Frigid Rescue from Vulture Mt.

Frigid Rescue from Vulture Mt.

This huge ice waterfall was the site of last Thursday's dramatic nighttime rescue in Gaysville. (Herald / Bob Eddy)

Stockbridge's Vulture Mountain, the steep-faced summit visible from the Route 107, sparkled with a line of white lights last Thursday night.

The bobbing lights may have looked festive, but they were the visible signs of a difficult, seven-hour rescue of a 26-year-old Quechee man, lying injured on a narrow, icy ledge, hundreds of feet above the White River.

Jason Osborne had been near the end of a moonlit, ice-climbing ascent with companion Bill Proft, 29, of Bethel, when he fell 30 feet. He broke both legs and dislocated both ankles in the fall.

It was an arduous and frigid night for all involved, victim and rescuers alike. Temperatures were well below zero, and rescuers had to locate the climbers in the dark, before beginning the slow and difficult process of lowering Osborne-"packaged" in a Stokes basket-down the steep mountain face.

The call for assistance came in at 6:56 p.m., via a cellphone call by Proft; it was about 1:40 a.m. when Osborne-a paramedic for the White River Valley Ambulance-was placed on the DHART helicopter. He remained in Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center yesterday, listed in fair condition.

First on the scene was the Stockbridge Fire Department. According to Fire Chief David Brown, several firemen found the tracks of where the climbers had started, and began to make their way up from there.

After perhaps 45 minutes, they got near to Osborne and Proft, but because of the terrain, could not get to them. Proft, using his ropes and gear, dropped down to the firemen and then returned to his companion with a fireman's coat to help keep Osborne warm.

Proft, according to Brown, insisted on staying with his friend.

The cliff is perhaps 700 feet high; Brown estimated that the men were perhaps 200 feet from the top.

Meanwhile, teams of highly experienced rescue personnel were converging on the scene. Lt. Jocelyn Stohl, commander of the state police barracks in Rockingham and head of the state police Search & Rescue Team, said the state police team managed the overall operation.

Also responding were: the Stowe Hazardous Terrain Team, the Upper Valley Wilderness Response Team, WRVA, and the Hartford Fire Department.

Experienced with Ropes

The last, according to Stohl, "is very good at rope work and high angle work," thanks to specialized training and experience with incidents at Quechee Gorge.

It was determined Thursday night that the only way to get Osborne off the mountain was to lower a litter down to him, from the top of the mountain, and then use ropes to slide him to the base, where an ambulance was waiting.

Hartford was able to get an equipped rescue vehicle to the summit, via a steep and narrow private road that accesses a mountaintop home. As some Hartford firefighters dropped down to Osborne and began to secure him into the litter, others set up anchor points and ropes for the slow descent through a series of belays, Lt. Stohl said.

Fire Chief Brown, who remained at the mountaintop with Hartford firefighters, estimated that it was about 10 p.m. when rescue workers started moving Osborne down the cliff.

Lowering a litter down steep terrain is exhausting work, Lt. Stohl noted this week. Personnel from the Stowe and Upper Valley teams, who arrived a little later, took over the operation from Hartford firefighters.

According to Lt. Stohl, it took about two-and-a-half hours to get Osborne down.

Both he and Proft were suffering from moderate hypothermia by then, but neither suffered frostbite from their long ordeal.

Osborne was transported by ambulance to Stockbridge Elementary School and was transferred to the DHART helicopter.

Proft was taken by ambulance to Gifford Medical Center, where he was treated for hypothermia and released the following day.

Proft, like Osborne, works for WRVA, but as a volunteer. WRVA administrator Amy Estey noted this week that both men are experienced climbers who are well-trained, and were well-equipped and dressed for conditions last Thursday.

Lt. Stohl agreed that Thursday's mishap was not a matter of "negligence."

"In this particular case, it was clearly an accident, although the time of day might be an issue," she said.

Skiers who ski out of bounds and then require rescuing may be billed for those emergency efforts, noted Lt. Stohl, but that is the only scenario, by law, in which billing is permitted.