Emily Sotelo New Hampshire hiker goes missing in -30F weather along Franconia Noch trail as frigid weathers envelope area with woman not properly dressed for cold weather.
A New Hampshire hiker with relatively little winter hiking experience has disappeared after she set out on a popular trail as frigid cold temperatures enveloped the area authorities said.
Emily Sotelo, 20, was dropped off by her mother, Sunday morning at Lafayette Place Campground in Franconia Noch, with the intended hiking route of Mount Lafayette, Haystack and Flume, according to the New Hampshire Fish and Game Law Enforcement Division.
As temperatures in the area dropped to near zero, with 30- to 40-mph winds making the chill factor a frigid -30 degrees, Sotelo failed to return from the hike at the expected hour, with no sightings of the missing woman.
Search and rescue crews scoured the ridge for the missing hiker throughout Sunday and continued looking for her Monday.
A National Guard Blackhawk helicopter was expected to assist in the search for the vanished hiker, WMUR reported.
Not properly dressed for winter hiking
Daytime temperatures in Franconia were in the mid-20s with 9-mph winds Monday.
Mount Lafayette’s trail has a ‘difficult’ rating and goes as high as 5,260 feet, according to 4000Footers.com.
The mountain is also part of a loop that spans several miles and summits Mount Lincoln and Little Haystack Mountain, which Emily was expected to hike.
‘For us, we’re doing drainages. We’re going up the rivers and streams that come down,’ said Charlie Stewart with Pemi Valley Search and Rescue.
‘We’ll follow them up until we get close to the ridge and then cut over and come down another one,’ he continued.
Emily’s parents told WMUR that their daughter is an experienced hiker overall but does not have much experience with winter hiking.
Stewart added that the young girl had not been dressed for the cold weather.
‘She was wearing sneakers and potentially some wind pants, not really ready for what the temperatures are right now,’ he said.
Sotelo, from Westford, Massachusetts, is 5 feet 3 inches tall and 115 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes. Emily, who turns 20 on Wednesday, was last seen wearing a brown jacket, exercise pants, and sneakers.
Anyone with information on the hiker’s whereabouts is being asked to contact NH State Police Dispatch at (603) 271-1170.
