2 rescued from ledge on Mount Kineo

GREENVILLE – Two teen-agers from Bangor and Glenburn were rescued without injury Saturday afternoon after they became stuck midway up a steep cliff on Mount Kineo on the west side of Moosehead Lake.

Members of the Outward Bound adventure club helped rescue the women, who became stranded early Saturday afternoon.

Wardens contacted Outward Bound, which has a facility in the area, after they arrived at the site where Catherine Miller, 18, of Bangor and Ashley Tower, 18, of Glenburn sat on a small outcropping of ledge.

The women, who graduated from Bangor High School in June, apparently became separated from a group of friends after they decided to climb the cliff while the others took a hiking trail on the 1,800-foot mountain.

“Then we got to a spot where we couldn’t go up or down,” Tower recalled Sunday. The ledge actually was a 4-foot outcropping and “pretty roomy,” Tower said. They stayed there more than four hours while the rescue efforts were arranged and undertaken.

“When we called out to our friends and said we were stuck, they didn’t believe us. They said, ‘Climb down,’ but there was no way we were going to do that,” Tower said.

Climbing down the cliff was exactly what wardens did not want them to do.

Mike Favreau of the Maine Warden Service said the goal was to get the women to “stay put” until help arrived. Three years ago, a girl tried to climb down from that very spot, lost her footing and fell. She died on impact, Favreau said.

“We didn’t want that to happen again,” Favreau said.

The game warden credited John Lynch of Outward Bound with the effective rescue.

Lynch, who could not be reached Sunday, is believed to have rappelled from the top of the cliff to where the teens were. He gave them helmets, placed them in harnesses, and then encouraged them to climb. Miller, who has some climbing experience, went up first. Then Lynch climbed alongside Tower, an inexperienced climber, and encouraged her all the way, Tower recalled.

“We certainly were grateful to have someone so experienced to help us,” Tower said Sunday.

Two other Outward Bound members secured the ropes at the top of the cliff. They were Ashley Lodato and Jeannette Fisher, according to Favreau.

Favreau credited the women for “keeping calm” and staying put in a tense situation.

As rock climbing becomes more popular, wardens are seeing more people attempt such climbs with the result that more people get into trouble.

Five wardens were at the scene: Lt. Pat Dorion and Sgt. Daniel Menard, and Wardens Glenn Feeney, Favreau and Don Annis. Members of the Rockwood Fire Department and Rescue Team were standing by, as was the Greenville ambulance service. A warden pilot stood by and the 112th Army National Guard Unit of Bangor sent up a helicopter.