A man hiking in New Hampshire died over the weekend after he collapsed from an undetermined medical issue on a White Mountain trail, authorities said.
Jason Apreku, 21, of Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, died Friday on a trail ascending Mount Madison, despite multiple hours of CPR and other attempted life-saving efforts, the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department said in a statement.
Rescue crews and Army National Guard members mounted an effort to reach Apreku after he collapsed around 4:30 p.m. on the Osgood Trail while hiking with a group of friends, Fish and Game officials said.
But Mount Madison and its nearby peaks — which form the Presidential Range, New Hampshire’s loftiest summits — were at the time consumed by dangerous weather conditions.
At the time Apreku’s friend called 911, wind gusts of 90 mph buffetted Mount Washington, a neighboring peak and the state’s tallest mountain, dropping the wind chill below freezing. The high wind and cloud cover prevented a National Guard helicopter from dropping rescuers nearby Apreku’s party, according to the Fish and Game officials.
The department said that Apreku’s friend performed CPR for “an extended period of time.”
The life-saving effort, assisted by employees of the Appalachian Mountain Club and passing hikers, “continued for hours in an attempt to give Apreku every chance of survival,” the statement from Fish and Game said. He died after “multiple hours of CPR, AED deployment, and many other life-saving efforts,” the statement said.
Meanwhile, rescuers made multiple efforts to reach the group, officials said. The National Guard sent a helicopter from the state capital of Concord, while a local rescue team, Androscoggin Valley Search and Rescue, ascended Mount Madison in case the helicopter crew could not lift Apreku from the mountain ridge.
Weather stymied the National Guard’s attempt to reach the ridge by helicopter.
“Despite all efforts and hoping that the clouds would lift and the wind would settle down, the helicopter crew could not get to the hiker,” Fish and Game’s statement said.
On a second attempt to land two Fish and Game conservation officers elsewhere on the ridge, the crew decided that it could not risk operating the helicopter in such severe winds, nor could it drop the conservation officers into a tree-covered area in the quick-moving clouds.
Other rescuers from Androscoggin Valley Search and Rescue Team, the Appalachian Mountain Club and Fish and Game hiked throughout the night and into Saturday morning, and then carried Apreku in a litter to Madison Spring Hut, a mountain-side lodge operated by the AMC.
In high-gusting winds and below-freezing temperatures, it was a “grueling and challenging feat,” Fish and Game officials said. The rescuers were donned in “full winter gear” — fleece layers, puffy jackets, winter hats and goggles included — and faced minimal visibility. In the high peaks of the White Mountains, winter weather conditions can strike in any month of the year.
The rescue team reached Madison Spring Hut just after 4 a.m. Saturday morning. A National Guard helicopter lifted Apreku and the rescuers off the mountain, negating the need for a risky hike down the mountain.
