MIDDLEBURY — Middlebury police, with support from multiple emergency response organizations, were able to find and retrieve a hiker who had fallen through ice on Abbey Pond during the evening of Thursday, Feb. 20.

Police said the unidentified hiker placed a 911 call around 6:21 p.m. asking for help after a fall through the ice. The caller reported becoming disoriented while walking on the pond’s surface. The hiker was unsure about being able to hike back down the trail without help, due to freezing outdoor temperatures, according to police.

Police said they lost communication with the hiker shortly after the 911 call and thus could not pinpoint his location. Police mobilized a rescue team that included members of Middlebury Regional EMS, the Middlebury Fire Department, Middlebury Technical Rescue, Vergennes Technical Rescue, the Vermont State Police Search & Rescue Team and the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Warden Service.

The team located the hiker — who was alive but suffering from cold-weather exposure — at around 10:30 p.m. Rescue officials carefully helped the hiker down the trail, finally exiting the woods at around 1:30 a.m. Middlebury Regional EMS then took the man to Porter Hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries.

Middlebury police expressed thanks to “all cooperating agencies for their excellent work.”