Bra-vo as woman flashes her way to safety
June 20 2008 at 01:55PM
Berchtesgaden - A US woman who spent 70 hours trapped on a rock ledge in the Alps lowered an item of underwear into the valley Thursday as an SOS.
A police helicopter then plucked her to safety from the towering mountains above Berchtesgaden, Germany.
The woman, 24, hurt her ankle and shoulder and suffered cuts to the head in a fall Monday while on a mountain walk.
After three days of vainly trying to attract attention, she took off her undershirt and flicked it up to an aerial ropeway crossing the ledge.
It descended 2 000m with the ropeway, which carries logs, to a timber yard where a worker immediately realised the item was connected to the missing-person search being discussed in town.
"That bright idea probably saved her life," a police spokesperson said. The woman from Colorado was taken to hospital.
"She is more or less uninjured and in fairly good shape, given the circumstances," the spokesperson said. - Sapa-dpa
