UPDATE (Oct. 23): Coastal Mountains Search and Rescue team members completed their operation and were out of the woods shortly before 9 p.m. Oct. 22, according to Camden Fire Chief Chris Farley. They were able to recover all the gliding equipment. 

The paraglider received a minor bump to the head when he made contact with the tree. He was wearing a helmet. His head struck the tree just below the helmet, but the helmet did take the brunt of the impact.  There were no other injuries.

An afternoon that was intended for sailing through the air on balmy October breezes came to an abrupt end when a solo paraglider landed high in a tree on the west side of Bald Mountain in Camden.

With his gear, the paraglider had climbed to the top of Bald Mountain Oct. 22 along the the Coastal Mountains Preserve trail, which is accessed from Barnestown Road. At the summit, the experienced paraglider took off under the mid-afternoon sun, heading west toward the Camden Snow Bowl.

But, the glider failed to gain altitude and instead drifted downward, landing near the upper slope of Bald Mountain, in a hardwood tree.

The wing and his harness that had tangled in the branches created enough tension to fix him tightly in place, approximately 30 to 40 feet high in the tree. But he luckily settled on a branch four inches in diameter, where he waited for help from Coastal Mountains Rescue and Maine wardens, said Camden Fire Chief Chris Farley.

Firefighters, a North East Mobile Health ambulance crew and Camden police had staged on Barnestown Road next to the Snow Bowl fields, where a football game was in progress.

By dusk, a crew equipped with high angle rescue gear were well on their way to help the paraglider down from the tree, and the mountain.