Lubavitcher Yeshiva Bochurim and Teacher Rescued Overnight From Bear Mountain

Stony Point, NY — A teacher and three 16-year-old Lubavitcher Yeshiva Mesivta (Ocean Pkwy) students wandered off a Bear Mountain climbing trail and had to be plucked from a 200-foot-high ledge by rappelling rescuers while hovering police helicopters lit the face of the cliff.

The climbers “felt they couldn’t go up safely and they couldn’t go down safely once they realized where they were,” Lt. David Herrick of the New York state park police said Friday. “Basically they froze and didn’t want to move.”

They were stuck on the rocky outcropping for more than five hours on Thursday night and early Friday.

A tactical rope rescue unit, comprising specially trained members of various volunteer fire departments, rappelled the 400-foot cliff to the rocky ledge, put each of the four hikers into harnesses, then lowered them to the bottom, Herrick said.

Because darkness had fallen, choppers from the state police and Westchester County police were called in to light the scene, he said.

The mountain climb was part of an excursion to Bear Mountain, 40 miles north of New York City, by a Brooklyn yeshiva identified by Herrick as the Ha Mesivta high school. There was no such telephone listing and calls to schools with similar names did not find the school involved.

Herrick said the climbers set out Thursday afternoon on a steep trail behind the Bear Mountain Inn and may not have understood how climbing trails are marked, with blazes of paint on trees. At some point they left the trail and found themselves on the rocky ledge that may have been slippery with moss.

“The good thing is, they had cell phones, and they called their group, and we were notified at about 7:30 p.m.,” he said. Police and park rangers located the group but could not get them to leave the spot, he said.

“Maybe they could have backtracked and gotten out of there but from where they were it looked traumatic,” he said. “It’s scary.”

The rangers “couldn’t just go out and get them because the climbers were inexperienced and if they suddenly grabbed a ranger or something it could have been dangerous for the ranger,” the lieutenant said.

The rope rescue unit, including members of the Fort Montgomery and Stony Point fire departments, was brought in at about 8:30 p.m. and the rescue took several hours. The rappellers had to jockey from the top of the cliff to the ledge halfway down, secure the climbers, then continue the descent.

“By about 1 a.m. they were all down and safe,” Herrick said. “Luckily it was warm enough … and there were no issues with exposure.”

Herrick said rescues of lost or stranded hikers are not infrequent on Bear Mountain and usually result from climbers leaving the marked trails.

“Once you wander off to the side, to get a view or by accident, you can get stuck,” he said.