WYMAN TOWNSHIP — Rescuers used a helicopter to evacuate a 38-year-old British hiker off West Peak on Bigelow Mountain early Friday after she had broken her ankle the previous day, the Maine Warden Service said.

It took a joint rescue effort from several agencies to reach Jennifer Custer, 38, of London, atop the 4,145-foot mountain, Sgt. Scott Thrasher of the warden service said in a statement Monday.

The warden service was notified by the International Emergency Response Coordination Center in Houston about 5 p.m. Thursday that they had received an emergency message and exact location sent from a satellite messaging device. Custer had activated her device after injuring her ankle.

The warden service organized a four-person team consisting of a game warden, an emergency medical technician from NorthStar EMS ambulance, a Eustis Fire Rescue Department member, and a volunteer from the Franklin County Search and Rescue team.

The team hiked from the west side of the mountain and reached Custer around midnight Thursday. The four rescuers tried to assist Custer on foot, but her injury prevented a safe descent, the warden service said.

A Maine Forest Service helicopter was activated out of Old Town and reached Custer and the rescue team on the summit of West Peak on Bigelow Mountain about 8:15 a.m. Friday. The helicopter took Custer to an ambulance at the Sugarloaf Regional Airport in Carrabassett Valley. She was then transported by ambulance to Franklin Memorial Hospital in Farmington.


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