The 19-year-old daughter of two New Hampshire doctors was completely unprepared for the wintry weather conditions when she attempted to summit one of the state’s mountains last month.
Emily Sotelo only started hiking two years ago, but she has already scaled 40 of New Hampshire’s 48 peaks over 4,000 feet, a popular destination that has long drawn hikers to the White Mountains. But tragically, she died in November while trying to climb all the mountains, her body being discovered three days after she disappeared, on her 20th birthday.
Emily, a sophomore, had almost no winter hiking experience, and officials say she had none of the essential gear that would have prepared her for the brutal conditions that eventually killed her: temperatures between 5 degrees and below zero and wind gusts of up to 95 km/h.
Her parents, psychiatrist Olivera’s mother and gastroenterologist’s father, Jorge Sotelo, are now considering establishing a charitable foundation in her memory that will include recurring themes from her life and the lessons of her death: The Emily M. Sotelo Safety and Persistence Foundation.
Emily Sotelo, 19, was found dead on a mountain trail in New Hampshire in November, on her 20th birthday
Mount Lafayette peaks at 5,260 feet and the surrounding trail has been rated “Difficult” by 4000Footers.com. It’s in the state’s infamous White Mountains, a mountain range that’s generally considered treacherous in winter
They also shared harrowing details of Emily’s recent outing to prevent other hikers from suffering a similar fate.
Emily was determined to complete her 48-mountain quest by her birthday.
According to Fish and Game Lt. James Kneeland, even in the summer, didn’t bring any of the essentials that officials recommend for day hikes to Sotelo.
She had no map, compass, or matches. No flashlight or headlamp, although her parents said she used her phone for a light and had a spare battery.
In her backpack, she had granola bars, a banana, and water that probably froze very early on, Kneeland said.
She wore long underwear, but only light pants and a jacket. She had heated gloves and a neck warmer, but no hat.
“Emily had a lot of persistence, but you certainly have to balance that,” said her father, Jorge, pictured left. “You have to run one day to fight another day.”
Emily Sotelo was an avid hiker and was close to her goal of conquering New Hampshire’s 48 peaks over 4,000 feet before she turned 20, but she wasn’t prepared for wintry weather conditions
Their shoes were more for trail running or trekking than insulated boots recommended for winter.
“I often refer to them as glorified sneakers,” Kneeland said. “Low in the ankle, no ankle support. What probably happened is when you start drilling in snow and undergrowth, they get ripped off.”
In late fall and early winter, it’s not uncommon for hikers from southern New England to arrive in New Hampshire unprepared for snow-capped peaks, Kneeland said.
Sotelo’s story, he said, is a reminder to fellow hikers not just to be prepared, but to be ready to turn back.
“These mountains, as we often say, go nowhere,” Kneeland said.
Their migration had started on Sunday November 20th. She had planned to hike alone for three days, taking her mother with her on Wednesday and celebrating with dinner at the grand Mount Washington Hotel.
She told her mother that she checked the weather like her mother, but only saw the weather forecast for her stay in Franconia.
“It was cold but… I didn’t know about the mountains or anything. It didn’t look bad,” said Olivera Sotelo.
The couple went grocery shopping that afternoon, and Emily got some schoolwork done before setting the alarm for 4am. The next morning, her mother dropped her off at a hiking trail at 4:30 a.m., only to pick her up eight hours later.
At 5 a.m., Emily texted listing what she wanted for lunch: quinoa, chicken, papaya, coffee, and water. At 11 a.m. it was snowing lightly and Olivera sent an SMS asking how the hike had gone. There was no answer.
The temperature was in the low single digits as search and rescue crews made their way up Mount Lafayette that afternoon, and wind speeds stayed at 40 to 60 miles per hour throughout the night.
Officers’ extended four-day search effort was “hampered by high winds, cold temperatures and blowing snow” – ultimately proving their suspicions that Emily Sotelo could not have survived those conditions on her own
On Tuesday, searchers found some of Sotelo’s belongings and possible tracks in the snow, but it took them almost two hours to travel 900 feet, crunching over small trees covered in ice and sinking into knee- and even waist-deep snow.
A helicopter spotted more tracks, but it was getting dark and the search was called off for the day.
Three teams approached the area from different directions on Wednesday morning, and just after 11 a.m. one of them found Sotelo’s body near the headwaters of Lafayette Brook, ¾ mile from the trail.
Kneeland believes Sotelo lost track of the trail when the wind and snow started blowing and died trying to escape those conditions.
“I’m not sure we’ll ever know the real story,” Kneeland said.
Sotelo’s body, officials said, was found on the northwest face of Mount Lafayette, within the boundaries of Franconia Notch State Park, where she had set out for a hike four days earlier
‘I would know. I’m a doctor,’ she said. “People told me to hope, but I knew better,” said Emily’s mother, Olivera Sotelo
Father Jorge said the thought of his patients miraculously recovering gave him hope during the search, but mother Olivera said she knew by Sunday night her daughter was likely dead.
‘I would know. I’m a doctor,’ she said. “People told me to have hope, but I knew better.”
“Emily was very stubborn, but you certainly have to make up for that,” said her father, Jorge. “You have to run one day to fight another day.”
Emily was good at everything: music, math, art, track and field. But in a life of ambition and determination, she has also been good to others, whether that be providing palliative care for a pet gerbil or leading a memory therapy project for nursing home residents.
She volunteered at a Navajo reservation school and worked at Vanderbilt University to reduce substance abuse. She was an EMT by training who wanted to be a doctor specializing in public health.
At her daughter’s funeral, Emily’s mother, Olivera, described her as “a shooting star so brilliant and bright that had burned so quickly.” In the picture, Emily poses on Rexhame Beach in Marshfield, Massachusetts
At her daughter’s funeral, Olivera described Emily as “a shooting star so brilliant and bright that had burned so quickly”.
In an interview at the family home in Westford, Massachusetts, she said her daughter is determined to make the world a better place.
“But I would do anything to get her back even without that impact,” she said.
Olivera, who named her older daughter after Emily Bronte and Emily Dickinson, enjoyed creative writing herself growing up.
Since Emily’s death, she has been reflecting on a short story she wrote as a teenager about a mountain in her father’s homeland, Croatia.
“It was just my fascination with something so grand, so beautiful, so giving, but then in a moment the elements changed and it morphed into a beast,” she said. The story was about her own fear, she said.
“It was about how beautiful this mountain is, but how terrifying it is and how it can swallow a life,” she said.