it happened in california monday. the boys getting stranded when they tried to hike over a ridge. miguel marquez is live in los angeles with more on this amazing story. miguel? it is amazing. goonk to you. we all do pretty dumb things when we are young, for these two california boys, this is the summer we hope of live and learn. rescue like none other, 8,600 feet up, two boys trapped on the rocky spine of a ridge only a few feet wide. as we went up there, we made decisions to get up that ended up making it so we couldn t get back. reporter: bad decisions 16-year-old austin dreschler and a friend on a camping trip they will never forget, in gorgeous but unforgiving nature biting off more than one can chew all too easy. we thought we could walk across the ridge. when we got up there and saw the other side, it was
heartbreaking. that s when we realized, we re in trouble. reporter: serious trouble, high winds, gusts up to 30 miles per hour buffeting the helicopter s california highway patrol made four passes before with the precision of the surgeon plucking the boys to safety. it was the most challenging i ve done in the 12 years i ve been in air operations. reporter: the challenge lowering harnesses the boys themselves had to put on, and coming back around to have them hook up to be safely carried to a landing zone miles away. we lowered the hook a couple of times but the wind would blow out of position and we d have to again. reporter: the harnesses have to be correctly otherwise it s a long fall. father looking below, heartstopping. it s my oldest son and that doesn t come back, right? you don t recover from something like that. reporter: thankfully only a frightening lesson learned. and that lesson, says austin