Her 911 text was three words. Her rescuers brought Starlink

A 37-year-old solo hiker sent 911 a three-word text on Thursday night: "Please help me."

Then her phone went quiet. She had already told family the battery was down to 10%.

Rescuers had one coordinate. The north side of Frigid Air Pass, around 12,000 feet up on Colorado's Four Pass Loop, between Aspen and Crested Butte. Temperatures in the teens. Fresh snow from the weekend before.

A CareFlight of the Rockies helicopter found her around 11 p.m. on night vision, still moving under a headlamp. Nowhere safe to land.

So five volunteers from Crested Butte Search and Rescue started hiking at 11:30 p.m. They carried a Starlink satellite kit, which kept them in real-time contact with their mission coordinator all night.

The first two reached the top of the pass at 3:10 a.m. Below them the snow was hip deep, four feet in places, on avalanche terrain. They got to her at 6 a.m. She couldn't walk.

At 9:15 a.m. a Colorado Army National Guard Black Hawk hoisted her out, then came back for the five rescuers. She was flown to the UCHealth Burn and Frostbite Center in Aurora. SnowBrains has the full account.

Elon Musk's take on X: "Starlink saves lives."

Her phone got three words out. Their kit talked all night.

Image: Andrew Kearns, CC BY 4.0.