Who: Three ice climbers and three friends who went searching for them
Where: Trap Dyke near Avalanche Lake in the High Peaks Wilderness Area, New York
Their mistake: Not too many mistakes here besides some possible poor planning
What happened: A group of climbers set out for a weekend. Three left the camp to summit Colden via the Trap Dyke route and the other three hung out near camp. The summit party was due back around 9 p.m. but never returned.
At 2 a.m., the remaining three climbers called for help and reported their friends overdue. As the climbers were making the call, three folks from the base camp had already head up the mountain in search for their friends.
What the rescuers didn’t know is the summit party spent too much time ascending Trap Dyke and didn’t summit until nightfall. The party decided to sleep near the summit. Rangers didn’t immediately head up the mountain in search of everybody. They wanted to give the climbers time to descend the mountain. When there was no sign of them by 4:30 a.m., Rangers on snowmobiles headed up the mountain.
One ranger located the summit party shortly after. Nearly 12 hours after the search began, the second party was found.
Most of the six climbers came out of the situation unscathed. One man was taken to a local hospital for frostbite on his fingers.
Read the story here.
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