A hiker who climbed Little Haystack on Franconia Ridge to watch the sunrise Thursday morning lost the trail and became trapped in deep snow, eventually getting rescued by helicopter.

Patrick Bittman, 28, of Portland, Maine, left on Wednesday evening to climb the 4,760-foot mountain by himself but near the summit he “encountered deep blowing snow and decided to come back down,” according to New Hampshire Fish and Game. He lost the trail and headed into the Dry Brook drainage area before calling for help around 8 a.m. Thursday morning.

Bittman said his limbs were frozen and he “could no longer move through the deep snow.” Temperatures were in the 20s with winds blowing consistently above 30 mph. With too much cloud cover for a helicopter rescue, volunteers had to bushwack through the forest more than 1,000 feet from Falling Waters Trail through dense vegetation and heavy snow – “snowshoes were a must,” Fish and Game wrote in a release – to get to him. 

Bittman was reached around 1 p.m., given dry clothing and warm fluids and placed in a container known as a Bothy Bag. Around 3 p.m. clouds lifted enough for an Army National Guard helicopter, which was waiting at Cannon Mountain, to lower a stretcher and take him away. He was taken to Littleton Regional Healthcare.

Despite the lack of snow and ice in many areas , Fish and Game said the rescue emphasized that winter weather has arrived in the mountains and hikers should be prepared for extreme conditions.