AUGUSTA COUNTY, Va. – An injured hiker in Virginia was rescued on Sunday after several hours and with the help of 23 different agencies.
Crews from the Wintergreen Fire and Rescue were notified of an injured hiker around 5:40 a.m., according to officials.
The hiker was able to contact authorities by texting 911; luckily, his message went through.
Search-and-rescue teams collaborate to locate an injured hiker.
(Wintergreen Fire & Rescue / Facebook)
“If it weren’t for that message going through, the outcome of the call would have surely been different,” officials from Wintergreen Fire and Rescue said.
The Blue Ridge Parkway was closed due to snow and ice, so first responders had to redirect their route, which nearly doubled their response time.
A plethora of agencies work to locate a missing hiker after texting 911 for assistance.
(Wintergreen Fire & Rescue / Facebook)
Crews that were first to respond to the scene started a fire to try to warm the hiker, who was outside for several hours in sub-zero temperatures.
Unfortunately, the hiker’s exact location was unknown, prompting the Virginia Department of Emergency Management to dispatch a search and rescue team.
An aviation unit from the Virginia State Police attempts to locate and hoist an injured hiker from the woods.
(Wintergreen Fire & Rescue / Facebook)
An aviation unit from the Virginia State Police was also requested to hoist the hiker out of the woods, but was unsuccessful due to strong wind gusts.
“By this point, we were eight hours into this call and feared that we could end up working in darkness, just as we began in darkness,” officials said.
First responders worked for 10 hours to locate and extract an injured hiker in Virginia on Sunday.
(Wintergreen Fire & Rescue / Facebook)
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Eventually, a decision was made to send all remaining search and rescue crews into the forest to join the teams already working to extract the hiker.
The hiker was brought to safety and transported to the nearest hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
The entire rescue operation lasted 10 hours, thanks to the hard work and dedication of officials from various agencies.
