Article about rescue
this may change some opinions posted
Bay State pair walks out after night on Mt. Jefferson
By Edith Tucker
PINKHAM’S GRANT — Two brothers, both middle-aged Bay State men, spent Thursday night somewhere in Jefferson Ravine on the east side of Mt. Jefferson.
Ronald Moura, 45, and his brother, Russell Moura, 42, both of New Bedford, Mass., huddled by a fire to survive a harrowing night without a tent or sleeping bags in temperatures that dropped to 20 degrees with 60 m.p.h. winds and then bushwhacked down the icy headwall of the Great Gulf in the Great Gulf Wilderness before walking out to within about a mile of Route 16, where would-be rescuers came across them on Friday shortly after 3 p.m. on the Great Gulf Trail.
Although cold, wet, and bedraggled-looking, the two brothers were in reasonably good shape after their night out, according to Lt. Doug Gralenski of the state Fish and Game Department.
He said that he first learned that a couple of dayhikers might be in trouble when Ronald’s girlfriend telephoned him around midnight on Thursday night. Since her boyfriend had not left his itinerary with her, other than a vague notion that he was headed to northern New Hampshire, there was nothing that Lt. Gralenski could do until daybreak, he explained.
He then ordered that the trailheads be checked, and the Mouras’ vehicle was found parked at the Caps Ridge parking lot at the height of land on the Jefferson Notch Road, at an elevation of 3,000 feet on the west side of the Presidential Range.
Concerned for the pair’s well-being, Lt. Gralenski said he called out search and rescue crews, including the Fish and Game Department’s own Advanced Rescue crew, Mike Pelchat and Diane Holmes of the state Parks Department, Androscoggin Valley Search and Rescue (AVSAR), the Appalachian Mountain Club, and SOLO — a total of about 36 people, including two dozen technical search and rescue team members and a dozen nontechnical ones.
They were asked to canvass the trail system, working their way out from the trails on Mt. Jefferson.
“We had little to go on,” Lt. Gralenski said.
As the first reports came in that no one had yet been found, the law enforcement officer spread the net wider.
By Friday afternoon, Conservation Officer Wayne Saunders of the state Fish and Game Department and two others were detailed to go up the Great Gulf Trail on the east side of the Presidential Range, and some AVSAR members were asked to walk up the Auto Road, keeping their eye out for any sign of movement.
What happened
After the two “lost” men were intercepted, they told C.O. Saunders that they had originally headed up the Caps Ridge Trail at about 8 a.m. in clear sunny weather on Thursday and reached the summit. After they celebrated, however, they said they realized that they had on inadequate footwear to safely come down the icy trail and decided they would be more comfortable coming down what they hoped would be a less slippery route. The two men thought they were heading north to The Link but, confused and ultimately disoriented, they walked east, apparently went off-trail, and headed down the Jefferson Ravine toward the Route 16 side of the mountain.
Russell stepped into a watery quagmire at one point and stepped out of one of his boots, giving him “some serious issues,” Lt. Gralenski said.
Russell, who works for a book printing company, recalled what happened on Saturday in a face-to-face interview with reporter Brian Boyd of the Standard-Times of New Bedford. He said he saw a stream and thought the bottom would be firm.
“When I stepped down, my foot sunk in the mud,” he explained. “I lifted up my boot. It filled with water, and that water was not warm water.”
In the freezing temperatures, Russell was in danger of losing his foot to frostbite, said his older brother, who is a nurse.
“When his foot got wet, that was obviously a serious situation,” Ronald said. “That was the low point. Anytime you get wet in those kind of conditions, it’s not a good thing.”
The two men tried to start a fire, but had no success. Russell told the Standard-Times reporter that he placed his left foot against his brother’s bare stomach, under his clothing, to keep it warm.
He put a dry sock on his foot, placed a plastic bag over it and put his boot back on. The two brothers continued walking downhill to generate body heat.
“I didn't know if we were going freeze to death,” Russell said. “If we didn't start a fire, we weren't going to make it.”
When they dropped below treeline, where the trees topped out at 15 to 20 feet, they were finally able to use their matches to light a fire, which they told the Standard-Times reporter, allowed them to survive the cold night under a bright three-quarters moon that lighted the sky.
“You think you have control over everything, and it can go bad real quick,” Ronald told the Massachusetts reporter. “It does show having some knowledge of how to navigate with a map and basic survival instincts goes a long way.”
The two men got moving again at sunrise and bushwhacked down the Great Gully headwall, unsure of where they were, until they ran into members of the search party on the Great Gulf Trail who were looking for them. They had probably walked a little over six miles.
Although the snow atop Mt. Washington was deep, the accumulation was negligible on the sides of Mt. Jefferson, Lt. Gralenski said.
“They were pretty lucky,” Lt. Gralenski said. “They did some things right; they did some things wrong. They had food, water, and matches with them, but when they were located they had on all the additional clothing they had with them.”
Lt. Gralenski said that he was in touch with the two men’s families and loved ones, especially as he sought clues to what they might do in an emergency situation.
Bill Arnold of Randolph, an experienced AVSAR member, drove Russell via Route 2 back to his vehicle, which was parked at the Caps parking lot. Neither of the two brothers felt the need to be checked out at a local hospital.
Russell told the volunteer driver that the only immediate ill effect he was suffering from was “burning” eyes, possibly from the smokey fire, although more likely from facing into the wind.
Mr. Arnold said the two men were dressed in Polartec fleece jackets and waterproof shells, suitable for September or early fall weather, but not for the mid-winter conditions that now prevail.
The two men had had the forethought on Friday morning, Mr. Arnold said, to consolidate their gear into one pack before starting their second day of hiking, leaving one empty backpack behind.
For the most part, Russell told the Standard-Times reporter, they had managed the situation well. Still, as a regular hiker and rock climber, he considered this experience his toughest.
"I don't know if I was afraid,” he said. “I certainly was seriously concerned. It was probably the most serious event I’ve ever been involved in with my outdoor activities.”
Russell told the reporter on Saturday night that he was still experiencing numbness in his foot, but it is improving. He said the experience has given him some perspective on life.
“You appreciate things a lot more,” Russell said. “It was horrifying, to say the very least. For a while there, it wasn’t good.”
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