High-angle rescue team saves hiker in Nyack State Park

There was a heroic high-angle rescue of a missing hiker Wednesday morning, and thanks to a well-coordinated effort by first responders, this story has a happy ending.

CBS2's Vanessa Murdock watched those first responders hoist the man to safety.

Members of the all-volunteer Nyack Fire Department high-angle rescue team pulled the missing hiker nearly 60 feet up over rough terrain to safety in Nyack Beach State Park. From the stokes basket to a stretcher, Nyack EMS and Rockland medics worked together to roll him from the ledge's edge to ambulance.

"Someone heard screams this morning coming from the side of the mountain," Nyack Fire Captain Bob VanCura said.

The search started Tuesday after Clarkstown Police got a call about a missing person. 

"At about a quarter to 5 yesterday evening, we received a call from the missing person's wife that he had left the residence," Clarkstown Police Det. Norm Peters said.

Peters says the man left around 1:30 in the afternoon and did not come home. Police canvased the neighborhood, checked with hospitals and cell phone service and alerted neighboring police departments.

"We weren't able to locate him," he said.

Wednesday morning, a little after 8 o'clock, his calls for help were finally answered. Chopper 2 caught the Nyack Community Ambulance Corp arriving at Nyack Beach State Park, which sits along the Hudson River. Dozens flocked to the scene to contribute.

First responders shared the man was walking along a trail when he slipped and fell down a steep embankment. He was stuck overnight in the nearly freezing cold. 

"Paramedics were able to get down to him and stabilize him," VanCura said.

The high-angle rescue team went down next, loaded him into the stokes basket and started the climb. VanCura says his team trains regularly for rescues like this one and is no stranger to calls at Hook Mountain.

"Because of the terrain that's here and the number of visitors ... There's lots of trails through here, and this time of the year with all the leaves on the ground, it gets very slippery," VanCura said.

Perhaps the missing hiker fell prey to those conditions Tuesday; thankfully, he's now safe.  His wife was by his side as first responders loaded him onto the ambulance and brought him to Montefiore Nyack for hypothermia and abrasions.

It took roughly two hours from hearing the calls for help to get the hiker to safety.

A missing person was found Wednesday morning after going on a hike Tuesday. 

A park ranger heard his cries for help around 8:30 a.m. and by 10:30 a.m. the man was on his way to the hospital. 

As CBS2's Vanessa Murdock reports, it was an incredible high angle rescue Wednesday morning that thankfully had a happy ending, thanks to a well coordinated effort between police, EMS and the all-volunteer Nyack Fire Department. They hoisted the hiker to safety. He had slipped from a trail along the Hudson River.

Nyack Volunteer firefighters carried the missing hiker out of danger on a Stokes basket, then transferred him to a stretcher. With his wife by his side, they loaded him into the ambulance.  

The man was reported missing Tuesday to the Clarkstown Police Department. His cries for help were heard Wednesday morning by a Park Ranger, then paramedics met him where he spent the night out in the nearly freezing cold – about 300 feet off the river trail, and roughly 60 feet down from the staging area, to secure him before the high angle rescue team with the all-volunteer fire department brought him to safety. 

"We try to do everything as safely as possible, so we sent a rescuer down with him to stabilize him, get a harness on him, so that he was safe on the mountainside. And then we were able to bring a Stokes basket down on several ropes, and then we had a paramedic and two high angle rescue guys come up with him in the Stokes and then carry him out over some very rough terrain to EMS," said Nyack Fire Department High Angle Rescue Team Capt. Bob VanCura. 

The man was taken to a nearby hospital to be checked out for hypothermia. Amazingly he suffered only minor abrasions. Responders believe he slipped off the trail. 

Chopper 2 is over the scene in Nyack State Park, where emergency responders are involved in a rescue effort after someone was caught in a rocky area. 

Initial reports suggest a hiker may have needed assistance.