Two hikers who left the trail to go “exploring” on steep ledges near Franconia Notch only to get stuck and require rescue have been fined $248 after pleading guilty to reckless conduct.
“When people put themselves into hazardous situations needlessly or by being ill-prepared, and put rescuers in harm’s way, they need to be held accountable,” said Lt. James Kneeland of the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department’s Law Enforcement Division.
The guilty pleas, announced Tuesday by New Hampshire Fish and Game, stem from a June rescue involving Dylan Stahley, 25, of Windsor and Jason Feierstin, 22, of Lowell, Mass.
According to Fish and Game, one of the pair called 911 for help at 2:15 p.m. on Sunday, June 11, “because he was ‘stuck’ on the side of a mountain in a very dangerous position and was laying under a ledge, trying to keep from falling off the cliff.” His friend later called for help as well “because he too could not find a way down from the cliffs.”
Neither hiker knew their location and it took rescuers hours to locate the “stuck” hiker, who was on a feature known as Hounds Hump, near the Eaglet, on the east side of Franconia Notch. Rescues, including rock-climbing guides, could not reach him from below but had to go up to the Eaglet, near the Greenleaf Trail, and work down.
“At approximately 6:30 p.m., a search and rescue team member spotted the hiker from an observation position on I-93 and was able to utilize a drone to gather additional location information. This allowed the command team to talk the rescue climbers into reaching the ledge with the stranded hiker. By 7:21 p.m. rescuers had been able to rappel down to the stranded hiker and placed him in a harness to be extracted,” according to a press release.
Conservation officers said the two men had no plan for a hike that day. “They were not familiar with the area, did not stay on any trail, and did not have any equipment or even footwear for entering such a steep and dangerous location, much less ropes, harnesses, or climbing gear,” Fish and Game wrote in a statement. They told conservation officers that they climbed the cliffs because they were “exploring.”
Feierstin and Stahley both entered guilty pleas in exchange for each receiving a violation-level Reckless Conduct conviction and $200 fine, plus $48 penalty assessment.
The rescue involved conservation officers from the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department’s Law Enforcement Division as well as volunteers from the Pemigewasset Valley Search and Rescue Team and New England K9 Drone Unit.