Woman Who Survived Mountain Plunge Wakes and Apologizes to Mom

Sept. 14, 2010— -- A University of Colorado student who fell 40 feet off a mountainside and spent the next 12 hours dragging herself towards what she hoped would be rescue is taking her first steps in what will likely be a long recovery.

Brenna Fisch, 19, remains in critical condition with a severe head injury, but is talking and has already apologized to her mother for making her friends and family worry.

"At one point she figured out what happened," her mother, Diana Fisch told ABCNews.com. Frisch told her mother "I'm so sorry Mommy. Please tell everybody I'm so sorry I made them worry."

Fisch is recovering in a Boulder hospital. Diana Fisch said she has undergone surgery to repair her skull -- her forehead had caved in -- and that her eyesocket was rebuilt and an ear-reattached.

What exactly happened during Fisch's hike along a popular Colorado climbing route is still unclear, but authorities say she took the "Owl" route on Dome Rock in Boulder Canyon and fell the equivalent of more than a two story building, shortly after 6 p.m. last Thursday, Sept.9.

By the time two University of Colorado graduate students found her crumpled body more than 12 hours later, she had managed to make her way about 100 feet, looking for rescue.

"You could just see her legs coming out from behind the rock at first," said Fiona Dunne, 25, who was out for an early morning hike with friend Eric Simley. "They were bare and bloody."

Dunne and Simley, 24, looked closer and found that Fisch was still alive and conscious, but in bad shape with a gaping hole in her forehead.

"One of the first things that she said was that she was cold and did we have anything to cover her up with," Dunne said. "She said she was there since last night and she wasn't sure how long."

When Dunne and Simley found her, she was wearing just a sports bra, spandex shorts and tennis shoes and had been out all night in what Simley estimated to be temperatures in the 40s. Rescue workers, authorities said, found that she was suffering from hypothermia.

"I didn't think it was a climbing accident at first," Simley said. "It looked like she was attacked or something, just because she didn't have any climbing gear on and wasn't dressed for climbing."

Simley said Fisch was dragging herself towards a bike trail, hoping a passer-by would find her. When discovered, Fish had not made it to the bike trail.

Diana Fisch said her daughter remembers the accident "off and on." She's been out to the site of the fall and has seen her daughter's blood on the trail.