dry River Trail and then off trail to search for the pair. Hart and Porcelli were found, cold and wet but uninjured, shortly after 2 a.m.
Due to the snow, as well as high water in the Dry River, rescuers called for a National Guard UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter, which transported the hikers and two conservation officers from a steep, snow- and ice-covered wooded area and brought them to the AMC Highland Center in Crawford Notch.