Mass. man prepared for N.H. hiking trip, but deep snow resulted in an emergency rescue

An Acton man was rescued after he did not bring snowshoes while hiking between Mount Guyot and South Twin Mountain in Lincoln, New Hampshire, on Friday, the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department said.

At around 8:45 a.m. on Friday, March 21, conservation officers were notified of a hiker in distress off the Twinway Trail between the two mountains, in a remote part of the Pemi Wilderness, Fish and Game said in a statement. The hiker, Gary Sullivan, 52, of Acton, did not have cell service and could not call or text 911 to report that he was lost and was in deep snow.

Sullivan planned a two-day trip and brought with him a tent, a sleeping bag, extra clothes, traction devices, food, water, his 10 essentials and a Hike Safe card, Fish and Game said. But he did not have snowshoes.

“In researching his hike, he had read reports that traction devices were necessary but snowshoes were not needed,” the department stated. “This was true for the majority of his hike until he reached the area of Mount Guyot where he encountered waist-deep snow. He took shelter for the night of March 20 just west of Mount Guyot and started towards Galehead on the morning of March 21.”

After he started his hike, Sullivan lost the trail and was walking through waist-deep snow, the statement continued.

Sullivan was able to set up a shelter but with his phone’s battery running low, he could not get himself back to the trail, the statement read. While he would have been able to access through Gale River Road in Bethlehem, it was a 6-and-a-half-mile hike.

Two conservation officers and two Pemigewasset Valley Search and Rescue volunteers went off from Gale River Road and were flown by the New Hampshire Army National Guard to the Cannon Mountain Ski area at around 1 p.m., Fish and Game said.

By 4 p.m. the National Guard returned to Concord, New Hampshire, as the weather had not improved above 3,000 feet, the statement read. First responders returned with the hiker at 5:20 p.m. He had his gear packed and he was given snowshoes, and at 5:45 p.m., they group started to hike back.

At 10:05 p.m., the team arrived at Gale River Road with Sullivan, Fish and Game said.