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Meanwhile, Snyder said he was left wondering if he would live or die.

“I remember being close to the stream and at some point in the few days, I know I must have shifted locations, dragged myself along and got myself closer to the stream. I got between two rocks, where I knew I’d be more sheltered, out of the wind,\" Snyder said.

Because his left arm was broken, he said he had to reach across his body with his right hand to scoop up water to drink. As he lay there immobilized, he said, \"I had a deep sense of calm.\"

\"I had made my peace with God. I said, I know you. I know that Christ is Lord and he's my savior and I will be OK whether I live or whether I die,\" Snyder said. \"At the same time, I wanted to live. I wasn't giving up the will to live.\"

On Thursday, he said he heard what sounded like a helicopter nearby.

\"It had been twilight or dark and I had gotten some more water and then remember waking up and thinking, 'I hear aircraft. It's going very slow and very close. They must be looking for me.' There was no other explanation,\" Snyder said.

\"PHOTO:
KITV
PHOTO: Ian Snyder, 34, arrives at a news conference on Dec. 12, 2023, where he spoke of toppling 1,000 feet off a hiking trail and surviving.
>

He said he began waving his right arm and eventually caught the rescue crew's attention.

Allen Zhang, a paramedic with Honolulu Emergency Medical Services, said that when he spotted Snyder from the air, he couldn't believe the hiker had survived such a fall.

\"As you can imagine Mr. Snyder, your call was the most memorable that day,\" Zhang said at Tuesday's news conference. \"Not every day our department sees a situation like this. Falling a thousand feet from a trail is no joke.\"

Amber Fonte, a member of the Oahu Hiking Community, also said at the news conference that she was resigned to just returning Snyder's body to his family.

\"And when we found a whole human living and breathing and waving at the sky. I was like, 'Merry Christmas,'\" Fonte said.

Snyder said he learned a valuable lesson from his misadventure: Never go hiking alone.

\"I don't know how this will be used instrumentally by God through my life,\" Snyder said. \"But I hope it will be useful in the long run.\"

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