A lost cell phone almost cost three men their lives as emergency personnel had to perform a difficult rescue on the treacherous side of Vroman’s Nose during Saturday night’s rain and snow storm.
It took rescue personnel almost five and a half hours to get the three men about 700 feet down to the Route 30 side of the cliffs in rain, sleet, snow and ice, Middleburgh Fire Department Chief Brian Devlin said.
Three emergency personnel had to use ropes and harnesses to rappel off the top of the mountain to reach the spot where the three men were huddled against some trees on the side of the mountain, Chief Devlin said. All six finally reached the bottom at about 1:25am.
The three climbers were taken to Cobleskill Regional Hospital at about 2am and treated and released for exposure to cold, a hospital official said. One had an injured leg, Chief Devlin added.
The three men began climbing up the Vroman’s Nose at about 5pm Saturday to retrieve a cell phone that one of them had lost from the top of the mountain the day before, Chief Devlin said.
Though they could not remember how they got on the side of the mountain, Chief Devlin guessed that the three climbers probably went out through a break in the rocks. The side of the mountain, covered by shale and shrubs and small trees, is especially treacherous and made more so in the poor weather and the climbers became stranded.
One of the three men had a cell phone and called 911 at about 7:45 or 7:50pm.
A staging area was set up by the homes halfway up the mountain, and using an all-terrain vehicle with tracks, Middleburgh firefighters were able to haul up rope, rigging, portable lighting and generators most of the way up the trail. They still had to carry the equipment another 500 feet to the top along the narrow trail, the Chief said.
A rigging system was set up on the top and Assistant Chief Mike Devlin and Third Assistant Chief John Shaw rappelled off the top down about 120 feet. They then had to travel another 20 feet down to where the men were huddling by some trees. Rescuers reached the men shortly after 9pm.
The men, two of whom were identified as Tyler Voeks and Joe Schweppe, were in the intermediate stages of hypothermia and were shivering, Chief Devlin said.
The county rescue team was on standby, the Chief said, and was dispatched to the location.
Gus Christman of the county team rappelled off the top and joined the other two rescue workers.
It was decided that because of the condition of the three climbers, it was better to take them down the side of the mountain than to bring them back up to the top, Chief Devlin said.
The weather conditions did not aid the rescue attempt, the Chief said.
“It was dark, it was rainy, it was snowy, it was sleeting, all of which made it a difficult rescue,” he said.
It is about 1,200 feet to the top of the mountain.
“Up there it was extremely windy and snowy.”
The climbers were just dressed in jeans and jackets and had nothing for any rock climbing, Chief Devlin said.
“They weren’t dressed for the weather.”
The cold took its toll on the climbers, he said, and when they were found “they were disoriented.”
Though they were not dressed for the harsh conditions, they did have a cell phone and one also had a flashlight which helped a lot, said county fire coordinator Matt Brisley.
“Thank God one had a cell phone and called 911 or they would have been there for a long time and been in worse shape,” Chief Devlin said.
“The kids are very lucky.”
One of them said they thought they were going to “die right there,” the Chief said.
In addition to being a very risky rescue, it also turned out to be costly to the department, Chief Devlin said.
The department lost ropes, turnout gear has to be replaced and one generator “took a beating,” he said.
He estimated the cost of the operation at about $3,500.
Rescue workers were not finished until about 6:30am Sunday, Chief Devlin said. In all, about 30 firefighters were involved and at one time 10 were involved in the actual rescue.
Members of the Schoharie department, the county search and rescue team and the state urban search and rescue team, as well as ambulance squad members from MEVAC, Scho-Wright, Cobleskill and Summit were also on the scene.