This season of Out Alive is brought to you by Garman.

Stay tuned to the end of the show where you'll hear this bonus survival story.

And I remember falling backwards and seeing the skyline behind me and it's all mountains there

and just seeing these peaks flipped upside down because I was tumbling backwards and thinking

just how stranger was and that was probably the last thing I was ever going to see.

Here on Out Alive, we've brought to countless survival stories of people who escaped from harrowing backcountry scenarios.

And while these accounts are usually told by the survivors

themselves, a number of other crucial characters populate the stories we tell.

I'm talking about the rescuers, the search and rescue

heroes who put their own lives at risk in order to remove hikers like you and me from the face of danger.

Today we'd like to honor these people by bringing you a story from the

perspective not of the rescued but of the rescuer.

In October of 2010, search and rescue volunteer Pam Bales embarked on a solo hike on New Hampshire's Mount Washington.

And as her story proves, when it comes to helping others, search and rescue volunteers like Pam are never off the clock.

Today's episode will answer the question, what goes through a rescuer's mind when they go

into saving mode.

What does it take to adapt when the details of an incident are fuzzy?

When the circumstances are unknown and when the stakes couldn't be higher.

I made a decision to survive.

You're in that survival mode.

The idea of dying wasn't in my head.

I knew immediately it was the worst case scenario.

...