New Hampshire hiker Patrick Bittman rescued after becoming stranded, frozen, on mountain

A hiker was rescued Thursday after becoming lost and suffering from hypothermia while solo hiking in central New Hampshire.

Patrick Bittman, 28, of Portland, Maine, was hiking Wednesday night to watch the sunrise from Mount Lafayette.

Officials said Bittman encountered deep blowing snow near the summit of Little Haystack on Franconia Ridge, forcing him to return down the mountain.

However, upon his return, he became lost and ran into the Dry Brook drainage, where the temperature dropped to about 20 and the wind chill reached near zero.

After spending the night lost on the mountain, Bittman called 911 Thursday morning.

He said his limbs were frozen, he was experiencing hypothermia and he was no longer able to walk through snow several feet deep.

Ground crews from the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department and the Pemi Valley Search and Rescue Team, as well as air crews from the Army National Guard, responded to their call.

However, they encountered poor visibility due to cloud cover and intermittent snowfall over the steep terrain and dense vegetation, forcing them to adjust their approach to rescue Bittman.

The first ground rescue teams had to spend an hour clearing 1,000 feet of vegetation off the trail to reach Bittman by Thursday afternoon.

By then, he was found to be suffering from severe hypothermia and was placed in an emergency sleeping bag for shelter and given warm, dry clothes and warm fluids.

Two hours later, weather conditions allowed the Army National Guard to reach Bittman with the medicine.

They lifted the young man into a helicopter and then took him to a local hospital for treatment.

New Hampshire Fish and Game officials said, “This air rescue saved many hours of work in rugged terrain and is a testament to how search and rescue works in New Hampshire, involving many different “Different groups working together toward a common goal.”