Search crews found and air-lifted an injured Portland woman from the wilderness in the
Mt. Hood National Forest Tuesday afternoon, three days after she was last seen by her boyfriend.
Agencies were looking for Pamela Salant after her boyfriend called the
Hood River County Sheriff's Office (HRCSO) early Sunday morning to report the two were separated when they left Bear Lake to search for a new campsite Saturday afternoon.
After over two days of searching, at about 2 p.m. Tuesday, overhead searchers found Salant wading in a creek at the bottom of a steep drainage area, according to Hood River Sheriff Joseph Wampler.
Wampler said Salant was initially spotted lying on a log and waiving to the overhead helicopter. Four search and rescue personnel worked their way to her location and waited with her while air transport from the Oregon National Guard in Salem arrived to the remote scene.
About two hours after she was discovered, Salant--
originally from Holliston, Mass.--arrived at Legacy Emanuel Hospital where officials there processed her in the emergency room and described her condition as serious.
Det. Matt English with the HRCSO said Salant suffered a broken leg in a 50-foot fall and survived in the wild by eating berries and caterpillars. The hospital said early Wednesday that Salant would undergo surgery on her leg, but upgraded her condition to fair.
Via Twitter, Lt. Col. Mark Ulvin with Oregon National Guard said finding Salant was like a nervous game of needle in a hay stack.
"Until we have the patient on the aircraft it's pretty intense, but we've done this before," said Ulvin from their account,
@OregonGuard.
Salant's boyfriend, Aric Essig of Portland, called sheriff's deputies to report that his girlfriend left Bear Lake--located at the base of Mt. Defiance in the Mt. Hood National Forest--to look for a new campsite about noon on Saturday.
When Essig didn't see Salant all night, he called sheriff's deputies at 8 a.m. Sunday to report the 28-year-old woman missing.
After Salant's rescue, Essig spoke to his girlfriend and marveled at her survival skills, which included covering herself in moss to stay warm and using her underwear to tie-up a deep laceration on her knee.
"She had moments where she was just very determined--she wasn’t scared--it was down to survival," said Essig. "She thought she was going to die."
Over 25 personnel from the sheriff's office,
U.S. Forest Service Law Enforcement and Oregon National Guard searched the area in the vicinity of the lake until 12 a.m. Monday.
In addition to a ground search, a helicopter, airplane and three canine teams were activated.
Two fixed-wing aircraft searched the area again Monday morning, but didn't spot her. Sometime during the search effort Tuesday, deputies found shoe prints thought to be those of Salant's. It was those prints that eventually led searchers to the injured woman, said Wampler.
Salant's final resting spot, where the helicopter crew found her, was about halfway to the Columbia River from Bear Lake, according to Det. English.
Reached in Boston by WBZ, Salant's parents, Jane and Martin, described their daughter as an avid hiker, camper and adventurer who hiked in South America last summer.
Jane Salant said she was actually speaking to the media when she got word from the sheriff's office that they found her daughter.
"I couldn't believe it until I heard it from the sheriff's office when they got the final 100 percent ID," said Jane Salant.
"Tell her we love her and we’re all so happy," she said.
--Kyle Mallory contributed to this report
