Ice climber rescued after falling 60 feet in White Mountains

An ice climber from New Jersey had to be rescued after falling 60 feet while climbing Shoestring Gully on Mount Webster in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, officials said. 

Slavek Zaglewski, 55, of Oakland, N.J., was climbing with his friend Mariusz Markewicz at Mount Webster, part of the Presidential Range of the White Mountains, on Saturday. While on a steep section near the top of the climb, he fell 60 feet, according to a statement from New Hampshire Fish and Game. He sustained injuries to his head and his arm.

Markewicz secured Zaglewski and dressed him in warm clothes before climbing up to the ridge to find cell service. 

Authorities received his call just before 7:30 p.m. A team that included conservation officers, Androscoggin Valley Search and Rescue, the Bartlett-Jackson Ambulance service, and 28 volunteers from the Mountain Rescue Service responded to help with the rescue. 

“A small MRS team ascended the gully to reach Zaglewski while the rest of the group hiked up the ridge above them with equipment needed to raise Zaglewski out of the gully,” officials said in the statement. 

Rescuers stabilized his injuries, treated him for hypothermia, and loaded him into a litter, which the other group used to raise him almost 400 feet to level ground. He was then carried nearly two miles back to the trailhead, which included stretches so steep that rescuers needed to use roped belays to move the litter. 

“The group reached the trailhead shortly after 5:00 a.m. on Sunday,” officials said. 

Zaglewski was transported in an ambulance to the Maine Health Memorial Hospital in North Conway, where he is being treated for his injuries.

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