The descent was very difficult and very steep. For a lot of it, I was sliding down because the ground was so slippery with leaves. Eventually, I reached a massive cliff edge. If I had moved and slipped on the leaves, I would have slid off. Stuck holding onto a tree right before the edge, I was in an extremely dangerous situation. I wasn’t sure what to do and was so grateful I had service on my phone. I called my friend, and she told me to call the police. I dialed the emergency number and got a hold of the operator, who transferred me to the rescue team, whose members all spoke English. I read them my coordinates, and they decided they needed to send a helicopter to airlift me off of the mountain. I clung to the tree for about an hour until the helicopter circled above me. I waved my phone flashlight back and forth, and they spotted me behind the tree. The helicopter hovered above and blew all of the trees and leaves around me wildly. A rescuer rappelled down on a wire, put me in a harness and then clipped our harnesses together with a big carabiner. The helicopter rose, and we were left dangling by the cable in midair, surrounded by mountains, which was a remarkable yet terrifying experience. At last, the rescuers pulled me into the helicopter and brought me to safety.
The community need that I learned about through this experience was the emergency services, particularly mountain rescue services, and how they work in Slovenia. I was worried about the cost of these services, but they were completely free. I just needed to show the rescuers my passport so they could identify me, and that was all; after that, I was good to go!
