A hiker had to be assisted down a trail and taken to a hospital on Saturday after a snow formation collapsed on him in the White Mountains, the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department said.
Conservation officers received an emergency call around 1:30 p.m. from another hiker on the Tuckerman's Ravine Trail. They determined that the caller witnessed the collapse of what's known as the Tuckerman Snow Arch.
Conservation officers were told that Alphonse Riang, 28, of Quincy, Massachusetts, had gone off the trail and under the snow arch to take a video when the arch collapsed, crushing him with what was described as, "a basketball court size amount of snow." Other hikers that saw and heard what happened helped move the large ice and snow blocks that fell on him and moved him to safety, officials said.
When rescue crews arrived they determined that Riang had suffered serious but non-life-threatening injuries. He was assisted down the trail to a shelter where he was then taken by ATV to a parking lot. He was then loaded into an ambulance and taken to Androscoggin Valley Hospital.
