CARRABASSETT VALLEY — A 24-year-old Orono man was rescued on the back side of Sugarloaf Mountain just before midnight Wednesday after skiing beyond the resort’s boundary, according to state and resort officials.

State game wardens found Cody Martel about 11:15 p.m. after they joined Sugarloaf ski patrol members in a search that lasted about seven hours in frigid temperatures. Martel was uninjured and transported down the mountain by snowmobile, said Deborah Turcotte, spokesperson for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

Rescue workers said Martel is lucky his cell phone worked long enough to call for help, and that winds died down so wardens could hear his shouts, said Turcotte.

Conditions were “treacherous” during the search, with chest-deep snow and temperatures dipping to 16 degrees, according to Turcotte, and Martel had no emergency gear .

Martel had been skiing about noon before reaching a ridge line between Sugarloaf and Burnt mountains that some skiers call “Hell’s Gate,” according to Turcotte and Ethan Austin, Sugarloaf spokesman.

Once he passed over the ridge line, he was on the south side of Burnt Mountain and no longer able to make it back to Sugarloaf, Austin said.

The rescue started shortly after Martel called a friend for help around 3:30 p.m., according to Austin. The ski patrol contacted Martel on his cell phone and got a general idea of his location, Austin said.

Sugarloaf called in the warden service about 6 p.m., according to Turcotte. Kingfield Fire and Rescue and Carrabassett Valley Fire Department also assisted, she said.

They tracked Martel’s position using his cell phone’s global positioning system, said Turcotte. .

Martel told game wardens he didn’t see signs saying the area was off-limits to skiing, said Turcotte.

Sugarloaf has charged for the cost of rescues in the past where skiers got lost after passing the boundary, according to newspaper archives.

 

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