The Riverside County Sheriff’s Office Aviation (RCSO) Unit is no stranger to rescuing folks in dangerous situations. Still, even they have described this one as an “intense, technical rescue.” It all started when they received an emergency 911 text from a hiker. The message was sent from a Garmin-type device. She was clinging to the side of cliff, so a helicopter was necessary to complete this rescue mission. By the time help arrived, the woman had already spent more than an hour clinging to the steep cliff. The heavy backpack she was wearing certainly didn’t help. Still, she managed to cling for safety as someone descended from the helicopter, making his way toward her. This heart-stopping rescue was caught on the rescuer’s body cam, as seen below. @reuters Rescuers from the airborne department of a southern California sheriff’s office extricated a hiker clinging onto a cliff at California’s Pacific Crest Trail, footage released by Riverside Sheriff Aviation showed. #helicopter #rescue #hike #california #cliff #mountain ♬ original sound – Reuters The woman is said to have been around 20 to 30 feet from the plateau. This made it all-the-more vital for the rescuers to be mindful of each movement they made. Thankfully, the woman was able to eventually bear-hug the rescuer in a way that allowed the helicopter to move them to safety. Body Cam Footage Shows a Particularly “Intense” Helicopter Rescue Near Pacific Crest Trail in California “Due to her very precarious spot, which she was exhausted from that position for over an hour, and with a heavy pack with unsure footing, the rescue specialist determined the safest option was to bear hug her and climb to the top,” the RCSO explained. “He just could not risk asking her to lift her arms, that she was clearly death gripping the cliff with, in order to place a rescue strap on.” As soon as the hiker was placed onto safe ground, the first thing she did was grab her water bottle — and understandably so! Miraculously, she managed to come out of this fairly unscathed. Besides the mental anguish of the ordeal, she only suffered a few scrapes to her legs and knees. You can find the source of this story’s featured image here! The post Helicopter POV: See The Heart-Pounding Rescue Of Hiker Clinging To Cliffside appeared first on InspireMore.