Marriage proposal comes amid hiker rescue on Kearsarge: She said ‘yes’

By Dan Tuohy, NHPR
Jul 13, 2026
Jul 13, 2026 Updated 2 hrs ago
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Rescuers responding to an injured hiker on Mount Kearsarge this weekend had front-row seats to a big romantic gesture.

Officers with the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department received a report on Saturday around noon of a hiker with a lower leg injury on the Barlow Trail.

The hiker was unable to walk and needed to be carried out by rescuers. As 29-year-old Alexis Hardy of Sandown was loaded into the litter, her companion followed through on another plan — asking her to marry him.

Once rescuers were underway, Tim Dupere presented Hardy with an engagement ring.

She said yes, before rescuers carried her to the sumit and down the Rollins Trail. She was taken to Concord Hospital for treatment of her injuries.

Cog Railway rescue atop Mount Washington

Search and rescue members teamed up with the Cog Railway on Saturday to help an injured woman off Mount Washington.

Rescuers responded after a staff member of the Appalachian Mountain Club suffered a serious fall near the Lakes of the Clouds Hut and was unable to walk, according to New Hampshire Fish and Game.

The Lakes of the Clouds, at 5,012 feet elevation on the slopes of Mount Washington, is the highest of the AMC’s high mountain huts in the White Mountains.

Using the Cog Railway, rescuers rode up to the West Side Trail and hiked over to the hut. They then carried the staff member back to the train tracks and rode down on the Cog to the base station.

Fish and Game said the AMC worker, identified as 26-year-old Cali Turner, was evaluated at the base and then driven by a friend to Memorial Hospital in North Conway.

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