Helicopter Rescues Hypothermic Hiker Attempting a Sunrise Hike in NH's White Mountains

[@williamcrounse2931]

It was a great rescue by everyone involved. My son in law is an EMT working at the ER at Littleton Hospital and was part of the team that worked on the young man.

[@Didee1701d]

This reminds me a little bit of the story told in “The Last Traverse” by Ty Gagne. He tells of a planned day hike on the Franconia Ridge by two friends in February 2008 and how it went terribly wrong. But more important Ty Gagne follows the historic rescue by the rescue team and also details what went wrong (without being judgmental) and how to take the necessary precautions should something go wrong . I hiked that trail last summer and thought often of the power of the White Mountains in any season. For some reason, I’m obsessed with this book. Too weird, as I am typing this Taylor mentions the same book! I encourage any hike to read this before hitting the trails.

[@joankline343]

Merry Christmas Taylor to you and your family 🎄🎁

[@redbirdct]

Mount Lafayette is the place where a young lady who was trying to complete her NH 48 before she reached her 20th birthday died a couple years ago. Certainly a dangerous area to be in adverse wintry conditions.

[@Tommykey07]

Yes, I think often of her and other hikers who perished when hiking solo in adverse weather conditions. Very sad cautionary tale.

[@tomellis3218]

Great rescue story and great ending. This format you are using especially at the end talking in a very helpful and constructive way is really helpful especially to educate people on the importance of pre-hike preparation towards a safe and enjoyable outing. I so thoroughly enjoy it . Thank you and Merry Christmas. ❤😊

[@RickINFJ]

What a harrowing story. I hope he makes a full recovery. The weather in The Whites has a mind of it's own; the 10 essentials are imperative to carry. Merry Christmas to you and yours Taylor! 🎄🏕🎄

[@Jeffrey-c2z]

Great job all invloved !!!

[@joebert889]

Great video. It takes better timing to be second rather than first.

[@NorthWoodsWalks]

Scary stuff! Thank goodness he was alert enough to make the call.

[@JohnnyMac76]

I carry a package of Jello mix. It's super sweet to add to hot water to treat hypothermia for myself or anyone I run across in need.

[@JaruWalks]

Amazing story, and shoutout to those badass rescuers.

[@mr.c5411]

Excellent job!! There is no cost to save a life.❤

[@Hobomountainwander]

A NYS ranger told me they always carry puffy pants to warm up hikers who are hypothermic. I am glad this hiker rescue turned out for the best.

[@williamcrounse2931]

Ty Gagne is a great writer. He makes you feel like you're actually there.

[@trailfleamlangdon2260]

Marry Christmas to you and yours,, enjoy Trail Flea

[@sheilastevens7956]

Big claps to the first responders!

[@RickINFJ]

💯 Talk about trail angels! 👏

[@OccamsToaster]

A hot beverage might provide a nice emotional boost, but you need calories not a modest amount of thermal mass. If you can manage to drink 2 pounds of water that's 140º and your 95º core only weighs 45 pounds perfect heat transfer would bring it back up to 97º. Meanwhile, there's still 50 to 100 pounds (or more) of you that's still colder than your core was. Instead of 3 pounds of thermos and hot beverage you could bring 3 pounds of stove and fuel. Or 3 pounds of extra fleece or wool. It should go without saying that hypothermia is an excellent example of an ounce of prevention being better than a pound of cure.

[@sandrap3047]

Merry 1st Christmas with your precious baby girl! ❤

[@brianyoung8731]

Happy Holidays to you and yours!

[@billthompson4197]

praise God for these professionals and responders for what they do!!!

[@rangerinthewoods]

Good report and good tips, Taylor. Have a Merry Christmas with your family and friends.

[@daleaustin5701]

Hoping the rescuers will get some well earned rest for a job well done during the holidays. Merry Christmas to everyone!⛺️☃️🎄

[@rogerlevasseur397]

Winter hiking checklist should also include: read and understood the higher summits weather forecast read and understood "Where you'll find me" read and understood "The Last Traverse"

[@donnabeaudin9114]

Good advice.

[@jeffjohanson3830]

Indeed this rescue description immediately made me think of the book “The Last Traverse” by Ty Gagne. A riveting true story winter rescue on Franconia Ridge in a very similar location. Highly recommended book. The SAR personnel and Army National Guard are incredible working in those conditions.

[@Nuttyirishman85]

When it comes to the whites, just wait til next year.

[@leedanielson7452]

My first comment got lost or something lol..... Merry Christmas to you Taylor, and all of your loved ones and especially that little baby! 😊🥰👍👏🏻🙏🏻🎅🏼

[@robertdonaldson6584]

I can see Mount Washington from the kitchen window in my 1935 cottage in Standish, Maine, on Sebago Lake. I was hatched in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada in 1952. I got a Green Card during the Eisenhower Administration, in 1956. Hello from 1904 Electric Company house, Brunswick, rocky coast of Maine, US.

[@MrFg1980]

Those were some ambitious hiking plans given the weather above treeline. Might have to take to wanding the route like you would on a glaciated peak...at least you could find your way out in whiteout conditions. And to just sit and wait without getting hypothermia, you're gonna' want some serious down parka and pants. A bivy sack might be nice too... Glad he made it out.

[@robertdonaldson6584]

I 'spent Halloween Weekend, 1976 on the Wilderness Trail, NH in a Snow Blizzard. VP-22.

[@M1911jln]

Hiking safety isn’t just about taking things with you. Winter hiking can be very, very dangerous. You really need to think long and hard about whether you should go at all.

[@adamnichols3506]

It was -9 at my place in Rock City Falls NY. Which was colder than Mt.Washington.

[@jamesbynum7970]

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year. Thanks again for a great informative video. Take care.

[@jps262]

I notice the safety info at the end of these articles. That is good 3 season info but winter is extreme and it seems like here should be a more urgent warning about remote hiking in winter.

[@robertbarnes2598]

Always have 2 ways to start a fire. Also go out and practice starting a fire in the rain/snow. In the rain or snow is when you will likely need to have a fire.

[@edwardbenton4428]

Maybe more ways. I've used several ways in my comfy backyard, in my comfy chair and it failed. ATB

[@johnsandell4501]

Great episode. Thanks for spreading the safety tips. Congratulations on your store success 👍👍👍

[@bettyjorodgers8552]

Thank you so much for the video. Have a great Christmas

[@TXMEDRGR]

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

[@oldwagon-pens]

Merry Christmas Taylor.

[@edwardbenton4428]

Im not sure did you mention the New Hampshire Hike Safe card. The proceeds go to support SAR in New Hampshire. It's a little pricey, but the person being rescued could be oneself or a family member

[@TaylortheNahamshaHiker]

I'll wait until the new year to tell people about the hike safe card. If they purchase one now, it's only good for another week

[@OccamsToaster]

The price isn't bad, but it's not proportionate. I don't know if all hunting and fishing license provide the same coverage for a rescue (as long as they don't decide you were too negligent), but if I was a NH resident I could get a senior hunting/freshwater fishing license for $7. If a saltwater fishing or migratory waterfowl license gives you the protection that's only $11 for resident or nonresident. Worst case scenario, a resident that's not a senior can get a regular hunting license for $37. Even with creative bookkeeping I don't imagine that 2/3 of the cost of supporting hunters is rescuing them.

[@lancerproductions57]

Merry Christmas to you and your family Taylor and thanks for all you do for the hiking community here in The Whites and elsewhere. Take care.

[@EvieVermont]

As an outdoor educator my advice is to never hike alone and be prepared to ALWAYS STAY A NIGHT- no matter time of year, with a shelter, food and drink, way to start a fire…clothing that you can keep dry, for starters. Just a few thoughts

[@OccamsToaster]

That's good advice. My guess is that of people who aren't planning to spend the night maybe 1% of summer hikers and perhaps 5% of winter hikers go prepared to spend the night.

[@jps262]

Yes! This was what they taught us in AMC winter hiking. I never do a winter hike without all that stuff. There is little to no margin for error in winter. Any minor mishap in other seasons can be life or death in winter.

[@user-pr5tx9ep4m]

The most important thing to bring into the backcountry is the most ephemeral and hardest to both quantify and qualify: experience. A well-equipped toolbox is almost useless without the knowledge of how to use those tools. To gain The Freedom of the Hills in winter you have to log countless hours of outdoor time in varying cold conditions: wet, dry, windy, still, etc. You have to become an expert at cold management on a personal level. You need to know how your body reacts to 30°, 15°, 0°, subzero, etc. And what specific pieces of clothing work best for which conditions and temps. You have to know at a certain temp how long of a break you can take before getting chilly. At very low temps, you typically want the peaks and troughs of your exertion level to be quite close within a small range. And all these nuances have to become second nature.

[@rangerwez3167]

The chocolate LMNT is EXCELLENT, BUT only when it's HOT ... I tried it in lukewarm water once, and it was not good

[@fretlessed25]

Gaia GPS is great to check if you're on trail. Its one failing (which I emailed them about to fix this summer) is they occasionally ask you to reconfirm your credentials to validate your license, which is fine. But once it happened when I was in the woods and had no cell phone signal. The pop up blocked the map and because I had no cell signal it could not confirm my credentials, blocking me from seeing the map screen (even with a restart of the software) until I got a cell signal and could log back in to prove I had a valid copy. If I had been deep in the wilderness and not on a trail that I knew, that could have made for a bad outcome.

[@marcohanig176]

That's wild. Good reason to have more than 1 app loaded. I use Alltrails and CalTopo.

[@Andrew-id5cl]

LMNT has between 250 to 550 mg of maltodextrin, which is sugar.

[@Arthur-w6z7n]

It would be great if LMNT got its act together and changed the scripted dialogue.

[@abigailfitzgerald7508]

Really like this series but the LMNT misrepresentations have got to stop.

[@kaiserwilhelmnh932]

Where did you get that info? I browsed their site and didn't see it listed as an ingredient for any of their flavors.

[@paulramsey2000]

A few weeks ago I took boiling water on a hike in a HydroFlask bottle and it was still too hot to drink 2 or 3 hours later.

[@jillmorton3096]

Great video

[@hikewithmike4673]

hperthemia is no joke it can sneak up on you I had mild hypothermia in the early summertime in the New Jersey pine barrens..no sleeping bag

[@PaulsWanderings]

If he wanted to see the sunrise on Lafayette, I do too, why hike the Ridge and not do Greenleaf or The Old Bridal Path? I would that those would be safer as your exposure is a lot less.

[@scottdunbar4898]

Phones are very fragile and make me nervous. A dedicated GPS is designed to be quite durable and in my mind far more dependable.

[@EfficientRVer]

I totally agree. I have several old-school Garmin eTrex models which run on AA batteries. They are sealed up watertight and with AA lithiums, they go quite a long time on a pair of AA batteries, due to a low-power LCD display, compared to power-gobbling smartphones with big, bright displays and hungry CPUs. A spare pair or two of AA lithiums weighs a lot less than a big power bank to keep a phone on for a day or two. Anywhere halfway remote, I have my phone, a Garmin InReach Mini, a power bank for those two, and an eTrex with extra batteries. And a green laser pointer of a power level I'm not going to put in writing online. If I'm disabled in a snowstorm, they'll just have to head to the base of the green beam seeming to come down from a UFO for a couple of seconds every minute or so. Using a phone for navigation is fine when not in an emergency, or in an emergency if you have nothing better. But having nothing better, is a terrible plan.

[@cindyryan632]

Taylor, how did the rescuers reach him before the helicopter? Did they 100% hike in or could they use vehicles for part of the way? Seems like they brought a lot of gear. What amazing people! Could the helicopter have dropped provisions? What parts of the Whites would you never hike in winter? Thanks!

[@rogerlevasseur397]

Per the press release by F&G that Taylor was speaking from, the helicopter first arrived at a time of cloud cover and poor visibility - essentially they couldn't see him.

[@Self_Proppelled]

It's always Franconia Ridge. Every season. On a nice day it's easy so people get a false sense of security.

[@ksully6551]

Always bring my Yeti full of very hot water with pedialyte in it.

[@VTSteve]

Now, as an Oldster (69) I don't want to contribute to a "Nanny State", BUT, I feel like there needs to be more control in this region, partly due to how fast weather can change. Possible ideas are: 1. Before Hikers can access the region, they must pass certain must do's: 1. Being equipment saavy 2. Edu on the crazy weather in this region 3. What happens if you F up and what it's going to cost you! Sign here please that you understand and agree 4. Maybe require at least 2 people 5. Pass a course that is tailored to this region. Could save lives, lot's a of rescuer time, effort and injuries. No doubt other stuff not coming to mind off the top of my head. Me: B.S. Forestry 1981 University of Vermont

[@OccamsToaster]

You're very much in favor of a nanny state.

[@VTSteve]

@@OccamsToaster Nope, just trying to suggest saving manpower resources and associated funds, how do you not see that? Are you one of those who got rescued and charged for your save? Or, are you just one of those who just wanna do whatever you please no matter who it affects? Narcissist are you? Like Trump? If so GFYS

[@larryosselborn9009]

Is it true white mountains is one of seven places where the weather is very unpredicted

[@pete26167]

Frozen popcical 🥶

[@doodlebug1820]

I always wonder the financial impact of people in these situations. Like how many have to declare bankruptcy? A helicopter ride can be 60,000 and a hospital bill easily 100,000

[@OccamsToaster]

The hospital bill can also be fairly cheap if you have good health insurance. A life flight ride can be expensive, but a ride in an Air National Guard helicopter is likely to be free. This sort of thing is one of their missions, and because they need minimum number of hours this particular flight likely means they don't need to do a similar practice flight.

[@charleswoolsey7326]

👍

[@Larry_M6790]

Glad the hiker is going to be fine, and I'm not going to mention what a boneheaded decision this hiker made putting himself and rescuers at risk.

[@johnsilva9139]

Thanks for not mentioning that.

[@MLSPlatforms]

I won’t mention it either!

[@Tommykey07]

Absolutely. We are not going to mention what a boneheaded decision was made by this person!

[@EfficientRVer]

You don't know that. I don't know the whole story, but just correctly deciding to turn around was MUCH LESS BONEHEADED than the things most people requiring rescue do. I've hiked at night alone in snow on much bigger mountains. Almost always without incident, but one time almost costing me my life, though not requiring rescue. You can say that leaving your couch is boneheaded, if leaving your couch leads to an accident. To what extent this was poor planning versus poor luck versus the usual cascade of small things going wrong until the situation was dire, is TBD. He turned around. He headed downward. When lost, he headed down a valley. When immobilized, he was able to communicate and give his coordinates. He managed all of the compromises between hypothermia, exertion, exhaustion, frostbite, self-rescue attempts, and finally calling for help. Not perfectly, but well enough to not die. Believe me when I tell you that if he's anything like me, over the years and decades to come, nobody will be a bigger critic of each little decision he made, than himself. My advice to him, is that doing so is a useful exercise, but at some point you need to come to peace with your mistakes, and be grateful that in a spot where making one more mistake would have been fatal, he managed to hang in there and survive. I hope he remembers to also thank his body, as if it is a separate entity from him, for also coming through for him in such a big way, under near-impossible circumstances. The stack of Thank You cards my own body deserves for keeping me alive, would reach the ceiling. Yes, the rescuers deserve all sorts of accolades and thanks. But so does the guy himself, and his body. Without the (imperfect but sufficient, maybe even great) performances we've not heard about by him, the rescuers would have been carrying a corpse down the mountain or in a helicopter. Which is a nastier job than saving someone, yet it's one way that maybe you wouldn't be so quick to blame the victim, and it's not usually the path to rescuers receiving awards. Though I'd say a failed rescue has just as much valor as a successful one, plus it has the extra suffering of having failed.

[@leedanielson7452]

FIRST!!!😂🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

[@TaylortheNahamshaHiker]

WOO!!

[@leedanielson7452]

I haven't done that for a while...🤯😂

[@yvonnehathaway8435]

Being hypothermic... There is no "extremely hypothermic" either you are hypothermic or you are not. Please don't become one.of the dramatic, unbelievable channel. ..... Also... So glad you aren't doing gear reviews, the hiking content creators have saturated KZbin w gear reviews. Thank you, love your new news videos.

[@TaylortheNahamshaHiker]

Thanks! I won't be too dramatic, but the press release did refer to him being extremely hypothermic

[@larryosselborn9009]

Is it true white mountains is one of seven places where the weather is very unpredicted

[@adamnichols3506]

Yes.