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Hikers rescued in U.S. – Metro US

Hikers rescued in U.S.

Two Ottawa-area hikers were rescued by helicopter in New Hampshire yesterday after being lost since Wednesday.

Gatineau resident Gabriel Fortin, 30, and Stephanie Desilets, 27, of Ottawa were hiking in the Presidential Mountain Range in Coos County, N.H., when they got caught in bad weather and went miss­ing on Wednesday night.

According to the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department’s Lt. Douglas Gralenski, the pair spent Wednesday night in a storm bunker built into the Lake in the Clouds Appalachian Mountain Hut just south of Mount Washington.

On Thursday morning, they were caught in dense fog with almost zero visibility, so they waited until Friday night for it to lift.

On Saturday morning they ran out of fuel for their stove, leaving them with no heat or water from melted snow, so they decided to follow a dried riverbank that went in the direction they were heading.

However, the riverbank dropped into a very remote ravine that Gralenski said is “very tough slogging, even with snowshoes.”

A search helicopter located their tracks at 10 a.m. yesterday and after following the tracks for a couple of hours found the pair, still in good condition, and airlifted them out.