Vermont Backcountry Volunteers Answer the Call for Rescue

Backcountry rescuers were ascending Camel’s Hump when word came that one of two stranded hikers could no longer walk. It was nearly midnight. Snowdrifts had swallowed the trail, forcing the volunteers to trade their traction spikes for snowshoes and break a path through waist-high snow. Their headlamps cast narrow beams of light into the darkness as temperatures, already below zero, continued to fall. Another team of volunteers was hauling a specialized rescue stretcher uphill. Somewhere above the rescuers were two people who had been exposed to the bitter cold for more than 14 hours. Reaching them would be hard enough. Getting them down the mountain would be another ordeal entirely. Nine months after that night, Mike Chiarella was still carefully considering every decision made.

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