Even when you set out for a hike with the proper gear and the proper experience, Mother Nature has the final say. Two hikers learned the hard way just how unforgiving winter weather can be after they became stranded during a challenging hike on New Hampshire’s Mount Washington, the highest peak in the northeastern United States. The pair—Kathryn McKee, 51, and Beata Lelacheur, 54—got lost in whiteout conditions, and New Hampshire Fish and Game says the hikers likely would have died had they not had the proper gear.
On Sunday evening, McKee and Lelacheur called 9-1-1 after becoming lost. The hikers were attempting to make their way through very deep snow (at times it was chest deep, according to McKee’s interview with CBS Boston), and the wind and snow had erased all visible trail markers. The pair was also continuously falling into “spruce traps,” which New Hampshire Fish and Game defines as “holes created in the snow underneath trees.”
The women began losing functionality as their bodies succumbed to the extreme cold. Rescue personnel thankfully reached them in the early hours of Monday morning and warmed them to the point where the hikers could move on their own back down the Jewell Trail. McKee then went to the hospital to receive treatment for frostbite.
“This incident is exemplifies the need to prepare for the unexpected,” says New Hampshire Fish and Game in its press release. “Both hikers were prepared and had winter hiking experience, but ultimately encountered unforeseen conditions. Had they not had the amount of gear that they had with them, it is unlikely that they would have survived until rescuers reached them.”
Watch CBS Boston’s news coverage about the hikers who got stranded on Mount Washington here: