There was such excitement in this part of the Pacific Northwest on Tuesday afternoon, when a 28-year-old hiker was found alive after having gone missing for three nights in the Mount Hood Wilderness. Agencies were looking for Pamela Salant after her boyfriend. Aric Essig, called the Hood River County Sheriff's Office early Sunday morning to report the two were separated when they left Bear Lake to search for a new campsite last Saturday afternoon. (Note: Hood River is a town/area and should not be confused with the Columbia River that runs the length of the Columbia River Gorge where the town of Hood River is located.)
Reports I saw on TV noted that Pamela Salant had fallen 60 feet, breaking her leg (and some reports also say her back), and then had amazingly slid on her rear down a steep embankment toward a creek because it indicated to her the direction of the Columbia River, where she hoped she would be spotted. Shoe prints initially led searchers to Salant. She survived by eating berries and caterpillars.
I wondered how far Bear Lake was from Lost Lake pictured in this old postcard and found that they are about 25 miles apart there in the Mount Hood National Forest. Here is a screenprint showing the area, with 'A' indicating Bear Lake where the couple had been camping, and 'B' indicating Lost Lake shown in the postcard image:
A bit more from reports about the rescue [Source: KOINlocal6]:
After over two days of searching, at about 2 p.m. Tuesday, overhead searchers found Salant wading in a creek at the bottom of a steep drainage area, according to Hood River Sheriff Joseph Wampler.
Wampler said Salant was initially spotted lying on a log and waiving to the overhead helicopter. Four search and rescue personnel worked their way to her location and waited with her while air transport from the Oregon National Guard in Salem arrived to the remote scene. . .
. . .After Salant's rescue, Essig spoke to his girlfriend and marveled at her survival skills, which included covering herself in moss to stay warm and using her underwear to tie-up a deep laceration on her knee. . .
. . .Reached in Boston by WBZ, Salant's parents, Jane and Martin, described their daughter as an avid hiker, camper and adventurer who hiked in South America last summer.
Pamela Salant is now in a Portland hospital in
To end, here is a video of the helicopter rescue that I find spine-tingling. It is truly great rescue footage! I am posting the raw footage first:
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