# Vermont Police Rescue Woman Hanging In Gravel Pit



## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

*The Union Leader *
_The Associated Press_










BETHEL, Vt. -- A New Hampshire woman who dangled on the frozen slope of a gravel pit for about an hour was saved from serious injury or death by a team of state police and local firefighters.

Laura Duclose, 54 of Warner, N.H., became trapped on the side of a 225-foot snow-covered pit near downtown Bethel Sunday after she tried to walk up the slope with friend Nina Dillingham.

"If she would have tumbled down, who knows what could have happened to her?" said Vermont State Police Trooper Paul Feeney, who helped rescue Duclose from the pit.

The top of the pit offers great views of the White River. Duclose made it to within about 40 feet of the top of the pit when she started to slide. She decided to lie still, 190 feet above the bottom.

Dillingham called the police.

Cpl. Chris Power and Feeney, who is also a Bethel firefighter and a trained climber, went to the top of the pit. Feeney then rappelled down, tying his rope to a tree.

When he reached Duclose she had been on the slope for an hour.

"She was cold, she was shivering and she was grateful we were there," Feeney said.


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