An ankle injury and cold, wet conditions led two hikers to the hospital in separate rescue situations in the White Mountains over the weekend.
On Saturday, a pair of brothers setting out on their first hike to complete New Hampshire’s 48 mountains above 4,000 feet needed help getting out.
New Hampshire Fish and Game officials got an SOS alert around 12:30 p.m. from a GPS device indicating a hiker was in distress on Mount Moosilauke’s Snapper Trail.
Two conservation officers responded to the Ravine Lodge at the base of the mountain to where they met a hiker who said his 65 year old brother, Kevin McNulty had suffered a lower leg injury about one mile from the bottom of the trail.
Volunteers from Pemi Valley Search and Rescue Team and other Conservation Officers responded and carried out McNulty, arriving back at the Ravine Lodge at 3:45 p.m. The brothers were well prepared hikers and ready for mountain conditions.
Two days earlier, two groups of unprepared hikers on Mount Lafayette found themselves in life-threatening conditions without the proper equipment for the cold and rain, Fish and Game Officials said.
Around 8 p.m., a group of hikers called for help near the summit of Mount Lafayette in Franconia, suffering from hypothermia due to rainy and cold conditions.
The two hikers, who were later identified as Dmytro Grechko and Jason Fisher, both 19-year-olds from New Jersey, has no visibility, no warm clothing and no lights.
Two AMC crew members from the Greenleaf Hut found the pair about .15 miles below the summit. Grechko was unresponsive and suffering from severe hypothermia. Fisher was awake and alert, but still dangerously cold, Fish and Game said.
The AMC crew began the process of warming the two, providing shelter, and giving them dry clothing, but they needed help carrying Grechko back to the hut.
As rescuers made their way up from the trailhead in Franconia Notch, they received word about another group of hikers suffering from hypothermia around 1.1 miles from the parking lot. They were able to provide the group with lights, dry clothing and lead them back to the trailhead.
Rescue crews made it to Grechko and carried him to the Greenleaf Hut at 2:55 a.m. Unfortunately, one of the volunteers was injured on the way down. After Grechko’s condition improved the group began making its way down the mountain, reaching the trailhead at 7:55 a.m.
