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Kimberly Houk reporting Search and rescue crews worked for five straight hours to bring two badly injured hikers off Mount Olympus.
Three hikers went up Mount Olympus earlier Saturday to have some fun in what's left of the snow on the mountain.
But what started out as a day of fun quickly turned dangerous when both female hikers lost control and fell.
The two women fell while they were glissading. It's a sport that's a lot like sledding, except in glissading you strap on some boots and find the steepest part of the mountain that has a deep snowpack. Then you use the boots to slide down it.
But the two women lost control and fell down the mountain.
Chad Whalquist/ Hiker: "As we were hiking, we heard a scream and we hurried up as fast as we could get there. We found one of them wedged between a rock and the glacier."
The other injured woman, Sherry, was in an even worse situation. She'd had fallen further down the mountain.
Chad Whalquist: "From the looks of it, I'd say she hit her head on a rock. It looks like she probably broke her jaw. She had a few teeth missing. She was bleeding from her ear. She was hurt pretty bad."
With a critical head injury, Sherry couldn't be moved, but Lifeflight couldn't get to her either.
Sgt. Les Powers/ Salt Lake County Sherriff's Office: "Because of the angle of where they're at, the helicopter did not have enough cable to get high enough so that the helicopter would be safe and the cable could let the personnel down to bring them out."
Search and Rescue crews strapped Sherry to a toboggan type sled and moved her to a spot where Lifeflight could hoist her up off the mountain.
The other injured hiker walked down off the mountain with an elbow injury.
Crews worked for five straight hours to bring both women to safety, and they got a lot of help from other hikers in the area.
Chad Whalquist: "What a neat experience to see the whole community come together. Everybody was just focused on the welfare of these two individuals."
Sherry is in the hospital tonight in critical condition. She is expected to recover.
Police want to remind everyone to be very careful when playing in the mountains and to always go equipped with the right kind of safety gear.
