Hi, I'm Katie Olson and I'm Eva Young and we want to just make a statement of testimony that this satellite phone saved our lives. I researched lots of maps, I talked to lots of people, I did a lot of research before I decided to go on this trip. Now Resurrection Pass is a heavily traveled trail in the summertime but I couldn't find a lot of information at the end of May and so one of my friends, Robin Davis, who also let us use his jet boil that also saved our lives, recommended that we not go out in the field without a satellite phone. So I did call the Ranger Station for the Cheagak National Forest and asked for conditions but no one, he didn't have a report for me. I called about fire and weather and they said, hey, it looks great. And so we were ready and prepared with snowshoes to go out. And so the first, I would say, 17 miles were pretty magical. They were just a beautiful, typical Alaskan adventure. Bear tracks, great public use cabins. We just had a wonderful time. We got into about 17 miles and we ran into a group of men that were in the military and they went with us a little bit. We took turns breaking trail and they decided to turn back because not all of them had snowshoes. We had snowshoes and so we felt like it's either three miles to our next cabin or five miles back to our other cabin. So we wanted to take the shorter distance but the conditions became pretty treacherous. The snow was melting so it was isothermic. You would break through the ice. It was like a blue slushy and then you would fall into water underneath. And so and the snow was so thick. They haven't seen a snowfall like that in decades. So the snow was so thick that there was no way to know where the trail was. You couldn't see the trail. Even you couldn't see the trail at all. And there was parts of the river that were completely covered still. Right. So we knew that there were creeks. We knew that there were tributaries and we knew there was a river. We could see it in some places. But where we were going, it was totally a blanket of snow. You could not differentiate the river, the creek and the trail at all. There were two posts that you we could see that indicated the trail. But other than that, that was it. I don't think the last post was past a mile. No. So. And so we made a decision because we were breaking through up to our hips. There was water everywhere everywhere. And we were hopping on Willow Islands, we would call it. And we're trying to find the shortest distance between these Willow Islands. And when we got to a point where we couldn't see anything or differentiate anything, we called by husband. We also had a satellite phone from Curtis. And we called him. We gave him our GPS coordinates from this. And he tried to help us the best he could, but it was hard. Well he was looking at a map that basically would be like a map maybe in summertime. So because there's no way to map how the snow melts. So he was looking at mapping, you could see waterways, but we were just hitting water everywhere. And we knew we had to cross a big river. And how many hours did we only go? We were averaging like a third of a mile every hour. And we'd been hiking for about 12 hours that day. So we were exhausted. And I'm pretty adventurous. She's pretty tough. I mean, West Palm Beach and Georgia Girl. And so she really, we were very mindful about our breathing. But I knew that what we were about to face was really dangerous. And so I made the decision to call my husband, gave him the coordinates and sent out a rescue for us. And so because of this phone, the saved our lives, literally the saved our lives, we hunkered down. There was like a patch of about two by three on a willow, like tiny willow tree because at least it had a root system. So there was probably water deeper underneath us, but we huddled it in two by three, four, six and a half, seven hours before. It was eight hours. Eight hours? Yeah. Yes, before rescue came. And so it was actually the Air Force, their pair rescue team, such amazing gentlemen, so kind and so calm. By this point, our fingers and our toes were numb. We put on every piece of warm equipment. So and the jet boil, oh, jet boy made warm bodies. I just want to thank Open Sky for that. I learned that there. So I just want to say with the jet boil, we made warm bodies and I want to thank Open Sky Wilderness for that little tidbit. We melted snow in the jet boil and then filled up our water bottles with hot water and would hold those on to keep some warm. Right. So we put them in our groin area, our feet, wherever those were the two main areas to try to keep our body temperature up. We did have layers. We did have warm layers like you're supposed to, wool synthetic blends, but we were just because we broke through into snow and ice. And so when it gets inside your waterproof clothing into your body at a certain point, your body temperature just drops. And I just want to say this is my first backpacking experience. It was wonderful. It did get dangerous, but I had a great guide. So I don't want anybody to be afraid to experience wilderness. I just highly recommend you go with a knowledgeable person to learn from and that can stay so calm and navigate dangerous situations so well. I'm so glad and so happy we had your phone. I just want to sincerely say thank you because that could have turned out a lot differently. So my husband also said because of the satellite phone and the coordinates we had that the Air Force Parar Rescue were able to get within 10 meters of our location to find us exactly. And so they welcomed us in this. I mean, if we weren't so cold and out of it, it would have been really cool to like videotape. But that wasn't the point. They had big sleeping bags that they pumped in warm air. And then they met up well. They helicoptered us to the hospital. We had hypothermia and we had frost nap and surprisingly because I did treat more water but I was dehydrated. But feeling much better now but do not go out. Be smart, be wise, research, call your ranger, talk to people. But be okay to say this isn't safe and use these satellite phones. Do not go out in backcountry without it. Thank you Curtis. Thank you, you're safe. You've done it.