Accident Reports

Appalachia, June 2002

Hiker Benighted in Huntington Ravine
On Sept. 4, 2001, Davide Napolitano, 24, of Poztici Napoli, Italy, a seasonal employee of the Appalachian Mountain Club, left Pinkham Notch Visitor Center at about 5 p.m., intending to ascend to the summit of Mount Washington via the Huntington Ravine Trail. On the headwall he encountered deteriorating weather with rain and lightning, but he continued upward anyway. He was overtaken by darkness about halfway up the headwall and soon wandered off the trail and was stranded. He spent the night on a small ledge with minimal gear. In the morning he sighted another hiker on the trail, and got his attention by yelling and blowing a whistle. This hiker proved to be another AMC seasonal employee, who called for help from Pinkham Notch on his cell phone. It was necessary to rig a belay to get Napolitano safely back to the trail.

Analysis: I hope it is not necessary to comment at any length on the foolishness of attempting Mount Washington by way of Huntington Ravine, starting out with less than three hours of daylight, then continuing in the face of deteriorating weather in waning daylight. This is an extremely bad place in which to travel after dark, as demonstrated by the fact that Napolitano wandered into a spot in darkness from which he could not continue in daylight without technical assistance.

Heart Attack Fatality near Artists Bluff
On Aug. 26, 2001, Abraham Hauer, 53, of Brooklyn, N.Y., and Bethlehem, N.H., set out with his wife to climb the short trail to the ledgy outlook over Franconia Notch called Artists Bluff, which they had never visited. They were not distance hikers but were used to taking short trails to viewpoints. This is a steep trail, and Hauer's wife decided to stop partway up and wait for Hauer to return. When he did not return within a reasonable time, she continued to the bluff, but he was not there. She then descended and reported him missing. Hauer was a very well-known and respected member of the Orthodox Jewish community who functioned as the rabbi of the hotel in Bethlehem, N.H., which has been a vacation center for Orthodox Jews for many decades. His disappearance resulted in what may well have been the largest search operation in North Country history. Several hundred members of the New York and Montreal Orthodox Jewish communities responded. The area in which Hauer was presumably lost (based on the assumption that he would not cross a highway into the woods on the other side) is a relatively small one by White Mountain standards: the triangle formed by Routes 3, 18, and 141, approximately 2.0 miles at the base and 2.5 miles long. Thus it was possible to give the search area very thorough coverage, a valuable asset in a location where a man who is down on the ground can be seen from only a short distance through the dense vegetation. Hauer's body was discovered just before noon on Aug. 28, close to Lafayette Brook, roughly 0.6 mile north of Artists Bluff. The medical examiner determined that he died of a heart attack.

Sources: Stephen Frothingham (AP); Lorna Colquhon, Aug. 28, 2001, Manchester Union Leader

Analysis: Though the trail to Artists Bluff is steep, it is quite short, so Hauer cannot be faulted for having undertaken an overly ambitious hike. The outlook area here gets heavy traffic not only from hikers, but also from rock climbers who use the site for practice and training. As a result, there are a number of trodden paths that a person unfamiliar with the bluff might easily follow by mistake. These could lead to the wrong side of the hill and an unplanned descent into the Lafayette Brook valley. It is quite possible that this happened to Hauer, who then succumbed to a heart attack brought on by the unaccustomed effort of bushwhacking through dense mountainside vegetation. Given Hauer's intelligence and reputation for caution, it is also possible that he became ill at the outlook and, disoriented by illness and pain, got confused and walked north into the woods and down to the brook, where he succumbed.

Editor's Note: The preceding is a sample of the many accident reports author Gene Daniell provides in each issue of Appalachia.

—Gene Daniell has been the author of AMC's White Mountain Guide since 1982 and the secretary of the Four Thousand Footer Club since 1984.