Several rescuers were injured while carrying the hiker in windy, icy conditions.
Rescue crews endured windy, icy conditions on Mount Washington Saturday while rescuing a hiker on the Jewell Trail with multiple injuries.
According to New Hampshire Fish and Game officials, conservation officers, volunteers from Androscoggin Valley Search and Rescue (AVSAR), Pemigewassett Valley Search & Rescue (PEMI SAR), Mountain Rescue Services (MRS), and a COG Railway personnel responded to a call of a hiker with multiple injuries off the north side of Jewell Trail, not far from Mount Clay, Saturday afternoon.
The hiker had reportedly slipped and fallen in the icy conditions and slid several feet off trail before striking an object.
The hiker William Tessier, 29, from Carignan, Quebec, was reportedly descending after summiting Mount Washington and was hiking with four other companions.
The incident occurred at approximately 3:45 p.m. and a call for help was made by Tessier via 911.
Fish and Game officials reached out to the Cog Railway for assistance in relaying rescuers up the train tracks to where the Westside Trail crosses the tracks known as Skyline. The Cog provided a train, which saved rescuers from having to hike nearly three miles up the Jewell Trail in rain, icy, and windy conditions.
The Cog took rescuers up the tracks in two separate groups. Rescuers still had to hike nearly a mile, encountering high winds and icy conditions across the ridge above 5,000 feet elevation the whole time.
The first rescuers arrived at Tessier at 7:24 p.m. They treated him for a leg injury, shoulder injury, and hypothermia.
After treating him, he was placed in a litter and carried uphill back across Gulfside Trail to Skyline. Officials said this was a herculean task: 20 rescuers took turns carrying Tessier uphill into 40 to 60+ mile per hour winds across ice covered rocks.
Officials said rescuers suffered injuries during this task. Fortunately, the rescue crew made it to the train at 10:15 p.m. without further incident.
Tessier and the rescue team arrived at the Base Station at 10:45 p.m., where he was transferred into the Twin Mountain Ambulance and transported to Littleton Regional Healthcare for treatment.
Officials said that without the SAR volunteers from AVSAR, PEMI SAR, MRS and the Cog Railway’s willingness to help, this rescue mission would not have gone as well as it did.
Fish and Game officials described conditions as potentially life threatening, but each group responded to the call for assistance and endured less than hospitable weather conditions to save the life of the hiker.