*** Icy Night Rescue Saves Bear Mountain Hiker ***

From: bob9876916@aol.com (Bob9876916)
Subject: 2 Rescues in Harriman, Sounds like the White Mountains!
Date: 20 Jan 1998 13:29:12 GMT

This was reported in The New York Post Online January 20. Sounds like the
reports from the White Mountains.
http://www.nypostonline.com/

By Christopher Francescani and Rita Delfiner

Heroic rescuers carried an injured hiker off the top of a 1,146-foot-high
Bear Mountain peak while using their bodies to shield the elderly man
during a grueling, night-long trek down icy cliffs. 

The team cocooned Dr. Martin Mines, 70, of Long Island, in a special wire                     basket Sunday night and began inching its way down West
Mountain in a perilous eight-hour odyssey over the ice-slicked terrain. 
"We had to lower him down a rock-strewn, very deep incline covered with
ice" as snow fell through the night, said Park Ranger Ron Peters. "It was
very dangerous. "We had several people take some very rough spills. But
luckily, the only one we ended up carrying out was the victim." 

Mines, a Rockville Centre internist, was in stable condition yesterday at
Rockland's Nyack Hospital with only a broken ankle despite his harrowing
ordeal. "His spirits are great," said his son Daniel at the hospital.
"He's very happy it turned out this way." 

Mines, who broke the ankle when he slipped on ice, was trapped atop the
snow-covered mountain for hours with his two dogs while a son climbed down
for help, and rescuers plotted how to get the injured man down from one of
the highest mountains in Harriman State Park. 

"It's dark. There's fog. You can't see, and everybody is trying to keep
their footing," said Peters. "I fell and slid down several times." 

Some of the 25 rescuers guided the special Stokes basket carrying Mines. It
was suspended above the ground by ropes the men painstakingly tied around
trees as they headed down in slow stages. Each time a corner of the basket
tilted, one of the rescuers dove under it to keep the injured man from
touching the freezing ground. You'd have to drop and slide down under the
basket to keep him from hitting the ice," said Ranger Michael Cahill. 

Their exhausting adventure began at 2p.m. Sunday, when Mines and son
Richard, 31, began climbing West Mountain - so high that on a clear day
you can see the Manhattan skyline 33 miles away from the top.  "He likes
the open trails," said the injured man's brother, Joel. "They went out to
get the dogs some open space. We thought he was going to Central Park." 

Three hours later, the elderly father of four had slipped on the iced-over
mountain. Son Richard used a cell phone to call his sister, Emily Mines, in
Manhattan. She alerted Park Police they were lost - but didn't know where. 

"There was a desperate need to get a paramedic to him," Peters said. "The
danger of hypothermia had set in and we had to worry about loss of blood. 
"But he was one of the best rescue victims I've ever pulled down. He was a
real tough individual." 

Rescuers, including rangers, Stony Point firefighters and others, first
located the injured man at 10:55 p.m. Paramedic Keith Rosario started an
IV to prevent dehydration, and rescuers used hot packs as they walked
along to keep the fluid from freezing. 

For some of the time, they walked, blinded by the snow, in pitch dark,
forced to conserve limited flashlight power. Meanwhile, other rangers came
to the aid of John Connally, 46, his son Danny, 14, and family friend
Parmely Pritchard, 56, who spent Sunday night in Harriman after getting
lost while hiking along Arden Surebridge trail. 

Danny's mom called rangers Sunday to report them missing. They were found
yesterday shortly before 10 a.m.- in fine shape. "It was very cold, I
couldn't feel anything and I was hurting all over," Danny said. "The
coyotes, too. I heard them howling." 

The three spent the night huddled together to keep warm in a lean-to
Connally said he built from memories of his Boy Scout days. 

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