NORTH CONWAY, N.H. (AP) – Two Massachusetts climbers who went up a cliff beyond their capabilities were rescued Wednesday after one of them fell 30 feet and injured his ankle, one of the rescuers said.

Conservation Officer Brian Abrams said Michael Grumbach, 35, of Westford, Mass., and Ronald Groulx, 37, also of Westford, were climbing on White Horse Ledge when Grumbach fell.

“He was above his abilities,” Abrams said.

Grumbach was lowered 500 feet off the ledge by Mountain Rescue Service, Fish and Game and North Conway Fire and Rescue teams. He was treated for an ankle injury at a hospital in Conway.

Small plane veers off runway in Stow

STOW, Mass. (AP) – A pilot and a passenger, both from Rhode Island, walked away from a small plane that veered off the runway at an airfield here Thursday.

The two men were aboard the biplane replica that was taking off from Minute Man Air Field around 2 p.m. when the plane went off the runway into some brush, airport manager Don McPherson said. Neither man was injured.

The two, whom McPherson did not identify, were from Westerly. They had flown to Stow earlier in the day to have lunch at the airfield cafe, McPherson said.

“I believe they were on their way home,” McPherson said.

Witnesses said the plane was 10 to 20 feet off the ground when it went down, McPherson said.

Sunapee conservation deal approved

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) 0151 The Executive Council has approved $2.5 million to conserve more than 7,600 acres in the Mount Sunapee region, to protect the land from development.

The move, approved Wednesday, limits the Mount Sunapee ski area from future development to its south and west, leaving only the area to its northwest. That’s where Okemo Mountain Resort, the lease holder, is asking the state to expand the boundary by 175 acres to allow for development on private land in Goshen.

Sean O’Kane, the Department of Resources and Economic Development commissioner, has been asked to allow Okemo to expand the ski area. O’Kane is expected to make a recommendation to Gov. Craig Benson and Executive Council by late November or early December.

The land would be used for new trails and a new chairlift to connect to land the owners have in Goshen, where they want to develop a hotel, condominiums and homes. The development would allow homeowners and visitors to ski directly in and out of the resort, a substantial marketing advantage.

But opponents fear overdevelopment and said public land should remain public.

Phil Bryce, director of the state division of Forests and Lands within DRED, said the conservation deal is totally separate and unrelated to the ski area request. But a portion of the land to be protected abuts the ski area to its south and west.

Eleven tracts of forest land to the south and west of the state park boundary in the towns of Washington, Goshen, Bradford, Newbury, Groton and Alexandria will be preserved as part of the Pillsbury-Sunapee Highlands. A timber management company will continue to own the tracts and pay taxes. The land will continue to be logged, but it may never be developed for homes or commercial purposes.

Jay Gamble, vice president and chief of operations at Mount Sunapee ski area, said the company is giving 207 acres of conservation land to the state. The gift was a condition for the expansion requested by former DRED Commissioner George Bald.

Bryce said the conservation strategy is similar to that used in 2003 to obtain a massive land easement in the Connecticut Lakes Region on 171,500 acres in Pittsburg, Colebrook and Stewartstown.

BC-NH–Mount Sunapee, 390

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Information from: The Union Leader, http://www.theunionleader.com

AP-ES-10-07-04 1032EDT