Tagged: search and rescue

A New Boston man fell Saturday while ice climbing in the Crawford Notch, according to news release from New Hampshire Fish and Game.

Eric Scoville, 55, fell about 2:30 p.m. while climbing on the Frankenstein Cliffs when he fell about 70 feet. He was climbing alone without ropes, Fish and Game reported.

Nearby climbers reached him, arranged a litter and carried him to the Arethusa Falls parking area where he was met by an ambulance.

He was then flown to Dartmouth-Hitchcock where yesterday he was listed in critical but stable condition.

Supporters and opponents packed a committee room for the first hearing on a bill that would charge a fee to anyone needing a backcountry rescue.The proposed law would be the first of its kind in the nation.

New Hampshire Fish and Game performs more than 150 rescues each year at a cost of $300,000. Right now, that’s funded by hunting and fishing licenses, and snowmobile registrations. But a new bill would make those needing assistance pay a portion of the cost.

House lawmakers will hear a bill Thursday  that would make New Hampshire the first state to make people pay fees any time they are rescued by Fish and Game.

Backers of the proposal say they want to help Fish and Game recoup costs of expensive rescue operations.

But opponents, including the state’s volunteer search and rescue outlets, say this bill is a bad idea that could put people, and the state’s appeal to hikers at risk.

Hikers who were in trouble in the White Mountains, exhausted, climbing out a helicopter…

Explaining what went wrong….

Typically winter hikers try to balance what they need with not turning themselves into recreational beasts of burden. But when searchers from New Hampshire Fish and Game head into the mountains they don’t have the luxury of light weight.

They have to be ready for almost any contingency including uncooperative if not perverse weather.  And, that translates into pounds.

“I’d say my ruck weighs approximately fifty-five pounds,” says Conservation Officer Brad Morse, who often heads into The White Mountains looking for a lost or injured hiker.