The ice climber who fell 60 feet during a climb in Harts Location on Saturday is expected to survive without any long-term injuries, state officials said Monday morning.

Slavek Zaglewski, 55, of Oakland, New Jersey, was climbing with a friend on a route called Shoestring Gully near Crawford Notch when he fell more than four stories, landing at the base of the climb.

The 10-hour, highly technical rescue involved more than two dozen volunteers from the Mountain Rescue Service and Adroscoggin Valley Search and Rescue.

“Without those guys coming out at night, he would have died that night – either from his injuries or the cold,” said Sgt. Alex Lopashanski, of New Hampshire Fish and Game,.

As of Monday morning, Zaglewski had been transferred from Maine Health Memorial Hospital in North Conway to Maine Medical Center in Portland. He is being treated for fractures to his rib and nose, a potential concussion, lacerations to his face, and cold-weather injuries, according to Lopashanski.

“It does seem like he’s going to pull through without any long-lasting injury,” Lopashanski said.

Zaglewski and his friend, Mariusz Markewicz, are experienced climbers who spend many weekends in the White Mountains, Lopashanski said. The climb they were doing is fairly well-trodden, not particularly difficult, and was “within [their] abilities”, he said.

The conditions, however, were not as good for ice climbing as they typically are this time of year because of the lack of rain this season. While the route likely looked safe from the base, “instead of an ice climb, it was a frozen, unconsolidated rock climb,” Lopashanski said.

“Although it’s typically a fairly straightforward ice climb, ice just hadn’t formed there yet, which made the climbing difficult,” he said.

Lopashanski believes some loose rocks must have broken off, sending Zaglewski hurtling down the gully.

After his friend fell, Markewicz descended and dressed him in warm clothes before ascending again to find cell phone reception.

New Hampshire Fish Game received the call shortly before 7:30 p.m. and compiled a team of rescuers who responded.

A small segment of the rescue team reached Zaglewski at 11:19 p.m. and treated him for hypothermia, while the rest of the group carried 600-foot ropes up to the top of the ridge above and assembled a rope and litter system to raise Zaglewski out, Lopashanski said.

The litter reached Zaglewski at 12:46 a.m. Rescuers packed him into the gully, raised him nearly 400 feet up, and carried him down the trail about two miles, reaching the trailhead shortly after 5 a.m. on Sunday morning.

Lopashanski applauded the rescuers, and especially the Mountain Rescue Service, for a job well done. The service, which is based out of the International Mountain Equipment store in North Conway, responds to technical rescues in bad weather conditions.

“It was a mission that really put together all the skills that they practice and are good at,” Lopashanski said. “It was a mission that went really, really well.”

This is the first ice climbing rescue incident in New Hampshire this season that Lopashanski is aware of.

Jeremy Margolis can be contacted at jmargolis@cmonitor.com.