High school students use outdoor skills training to make a makeshift stretcher to rescue hiker with a broken leg

A group of young ladies from Armidale's Presbyterian Ladies' College in Australia were able to use their outdoor training skills in the wild when they came upon a hiker who had fallen and broken his leg.

The students were on a 4-day hike at Warrumbungle National Park as part of their Duke of Edinburgh Award project. They specifically had prepared for this scenario during earlier training.

Thanks to that training, they knew how to make a makeshift stretcher using a hammock and tarp poles, but they didn't expect to get the real-life practice in so soon.

It was on the third day of their hike when they came upon a hiker, Thomas Wendland, who had fallen and broken his leg.

Wendland told ABC,

I was a little bit worried there for a while, my friend did everything that she could do, and I'm also very grateful for her help, but we didn't know what to do and what the next steps would be if we didn't come across the girls.

Thankfully, those girls (and their leaders) knew exactly what to do, making the stretcher and carrying him out safely. The return trip took about 2 hours before they were able to make it to a spot where the National Parks and Wildlife Service could pick him up.

One of the students, Stephanie Blake, told reporters,

'The path just seemed to keep getting longer and longer,' Stephanie said. 'You don't realise how far 3.5 kilometres is [until] you're shuffling along carrying someone.'

She went on to say,

'I felt such a good sense of achievement that we were able to help him. It's nice to have this story, come home and say "we rescued this hiker" and now we've got that safety tool in the pocket.'

I'm not sure if the Duke of Edinburgh Award includes badges, but if you ask me, these girls definitely earned their wilderness survival badge.

Wendlend expressed his gratitude towards the high school students, saying,

'It absolutely means the world that they were able to offer the assistance they did. I'm forever grateful for them.'