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The women left the marked trail Monday afternoon and were caught on steep, boulder-filled terrain in the Alpine section of Palisades Interstate Park near what's known as the Giant Stairs, PIP Police Lt. Jock Watkins Jr. said.
The hikers -- one from San Gabriel, CA, another from Warminster, PA, both 24, and a 25-year-old from Quincy, MA -- gave PIP police their coordinates, which helped rescuers locate them, Watkins said.
The East Bergen Rappel Team was dispatched to the State Line Lookout while members of the Palisades Interstate Parkway Police Marine Operations Bureau sent a boat and deployed a member on foot to the Giant Stairs, he said.
The Marine Operations officer climbed the rocks and got near the hikers but couldn't reach them, Watkins said.
So the rappel team deployed a rescuer from the top of the cliff to meet him.
Together, they climb their way to the hikers and got them down the rocks to the trail below, the lieutenant said.
All then went by boat to the Alpine Boat Basin.
Neither the hikers nor their rescuers were injured, Watkins said.
Alpine, Fort Lee, Edgewater and Englewood Cliffs firefighters sent rigs, joining Closter Ambulance & Rescue, Palisades Interstate Parkway Police and the PIP Marine unit.
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ALSO SEE: Palisades Interstate Parkway police rescued a suicidal 50-year-old Closter man after he’d overdosed in a moving car at the State Line Lookout in Alpine.
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