55-year-old Slavek Zaglewski of Oakland, New Jersey, was rescued on Saturday, December 14, after falling around 60 feet on New Hampshire’s Shoestring Gully.
According to New Hampshire Fish & Game Department, rescuers were notified to the incident shortly before 7:30 p.m.. Conservation officers and twenty-eight volunteers from the Mountain Rescue Service (MRS), Androscoggin Valley Search and Rescue (ASVAR), and the Bartlett/Jackson Ambulance Service responded to the scene.
The climber had fallen and suffered both and arm and head injury. Zaglewski’s climing partner, Mariusz Markewicz, secured the man and dressed him in warm clothing. As there was no cell service at their location, Markewicz climbed up the ridge until he was able to reach 911.
A small team from MRS ascended the gully towards Zaglewski while the rest of the crew hiked up the ridge with the equipment needed to pull the climber out of the gully. He was treated for hypothermia and his injuries were stabilized before he was raised almost 400 feet up to ground level.
After carrying Zaglewski nearly two miles down a steep, the group had reached the trailhead by about 5:00am. Zaglewski was then taken to the Maine Health Memorial Hospital in North Conway by ambulance.