A hiker who got lost traversing an Arizona mountain in triple-digit heat was saved after a passerby who heard her crying out in desperation called for help.
Several police officers hiked South Mountain, a vast mountain range in south Phoenix, after someone called 911 to report hearing a woman’s screams coming from the mountain, police wrote on Facebook Monday.
Body camera footage shows an officer calling out, “Hello?” before climbing up a rocky slope on the mountain the afternoon of September 15 – a day temperatures hit a high of 105 degrees Fahrenheit (40C) in Phoenix, according to AccuWeather.
“Every now and then, she sees something reflecting over there,” an officer can be heard saying in the footage while pointing into the distance. “You can hear her screaming.”
The officers, out of breath and panting under the scorching sun, eventually find the woman lying behind a tree without her shoes.
“Hi. What happened?” one officer asks as they approach the woman, who appears faint.
“We found her, she’s probably dehydrated,” the same officer notes.
“She can’t move,” he says. “She’s alert, talking to us.”
With a weak voice, the hiker – who has not been publicly identified – replies, “I was waiting for you guys to find me.”
When asked how long she had been on the mountain, she replied that it had been a day.
Video shows the officers, as well as Phoenix firefighters, helping the woman down the mountain. She was later taken to the hospital for treatment, police said.
“Remember, when you take a hike, do it right and stay on the trails,” the police department wrote on Facebook.
