For future reference for me: Survey the area when camping near a stream that might flash flood. Where is my "bug out spot" to hunker down in if I need to get away from the stream?

Does anyone know a method to download and save the video file?

Just right click on the above link and select 'save target as' etc

Questions that I didn't get answered from the video...

Was it luck that the rescuers on the road saw the hikers' lights?

Or did the hikers intentionally signal the rescuers?

Did the hikers use S.O.S. at all?

What kind of headlights were the hikers using?

[url=http://www.vcstar.com/rescue/]read the accompanying story here.

...Van Sciver, in the next SAR wave with Mike Weber and David Musgrove, brought up two 200-foot ropes and gear for more anchors. Weber was struck by the four hikers' condition.

"They almost appeared to have given up," he said. "Seeing them really hit home that we were dealing with a very serious situation."

Crews built a 15-stick "change-of-direction" anchor — designed to limit fall in case the two anchors over by the hikers gave out — at the edge of where the rock slope ended and the lusher ravine began. Farther east, in the ravine, they built a 40-stick main anchor — the only bomb-proof one in the bunch.

The rappel line ran from the main anchor to the road below.

Van Sciver crossed the Class 4 traverse and brought gear and one end of what became the clothesline rope to Hartigan and the hikers...