Two Canadian hikers were rescued Saturday after facing “life-threatening” conditions while climbing a Vermont mountain, Vermont State Police said.

A 21-year-old man called 911 on Feb. 7 after he and a 19-year-old woman needed rescue after becoming extremely cold. The pair were close to the summit of Camel’s Hump mountain in Duxbury, State Police said.

Rescue teams began to climb the 4,083-foot mountain at about 6 p.m., searching for the freezing hikers, police said. 

Temperatures were below zero, with wind chills nearing minus 20 degrees. There was also deep snow on the mountain, police said.

Emergency crews audibly directed the hikers to the Alpine Trail, where the two began to make their way below the tree line, police said.

Search and rescue teams began heading to the Monroe Trail, with a team of rescuers climbing the peak with a stretcher. The Monroe Trail intersects with the Alpine Trail, Vermont State Police said.

At 11:20 p.m. rescue teams reached the hikers, who were suffering from hypothermia, according to State Police.

The man was able to walk down the trail after being warmed. The woman was loaded onto the stretcher, police said.

Crews reached the bottom of the trail close to 4 a.m., where an ambulance transported the woman to a local hospital for treatment. The hikers, both from Ontario, are expected to make a full recovery, police said. 

Lt. Thomas Howard, commander of the Vermont State Police’s search and rescue team, said the combined efforts and multiple rescue crews in “incredibly challenging conditions” saved the hikers’ lives. 

The state of Vermont does not hold those who call for backcountry help financially liable for their rescue, State Police said.

Nearly 170 students have been honored for their creative talents through the Vermont Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, according to a community announcement from the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center.

Their award-winning work will be showcased at the museum from Feb. 20 to March 6.

The exhibition will include work from categories such as ceramics, digital art, painting, photography, poetry and personal essays, according to the announcement.

The exhibition will culminate in a ceremony at noon March 7. Doors open at 10 a.m. The event is free and open to the public, with cartoonist and illustrator Harry Bliss delivering the keynote address.

The awards are part a national recognition program for students in grades 7-12. This year, 280 students from 43 Vermont schools submitted 707 works, the highest participation level since the museum began administering the program in Vermont, according to the announcement. Of these, 167 students received a total of 279 awards: 59 Gold Keys, 60 Silver Keys and 160 Honorable Mentions.

Dashiell Moyse of Brattleboro Union High School, Lillian Allen of Craftsbury Academy and Marcus Burns of St. Johnsbury Academy won Gold Keys for their portfolios. These portfolios will be considered for the program’s highest honor, the Portfolio Gold Medal, which includes a $12,500 scholarship.

Rhys Grandy, a junior at the Mountain School of Milton Academy, received the highest number of awards in writing, with three Gold Keys, three Silver Keys and four Honorable Mentions for his poems and short stories. Chloe Rosner, a senior at the Putney School, garnered eight awards in art, including a Gold Key and an American Visions nomination for her painting, “Sitting, Thinking.” Myrrh Pitkin, a senior at Champlain Valley Union High School, received four Gold Keys, including one for her novel, “Black Heart of the False God,” and an American Voices nomination for her personal essay, “Picking Apart My Pomegranate Heart.”

The only middle school Gold Key awardee was Tess Wiesmore from the Grammar School in Putney for her poem, “Shades of Pink.”

The schools with the most award winners were Stratton Mountain School with 30, St. Johnsbury Academy with 27 and Burlington Technical Center with 23.

For more information, visit brattleboromuseum.org or call 802-257-0124.

This story was created by reporter Beth McDermott, bmcdermott1@usatodayco.com, with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Journalists were involved in every step of the information gathering, review, editing and publishing process. Learn more at cm.usatoday.com/ethical-conduct.

MONTPELIER, Vt. (WCAX) – On this day in 1921, the Vermont legislature ratified the 19th amendment, giving women the right to vote.

It was ratified six months after the amendment became the law of the land federally, and three months after women in other states voted in their first election. Vermont could have been the state that put the ratification over the top in 1920, but Governor Percival, a staunch opponent of women’s suffrage, refused to call a special session of the legislature.

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