My friend and I were on day two of a challenging three-day hike in New Zealand’s Tararua Forest Park.

As we neared the end of the day, we began our descent from Arete Hut down the steep and slippery Pinnacle Spur. That led towards Arete Forks Hut in the valley, where we planned to spend the night.

About halfway down the spur, my foot slipped on some mud. It caused my other leg to bear all my weight unexpectedly. My knee gave way, resulting in pain, but I wasn’t completely immobile. After a 10-minute rest, we continued, albeit at a slower pace.

However, near the bottom of the spur, my knee gave way again. This time with intense pain, making it difficult to move. Fortunately, we had already navigated the steepest section and were close to the hut. With my friend taking on a lot of my pack weight, we managed to reach the hut before nightfall.

Once there, we discussed our options.

We had one more day of good weather before a storm front was expected to move in. We were aware of the significant distance and elevation we would need to cover to reach safety the next day. Arete Forks Hut is one of the more inaccessible huts in the forest park. The only exit options being a steep, undulating sidle track through dense bush or a long section of gorgey river travel—neither of which seemed advisable given my injury. We only had enough food for one more day and no cell reception to communicate our situation with our emergency contact.

After considering our options, we decided that activating our ResQLink 400 PLB was the right decision, though we chose to wait until morning to avoid a difficult nighttime extraction.

At dawn, we activated our PLB. We placed it in a suitable clearing near the hut, packed up, and waited for rescue. No more than an hour later, we were relieved to hear and see the wonderful sight of a helicopter circling overhead. A team of three professionals arrived. They conducted a medical assessment, and then loaded me, my friend, and our gear onto the chopper. Safely returning us to civilization!