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A 17-year-old male fell about 25 feet to his death in Acadia National Park on Friday.
Park rangers and the Bar Harbor police and fire departments responded around noon to the scene near the Otter Cliffs area, according to park spokesperson Amanda Pollock.
The teenager was identified as Bryce Basso, a junior at Brewer High School, in an email to the Brewer school community from Brewer High School Principal Brent Slowikowski and Brewer Superintendent Gregg Palmer.
Basso was hiking with friends when he fell, and park rangers and other first responders performed CPR, Pollack said.
The National Park Service reported the incident to the state chief medical examiner, which investigates unexpected deaths.
Brewer High School will open on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. with counselors available for students and staff, the email from Slowikowski and Palmer said.
“Please keep Bryce and his family in your thoughts and prayers as we support and take care of one another in this time of loss,” the email said.
The most recent falling deaths in Acadia occurred in March 2021, when two Massachusetts hikers fell to their deaths while hiking up Dorr Mountain.
Wayne Beckford, 28, and Kassandra Caceres, 30, of Rutland, Massachusetts, fell at least 100 feet to their deaths during icy conditions on the mountain.
And in 2016, a New Jersey man fell to his death from a seaside cliff near Thunder Hole. Mark Simon, 68, of Glen Ridge, New Jersey, had walked to the shore to take pictures, but did not return to his wife who had been waiting in the car. His body was discovered lying at the base of a cliff nearly three hours after he was reported missing.
Before that in 2012, a University of Maine student fell to her death from the Precipice Trail on Champlain Mountain in Acadia National Park. Shirley Ladd, a 22-year-old New Hampshire woman, fell about 60 feet to her death in a switchback section of the trail.
