TOWN OF GIBRALTAR, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – It took first responders two and a half hours to rescue a woman who fell 40 to 50 feet at Peninsula State Park over the weekend.
Gibraltar Fire Chief Andy Bertges said the 32-year-old woman was near the Eagle Tower close to an overflow parking lot. He believes she got too close to a ledge and lost her footing, landing 30 to 40 feet from the Eagle Trail.
Bertges credits bystanders with helping lead rescue crews to the woman.
“The bystanders down below who saw her, or if it were her friends, they made their way up to her. I don’t know how they found this trail or how they created this little trail to get to her, but they made their way to her, and then from there, they had people down below waiting for our first responders and led them up to her, which cut off a lot of time in the operation.”
Rescuers needed to take her several more feet down to a DNR boat in Eagle Harbor. They went to Nicolet Bay Boat Launch, where an ambulance waited.
From there she was taken to the Ephraim-Gibraltar Airport, where she was flown to a Green Bay Hospital.
As of Monday morning, the woman is in stable condition, according to Door County Emergency Services Director Aaron LeClair.
Ephraim fire chief Justin MacDonald says it was a harder rescue.
“Very labor intensive — this wasn’t a one- or two-man operation. We were looking at four to five to six to eight guys in lines being with the patient and moving the patient along.”
“It was very difficult,” Bertges said.
“The terrain posed issues. There was dead and downed (trees), loose rock. The shelf itself wasn’t flat at all. They had to decline to another edge, which dropped, I think 20 to 30 feet, and then the terrain from where it landed, we had low angle, so then that dropped another 20 or 30 feet as well. The rescue in general was real tight. It was at night. It was just very technical.”
The rescue effort took coordination from people across the county, Bertges said, especially since the Gibraltar Fire Department doesn’t have people skilled in climbing ropes to make rescues.
“We used just about every single fire department in Door County, went all the way just about to the border of the county. (Brussels-Union-Gardner) came up and covered for the departments that were helping in this operation. We had at least one or two members from each of the departments down there helping or up on top here. We wouldn’t have been able to do it without the other volunteers. I can’t stress that enough in how much I appreciate the volunteers and I don’t think a lot of folks know how much time is involved in volunteering, and that if it weren’t for them, I don’t know if we could’ve gotten this completed as well as we did.”
It’s not entirely clear how or why the woman fell.
“I’m thinking she just wanted a better view of the water,” Bertges said. “Obviously, the closer you get to the edge, probably the more spectacular it is. It’s a great view, but that’s why they put the tower up.”
Peninsula State Park Superintendent Eric Hyde says there are plenty of ways to stay safe when hiking some of the more difficult trails at the park.
“It’s important to make sure people know when you’re in a park with nature to stay on the use areas because we are along the lake and there are some steep edges.”
Hyde advises hikers to make sure they have the right footwear, stay in a group and take their time.
“We meet with the local EMS rescue folks out here in the park too, so anytime there’s incidents we are always looking to see if there’s any ways we can make the park safer.”
Bertges said fire departments plan to get together today to do a debrief and discuss the rescue effort.
