Lost hikers in Harriman

[askus3]

This just came up on my computer home page from the Times Herald-Record website! I am sure we will hear more as the night enfolds and tomorrow.

Teams search for hikers

June 07, 2007

Rescue agencies from across Rockland County and beyond rushed to Bear Mountain State Park tonight looking for four hikers.

Shortly before 9 p.m., there were requests for helicopters from the state police, then the New York Police Department. Multiple technical rescue teams were also en route. State police confirmed there were four hikers, but it wasn't immediately clear whether the group was missing, stranded or in some other type of danger.

 

[askus3]

Update

I just received this info:

STONY POINT - Mountain climbers scaled down a moss-slicked section of
Bear Mountain with ropes and rescued four Brooklyn day-trippers from
a 400-foot drop late last night.

The four city-dwellers - an adult and three teenagers whose names
were not available this morning from the Palisades Interstate Park
Police - were well off the trail and so far down a slippery slope
that rescuers could not get closer than 50 feet to them.

"They were in an area where they had no idea what they were doing,"
Stony Point Fire Chief Chris Huslinger said this morning.

One of the hikers used a cell phone to reported being stranded about
8:40 p.m.

It took about three hours in the dark to carry the four tourists down
the mountain to safe ground, the chief said.

No injuries were reported.
__________________________________________________________
Is this another case where we had rock climbers behind the Bear
Mountain Inn fined for their illegal rock climbing activities that
needed rescued? That would be twice within three months. It sounds too
similar!

 

[Jay H]

Didn't think they were hikers - I would expect them to be fined for being off-trail too now..

Does sound all too much like the last rescue they had on Bear mtn!

Jay

 

[askus3]

and now the latest from the Times Herald-Record:

Four hikers plucked from Bear Mountain
June 08, 2007
Bear Mountain -- 11:20 a.m. -- Three students and a teacher were plucked from Bear Mountain early this morning by a technical rescue team after the group got stuck on a steep outcropping and couldn’t hike down.
The hikers were part of a group on a day trip to the state park from a school in Brooklyn. About 5 p.m. yesterday the group began their decent from the mountain on a trail that runs from Perkins Memorial Drive to the main administration building.
The four males strayed from the main trail and found themselves on a very steep outcropping. The teacher, 27, and students, each 16, were unwilling to climb either back up or continue down. Another hiker alerted park police about 7:30 p.m., but rangers were unable to convince the inexperienced hikers to climb down on their own.
An hour later, a technical rescue team from Rockland County was called in – rapelling from above, strapping the stranded to them and then continuing down to flatter ground. Helicopters from the New York state police and Westchester County were used to light the rescue. The four were off the mountain by 1 a.m and no injuries were reported.