The Billy had descended about 500 feet so we had to side hill across the scree to reach the grass to start down. I was in the lead and had only walked out about 10 yards onto the grass when both my feet went into the air. I landed on my pack and backside and began an uncontrolled decent. At first I was not terribly concerned, however as I went down it got steeper and I was soon speeding down the side and was heading for a rock filled gully. I knew I was in deep trouble and was terrified, I tried to roll over onto my stomach so I could try to arrest my decent. This sent me cart-wheeling like a crash test dummy down the slope. During all this the goat head had come out of my pack and is also beating me about the head.

I carry my rifle in a Kifaru gun bearer, it holds my rifle in front of me and attaches to my pack. This may have saved my life as my rifle barrel became stuck to the stock into the side of the hill. As the gun bearer broke away from my pack the force straightened me out and I was able to use one of my trekking poles to stop, or maybe the lord reached down and lent a hand. Either way I�m grateful as I was surely asking for his help on the way down.

I was scuffed up and was trying to see if I was still in one piece when I heard Becca screaming. I knew instantly that she was hurt badly by the tone of her screams. She was clearly in horrible pain. I used my trekking pole to reached her stopping to pull my rifle from the ground and sling it over my shoulder and picked up my other now bent trekking pole.

Luke was at her side when I got there and she was in such horrible pain that she about passed out. I examined her leg and tried to gently feel for a break, she said that she heard it break. I could see it was deformed above the boot and when she tried to move the leg the foot did not. To add to our torment the ceilings dropped and we were in the clouds. This frightened me more than anything else, as I knew 2 things right there. The first was we could never get her to the salt alone and second, with us fogged in there would be no chopper.

We got her something for the pain from our first-aid kit and I told Luke that I was going to get my sat phone from my pack. On my way down I considered our situation and tried to figure out a plan. The thought of a night on the side of the steep, slick slope with temps under 15 degrees was not my plan A for sure.
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I got my phone and struggled to get a signal in the valley surrounded my high ground. I made the mistake of leaving my emergency phone numbers in the hard case at camp and had to call home for the Troopers number and got routed around to the Kodiak PD and finally to the Coast Guard.

The phone calls played out the next hour or so. I went back up and decided to splint her broke leg to her good one and used the end of my trekking pole as a splint. I tried it off with an ace bandage and a rain jacket. I have a background in aviation and knew we had to get her below the ceiling. I called on the combat life-saver training I had in the service to both assess the injury and to prevent further damage.

Luke put on his crampon and I used Becca�s, with me under her and Luke above her we agonizingly lowered her inch by inch down the slick frozen slope. When she could take no more I would try to call again to update the Coast Guard. As darkness approached we were able to get her down about 1500 feet. Once I was sure they had weather, I called the Coast Guard and updated them, I was afraid she might go into shock and possibly get hypothermic as the night wore on.

The Coast Guard at first want us to try to reach the salt so a skiff could pick her up, I told him right away that was not even a possibility. There was no way we could get her through the alders. I made sure the dispatcher knew this was the real deal and dust off was necessary. When we got her as low as we could, I called one last time. The dispatcher told me the chopper was in the air and should be on site in 20 minutes.

It was bitter cold and we were all stressed and exhausted. We huddled together to try to keep her warm while we waited. After about 30 minutes we heard the answer to our prayers as the Med-Evac chopper came blasting over the ridge. They made a circle out to sea and headed towards us. Luke used his headlamp to signal the chopper and they blinked their landing light to let us know they had our position.

They hovered for about 10 minutes looking the area over, there really was no safe place to land and by now it was completely dark. I saw the swimmer lower down on the cable and went to meet him. The poor fellow did not see me approach and when I tapped his shoulder I gave him a terrible fright. He told me he was getting the basket lowered and then we would move to Becca.

He and I carried the basket up and the swimmer quickly got her strapped in. Luke and I gathered up the loose gear to keep it from getting into the rotors and moved away as the chopper moved into position. Luke gave Becca a big kiss and told her he loved her and she was up into the air to the safety of the chopper. The swimmer was up next and they roared off into the night.

Link to the Coast Guard Story.
https://www.piersystem.com/go/doc/780/919655/