Read Online Everything to Live For: The Inspirational Story of Turia Pitt by Turia Pitt - Free Book Online

any runners behind them. They came across the two people Lon Croot had seen – Mary Gadams, who had burns on her hands and legs, and another competitor, Rod Rutherford, who had managed to escape and wasn’t burnt. They bandaged Mary, after which all four started walking along the layers of ash back towards checkpoint two, looking for anyone in front of them who may have been injured. Everything was burnt – the pink course markers were burnt and the trees were still on fire.
    Ellis and Heather were sharing their water with Mary, helping her drink and cool her burnt hands as she and Rod had used all of their water. Heather kept blowing her whistle to see if anyone responded and after about thirty minutes they heard a return whistle; several more back and forth whistles were exchanged and then they found Wade. They made their way towards each other and Wade briefed them on the injured competitors up on the ridge, stressing the seriousness of Turia’s and Kate’s burns. He also told them the group was short of water.
    Wade handed Ellis the list of names and race numbers of the group on the ridge and Ellis gave him some water, then Wade started walking back towards the ridge.
    Because Mary was injured, Ellis suggested that she and Rod should stay put and, leaving them with some water, he and Heather headed off for checkpoint three.
    There were no trail markers and all Ellis and Heather had for navigation purposes was a rudimentary hand-drawn map of the course. Most of the trees in the valley were still burning and branches would suddenly drop with no warning making their trek nerve racking.
    After walking for about forty-five minutes, they saw Summers and a member of the media crew, Nathan Tomlinson, in the Beyond Action helicopter. Ellis and Heather waved like mad, pointing towards the ridgeline where they knew the group of injured competitors were.
    Summers quickly located the group on the ridge by the reflection from the stretched-out space blankets. As he approached, Summers could see people lying down; some were seated and stood up and waved. As Summers got closer and looked down he could see obvious casualties. He thought he might be able to land but realised as he hovered over the site that it was impossible because of the rocky terrain and trees; as well as being hampered by camera equipment attached to the helicopter.
    While Summers kept the aircraft hovering over the group, the rotor blades raised clouds of dust and ash that settled on everyone’s burns and as he flew off, they knew rescue was near but not near enough. But still, the sight of the helicopter lifted their spirits; rescue must come soon.
    Summers landed on the only suitable area – some distance away, on the opposite side of the valley – and leapt out of the chopper to meet Ellis and Heather. Ellis passed on the information about the other injured people. Summers immediately sent out calls on his radio but could not reach anyone’s satellite phone. Ellis urged him to get back up in the air, where reception might be better, as another helicopter was urgently needed. But the pilot was worried: the nearest emergency helicopter capable of winching the injured off the ridge was in Darwin, more than 800 kilometres away.
    Summers’ helicopter wasn’t equipped for medical emergencies but he did have water, which he gave to Ellis to take to the ridge, and then he took off.
    Ellis and Heather headed back towards the base of the cliff to see if there was any way to get the wounded down the cliff face so they could be evacuated.
    In the meantime Trent clambered down the cliff to meet them; after he introduced himself he reiterated the grim news about the state of the girls. Ellis and Heather told him that Mary Gadams and Rod Rutherford were also waiting in the gorge for rescue.
    Ellis and Heather then decided to sweep the valley back to checkpoint two to look for any runners who might have been behind them. They commenced the 5-kilometre hike through the