The pre-graduates from Brigham Young University decided to take a trip to the San Rafael Swell Recreation Area, which is rich in canyons and other geological formations, KUTV reports. After canyoneering for almost a year, they had heard of a canyon in the vicinity and wanted to check it out.
“We had read about this pretty cool canyon down there, and we’ve been canyoneering for about a year,” said Bridger Woods, one of the students. The group went into trouble after stumbling upon a sequence of deep pools, filled with freezing water.
“We suspect that Utah’s extra wet winter changed the canyon somewhat, resulting in a much harder scenario than we were prepared for,” said Jeremy Mumford, another canyon enthusiast from the group.
The group spent nearly three hours in the freezing water, and some of the students started to show signs of hypothermia. “I went into hypothermic shock and started panicking and freezing up, and these two saw me and became very concerned,” said Mumford.
Image courtesy of KUTV
When the trio realized the situation had become pretty dangerous, they used an iPhone 14 to send an emergency SOS signal via a passing satellite, and the cavalry arrived soon after to save the day (and the three canyoners).
“I’ll be honest, I straight up cried when I saw the helicopter there, they were saying, ‘Hey, we see you,'” said Woods. “I just have so much gratitude for them, and I wish I met them under different circumstances, they all seem like awesome people, but again, just a huge, huge thank you.”
Late last year, the same feature saved a man in Alaska and a Californian couple after a single-vehicle accident. You can learn more about Emergency SOS by Satellite by checking out our dedicated piece.
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