LAKE PLACID - Three ice climbers and a search party of fellow climbers who went searching for them were forced to spend Saturday night on Mount Colden.
One climber, Ben Dunphey, 19, of Philadelphia, was taken to the Adirondack Medical Center emergency room in Lake Placid, where he was treated and released. Officials this morning did not say what Dunphey was treated for; however, WNBZ radio stated Dunphey suffered frostbite on his fingers.
According to state Department of Envir-onmental Conservation spokesman David Winchell, DEC dispatch received a call from a group at Marcy Dam at approximately 1:56 a.m. on Sunday, stating that three of their members were overdue from a trip to climb the Trap Dyke from Avalanche Lake in the High Peaks Wilderness Area, in the town of Keene.
The caller also told the DEC dispatcher that another three members of the party had left camp at midnight to summit Colden and try to find the missing climbers, but had no contact with that group since they left.
Victor Lum, 32, of Cambridge, Mass., Marcia Steger, 29, of Boston, and Dunphey had intended to summit Colden via the Trap Dyke and then return on the trails, they were expected to return to camp by 9 p.m. As it turns out, it was after dark by the time they reached the summit, so they spent the night on the side of the mountain.
Winchell said DEC forest rangers agreed to wait and allow some time for the two groups to return, but with no word by 4:30 a.m., four forest rangers responded with snowmobiles.
Not long after being dispatched, the caretaker of the DEC's Lake Colden cabin heard voices of climbers in the Trap Dyke. It was eventually determined that this was the second group of climbers, but when they and DEC met, the first group was not there.
Forest rangers continued to search the surrounding area and trails, and at 4:36 p.m., a forest ranger located Lum, Steger and Dunphey on the Lake Colden trail near Avalanche Pass and escorted them back to Marcy Dam, where they were driven out on snowmobiles.
The climbers said it took longer than expected to negotiate the Trap Dyke; therefore, they did not make the summit of Mount Colden until after dark. They said they spent the night on the slab on the south side of Mount Colden.
At daybreak, they began traversing southwest down the mountain, eventually reaching the northwest ramp, which they descended to the trail where they were found.
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Contact Emily Hunkler at 891-2600 ext. 24 or ehunkler@adirondackdailyenterprise.com.
