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More than twenty unprepared hikers rescued from 6,288-foot-high Mount Washington Mountain In new HampshireWindy and icy conditions left them cold and stranded.
Group of hikers climb Mount Washington meetingwhich is the highest peak in the northeastern United States, on Saturday, but they were “poorly prepared” for the descent, and had to be rescued by the mountain’s cog railway, trainmaster Andrew Willen. told WBZ-TV.
“Most people were unaware of the full winter conditions and the lack of facilities at the summit,” Willen told the outlet, adding that the group lacked the experience and proper gear to handle the conditions.
Willen was piloting the train, which only goes to an elevation of about 4,000 feet during the winter months, when he noticed hikers “begging to be escorted down.” The group was put on a train and taken down the mountain to safety.
Temperatures were in the single digits at this popular tourist attraction following a wind chill last weekend, According to the National Weather Service.
Willen said their conditions varied from exhaustion to hypothermiaBut he didn’t believe any of them needed to go to the hospital.
“Our intervention and putting them in a heated train prevented hypothermia,” he said.
in public facebook postWillen said the overall winter conditions “shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone” and urged others to exercise caution if they were going on such a strenuous hike.
“Please don’t be a statistic and do your research before venturing out,” he warned in a post Saturday. “If you are going (Sunday), the weather conditions will be compared to today. [Don’t] Climb Mount Washington as if it were one of the other 48 peaks. Don’t look down on services or rides. The summit is half done.”
While the cog railway operates year-round, Mount Washington State Park closes at the summit for the winter from mid-October to early May, meaning there is no publicly accessible shelter at the top.
During the winter months, the train runs to Waumbek Station, which is located at an altitude of 4,000 feet.
Mount Washington received its first measurable snowfall of the season last week, according to the Mount Washington Observatory.