MILLINOCKET, Maine — Two rescues unfolded simultaneously several miles apart on Katahdin Tuesday afternoon.
The first rescue involved a 36-year-old woman from Auburn, Georgia. According to Park Director Eben Sypitkowski, she suffered from an unstable lower extremity injury about three miles up the Abol Trail on the west side of the mountain.
Baxter Park Rangers responded to a 911 call from a member of her three-person party around 3 p.m. The park deployed two campground rangers to the scene and contacted the Maine Army National Guard to help.
A National Guard team operating a Black Hawk helicopter was able to recover the woman and deliver her to Caribou Pit by 6:40 p.m., where she was then brought by a Millinocket Fire ambulance to a local hospital for further treatment.
The second incident involved a 35-year-old Maine man who slipped and fell in between two large rocks on the Dudley Trail within the Great Basin around 1:45 p.m., according to Sypitkowski.
The man dislocated his shoulder during the fall and remained trapped until other hikers freed him and gave him warm layers.
His hiking partner hiked roughly four miles to and alerted the Campground Ranger at Roaring Brook at about 4 p.m.
After unloading the woman from the helicopter and picking up two Baxter Park Rangers, the Black Hawk team flew to the man’s location.
He was recovered by the helicopter around 7:45 p.m. and brought to the Millinocket airport. He was then brought to the hospital by ambulance.
The current condition and identities of the hikers are unknown at this time.
Sypitkowski reminds visitors that the opportunity for an air-lift should never be assumed. Baxter Park urges caution, especially during descent, as the consequences of accidents become magnified as the daylight and temperatures decline.