Rescuers endured a monumental effort to rescue an injured climber in New Hampshire over the weekend, including navigating steep, dangerous terrain, and raising the injured climber roughly 400 feet.
On Saturday, December 14, shortly before 7:30 p.m., New Hampshire Fish and Game was notified that an ice climber was injured on Shoestring Gully in Harts Location.
The climber was Slavek Zaglewski, 55, of Oakland, New Jersey. Slavek was climbing with his friend Mariusz Markewicz when he fell around 60 feet on a steep section near the top of the climb.
Slavek suffered an arm and a head injury in the fall. Mariusz secured him and dressed him in warm clothes. There was no cell service at the location, so Mariusz continued climbing up to the ridge until he could place a call to 911 for help.
Along with conservation officers, a total of 28 volunteers from the Mountain Rescue Service and Androscoggin Valley Search and Rescue and the Bartlett/Jackson Ambulance Service responded. A small MRS team ascended the gully to reach Slavek while the rest of the group hiked up the ridge above them with equipment needed to raise Slavek out of the gully.
Rescuers were able to stabilize his injuries, treat him for hypothermia, and get him into a litter. He was raised almost 400 feet back to level ground and carried down the trail nearly two miles to the trailhead. Several sections of the trail were so steep that rescuers needed to use roped belays to move the litter safely down.
He reached the trailhead shortly after 5:00 a.m. on Sunday, December 15 and was taken by ambulance to the Maine Health Memorial Hospital in North Conway for treatment.