It was midnight on March 24th, when four NOLS semester students on their canyon section were awakened by the unearthly howls of something that sounded almost human. The rain had turned to snow, which was blowing sideways and blurring the lamplight. Then they heard a yell for help, and the students realized that someone was hurt. Soon Ron Penner of Salt Lake City was resting under their tarp and the students had come to awaken instructors Matt Herr and myself. Thus began the longest 15 hours of the course.
Every course covers what to do in a wilderness emergency, and often includes a simulated accident.
You never wish for a real-life scenario, but often they provide incredible learning opportunities. For our course, those 15 hours on March 24 were just that. For Ron Penner and his girlfriend Marta Heilbrun, however, those 15 hours were a question of life or death. Bullet and Grand Gulch Canyons in Utah. That evening the weather became stormy and it was incredibly windy as we set up camp.