NEW SCOTLAND — A hike in Thacher Park Friday went awry as two women slid down an embankment.

Helen Claus, a 23-year-old client at the Living Resource Center in Schenectady, and Beth Maney, a counselor there, fell while walking along the Indian Ladder Trail. They fell approximately 50 feet down an embankment, according to the Albany County Sheriff’s Department. Claus’s only injuries were neck and back pain; she had been wearing a leg brace from a pre-existing condition, according to the sheriff’s department.

The group from the center was hiking on a trail that goes down an embankment and does not have a railing, said Chief Deputy Craig Apple of the sheriff’s department. Members of a search and rescue team, formed 10 or 15 years ago, descended the steep embankment by repelling. Once rescuers found Claus, she was placed in a basket and rescuers atop the embankment hoisted her up, said Apple.

Responding to the scene around noon on Friday were members of the Albany County Search and Rescue team, the New Salem Volunteer Fire Department, the Onesquethaw Volunteer Fire Department, and Albany County Sheriff’s Paramedics.

Upon arriving at the scene, rescuers located the women within an hour. They were stabilized, hauled up the embankment, and taken by an Onesquethaw ambulance to Albany Medical Center Hospital.