{"id":15094,"date":"2017-05-01T18:53:19","date_gmt":"2017-05-01T18:53:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/georgiaarsoncontrol.org\/?p=15094"},"modified":"2017-05-01T19:01:35","modified_gmt":"2017-05-01T19:01:35","slug":"15094","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/georgiaarsoncontrol.org\/?p=15094","title":{"rendered":"Officer with ‘higher calling’ helps rescue hiker on Mount Saint Helens"},"content":{"rendered":"

(NBC K5<\/a>) \u2013\u00a0She\u2019s only been patrolling the streets of Port Angeles for a month.\u00a0 Officer JJ Smith is still getting used to her beat.<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely have more experience in the mountains than on the streets of Port Angeles,\u201d she said with a bright smile.<\/p>\n

While she is new to law enforcement, Smith is an accomplished mountain climber.<\/p>\n

She and some friends set out to summit Mount Saint Helens over the weekend when bad weather started rolling in. Several of the people in her party turned back, but Smith and a friend carried on.<\/p>\n

A short time later, they encountered another group of hikers who were in trouble.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could hear two of the team members telling a lady to sit down and get off her feet, but she wasn\u2019t listening,\u201d said Smith.<\/p>\n

Smith didn\u2019t need her police training to tell her the woman was in serious distress. Her knees had locked up and she couldn\u2019t walk. Smith took an extra pair of pants from her pack, and the rookie cop made a veteran move.<\/p>\n

\u201cI took my knife out, cut my pants in half, kind of made a makeshift brace for her legs,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Then, in visibility of less than 50 feet, Smith and her climbing partner started sliding the woman down the mountain.\u00a0 Although risky at 6,000 feet, the slide turned out to be the easy part.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we couldn\u2019t glissade, we literally would pull her by her coat,\u201d said the officer. \u201cShe would just sit on her butt, kick her feet out with a plastic bag over her legs. We would just grab her by the hands and pull her.\u201d<\/p>\n

They did that for more than 2,000 feet until they got the woman to safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was definitely difficult, especially when we had to pull her uphill,\u201d said Smith, \u201cbut we had to get her to where the snowmobiles could reach her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith never made it to the summit that day, but she believes she was on a sort of \u201chigher calling.\u201d<\/p>\n