I was backpacking in Bears Ears National Monument, a remote area of red rock canyons in SE Utah, along with five others. We were halfway through a 3-day, 24-mile point-to-point trip. While hiking through an area of vegetation, my shoe caught on something, my left ankle rolled, and I lost my balance. My right ankle twisted and contorted as I fell, and we all heard a \u201csnap!\u201d I was unable to bear any weight on the right leg. Given my left ankle was injured, I couldn\u2019t hop on the trail even with others\u2019 support. I crawled to a seasonal stream bed and immersed both feet. <\/p>\n
A companion activated my ACR ResQLink beacon. Coincidentally, he also had an ACR beacon which he activated and set beside mine. Others in the group spread a space blanket nearby and speculated about whether a helicopter would be able to land due to trees and bushes in the area. Two hours later, I was astounded to hear, and see, a helicopter overhead. <\/p>\n
I was airlifted to the closest emergency room, a 40-minute route. My right leg is fractured and both ankles incurred significant sprains. The beacon provided a welcome sense of security following the injury. It took companions 7 hours to hike out an alternate route and hitchhike to a parked vehicle. Without the beacon, a rescue would not have commenced until the following day. <\/p>\n
The ACR beacon is the best investment in backcountry gear. I take all possible precautions to avert an emergency and will only activate a beacon in a true Mayday situation. Seeing that helicopter overhead is a sight I won\u2019t soon forget!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was backpacking in Bears Ears National Monument, a remote area of red rock canyons in SE Utah, along with five others. We were halfway through a 3-day, 24-mile point-to-point trip. While hiking through an area of vegetation, my shoe caught on something, my left ankle rolled, and I lost my balance. My right ankle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"template":"","survivor-category":[17],"terrain":[13],"survivor-event":[],"survivor-cause":[123],"survivor-rescue":[139],"class_list":["post-17381","survivor-stories","type-survivor-stories","status-publish","hentry","survivor-category-hiking","terrain-desert","survivor-cause-medical-emergency","survivor-rescue-local-search-and-rescue"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/survivor-stories\/17381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/survivor-stories"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/survivor-stories"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"survivor-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/survivor-category?post=17381"},{"taxonomy":"terrain","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/terrain?post=17381"},{"taxonomy":"survivor-event","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/survivor-event?post=17381"},{"taxonomy":"survivor-cause","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/survivor-cause?post=17381"},{"taxonomy":"survivor-rescue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/survivor-rescue?post=17381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}