Rescue in Behunin

I always love it when I get that call for a rescue and wonder what the heck is going to happen. The first rumor I heard was a broken ankle in Heaps. Then I heard it was Behunin and that started to sound more reasonable. When I got to the Coalpits helispot, I was curious to find out what my involvement in this rescue would be. After the briefing, I realized that mostly what I would be doing is hanging out and waiting. I was supposed to be in the second canyoneering group, which I began to realize was probably not going to go. I was expecting to just chill for quite some time. When we heard on the radio that Keith and Andrew were at the last rappel, I knew for sure I would not do any canyoneering. Ray asked me to hike up to the last rappel in Behunin with the guy short hauling the patient out. I was stoked because this meant I got to be an active part of this rescue. The guy was huffing and puffing his way up the hill and I was impressed that I picked the correct route as there are twenty different ways to get down from Behunin. Up seemed much easier, though. When I got there, we were both tired and sweating, but then the waiting came. I was then asked to take pictures for the rescue, which gave me another purpose. Everyone came rappelling down and sooner than later the helicopter was once again hovering right near my head. It was sweet to say them get hauled out and be directly underneath a helicopter. I don't know how comfortable I would be with that unless I had a horrible night out in the backcountry such as this guy must have had sleeping sideways on a rock. After that, it was a hike out to enjoy chilling for the weekend.