Portland man rescued after he fell and became trapped between two rocks on Katahdin

By Christopher Burns, Bangor Daily News Staff

A Portland man was rescued Oct. 5 after he fell and became trapped between two large rocks on Katahdin.

The 35-year-old man was hiking with a partner on Dudley Trail in the Great Basin about 1:45 p.m. when he slipped and fell between two large rocks, according to Eben Sypitkowski, the director of Baxter State Park.

He dislocated his shoulder and remained trapped until other hikers freed him, Sypitkowski said on Oct. 6.

The man’s partner then hiked four miles to Roaring Brook Campground, where he alerted a park ranger to the situation on the trail about 4 p.m.

A Maine National Guard Black Hawk helicopter was in the area after airlifting a 36-year-old woman from Auburn, Georgia, who was injured on the Abol Trail. After dropping her and two park rangers at the Caribou Pit, where an ambulance awaited them, the Black Hawk crew flew back to the mountain, where their medic, Sgt. 1st Class Jessica Plowman, was lowered to assist the man.

Together with a park ranger, they loaded the man into a litter and hoisted him up to the helicopter, which flew him to Millinocket Municipal Airport just before 8 p.m. before taking an ambulance to Millinocket Regional Hospital for treatment.

Sypitkowski reminded hikers that airlifts “should never be assumed” during an emergency on Katahdin and warned that the “consequences of accidents become magnified as the daylight and temperatures decline.”