Camden Fire and Rescue, Coastal Mountains Search and Rescue bring injured rock climber off the cliffs
Camden Fire and Rescue personnel navigate a steep and rock-filled trail on Megunticook carrying a woman who had been injured in a June 21 rock climbing accident. (Photo courtesy Camden Fire Dept.)
Camden Fire and Rescue personnel navigate a steep and rock-filled trail on Megunticook carrying a woman who had been injured in a June 21 rock climbing accident. (Photo courtesy Camden Fire Dept.)
CAMDEN — It was an arduous rescue, but slowly and carefully, teams of rock climbers and firefighters/EMTs lowered and carried a woman with possible broken ankles off the cliffs overlooking Megunticook Lake Saturday evening.
: The woman, 24, had been climbing with her boyfriend on the cliffs above Barrett's Cove, a popular training section of Megunticook when she fell about one third from the top of the cliff.
A call for help was made soon after 4:15 p.m., June 21, from the climbing area, and Camden Fire and Rescue responded with manpower and first aid equipment. In turn, Fire Chief Chris Farley called for assistance from Coastal Mountains Search and Rescue (CMSAR) volunteers, with their climbing gear, to manage a high angle retrieval.
The woman had landed on a fairly flat piece of ledge, and to reach her, CMSAR team members climbed above her position and then belayed down to the perch.
From there, they loaded the woman onto a carrier and slowly lowered her down to the bottom of the cliff, where members of Camden Fire and Rescue then picked her up and carefully negotiated a boulder-strewn trail down the mountain to a waiting North East Mobile Health Services ambulance.
It was just getting dark by the time the firefighters loaded the woman into the back of the ambulance, where she was treated and then transported to Pen Bay Hospital in Rockport.
Clarification, the woman was not taking climbing intstructions at the time of her injury, as initially thought. She and her boyfriend were climbing alone. A climbing guide, Amanda Schelling, who was also a nurse, was nearby with a client and was able to assist the woman when the injury happened.
Noah Kleiner, owner of Equinox Guiding Service, arrived at the scene, along with volunteers with Coastal Mountains Search and Rescue, to help the injured woman down the cliff.
He, Alan Reese and Matt Silverio, along with several others from CMSAR, lowered the woman in a basket.
Kleiner cautions inexperienced and climbers new to the activity to sign up with certified guides before tackling unfamiliar terrain.
Reach Editorial Director Lynda Clancy at lyndaclancy@penbaypilot.com; 207-706-6657
