July 25 -- Rescuers spent eight hours Monday night pulling an injured hiker to safety in Acadia National Park.
Fourteen volunteers from MDI Search & Rescue plus park staff and Bar Harbor Fire Department personnel rigged rope systems that they used after finding the hiker on Precipice Trail, according to information released by the MDI group.
Calling Precipice “one of Acadia’s most technically challenging trails,” the rescuers used a rescue stretcher and at least six belays — ropes secured to rocks or trees by cleats — to keep rescuers and the hiker safe as they skirted the edge of several vertical trail edges, according to the group.
“A complex 300-foot-long guiding line (similar to a highline) system was constructed by MDISAR members to lower the patient 300 feet from the Orange and Black Trail to the Park Loop Road,” according to a statement released on Facebook. “Although MDISAR regularly trains with guiding/highline systems this was the one of the first times it has been used during a rescue in Acadia.”
The condition of the injured hiker was not available Tuesday. A park spokeswoman said in an email that she expected to release more details Wednesday.
Bar Harbor firefighters referred comment to the park, and the MDI rescue group did not return social media and email requests for comment.
The group assisted in 12 rescues at Acadia or with the Maine Warden Service in 2017, according to its website.
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