SUN JOURNAL • April 21, 2026
The Maine National Guard assisted in the rescue of two stranded hikers on Bigelow Mountain on Tuesday. Members of the 126th Aviation Regiment conducted a mountain hoist extraction using a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter after the Maine Warden Service requested assistance early Tuesday. One of the hikers, a 24-year-old from Drums, Pennsylvania, was suffering from severe hypothermia. Rescuers reached the hikers around 1:45 a.m. and wrapped both in heavy sleeping bags, started a fire and gave them warm drinks. Temperatures were in the mid-teens and there were 3 to 5 inches of fresh snow on the mountain, the release stated. The woman’s condition “continued to deteriorate,” so the rescue team called the Maine Air National Guard to initiate the aerial rescue. The helicopter arrived around 6:45 a.m.