Kaaterskill Hiker rope rescue info? (1/3)

[TomEske]

Does anyone have any detailed information on the Hiker rescue that occurred in the Kaaterskill area on 1/3/04? There was a blurb on the news but the hows, whys, and whats were not cl4early covered. Apparently a hiker was climbing above the falls, and slipped down about 75 feet of trail sustaining enough injuries along the way to require being carried out in a stokes basket. The news (ch. 6) said that it took all afternoon.
As I teach this stuff too kids and stress safety, preparation, and proper equipment above all else, I'd like to use anything I can from this incident to help educate others.
Thanks,
Tom

 

[mink319]

Nothing online yet...

I checked the Kingston Daily Freemans website, The Oneonta Daily Stars website, and Albany Times Union website and none of them had anything on it.

Last year while hunting on Plateau Mountain there was a helicopter hovering over the mountain, and I could here sirens down below. Some one was climbing the cliffs of Stoney Clove Notch and fell, and they eventually found him, but he was dead.
Another incident like this was about 3 years ago when the local music teacher was bear hunting on Hunter Mtn near Devils Tombstone and fell off one of the cliffs around dark.

The Mountain Eagle newspaper will probably have the story when it comes out on Thursday.

 

[Mark Schaefer]

The only online reference I have seen is the brief WRGB TV local news item.

It states that the injured individual "was one of a dozen hikers that were climbing the cliffs, and that he was trying to scale the steep terrain, but slipped." I read this to mean that he was hiking and not doing any technical climbing. Most likely he was bushwhack climbing up to the top of the lower falls.

The weblink also describes the rescue of a lost hiker and his infant daughter at nearby Huckleberry Point.