When you're desperate, alone, afraid and fighting for your life, you'll use anything and everything to save your skin. And that's why Jessica Bruinsma is alive today. The 24-year-old American went on a dream vacation to the Bavarian Alps and decided to do some hiking as part of training for a marathon.

But bad weather set in on June 16th and she became separated from a friend she was on the trials with, becoming hopelessly lost in the unfamiliar terrain. For nearly three long days, there was no sign of the woman as rescue teams used five helicopters and a team of 80 emergency workers in a desperate bid to find her before it was too late.

To make matters worse, the plucky climber took a terrible tumble on the mountain, falling some five meters onto a rocky overhang, bruising her leg, dislocating her shoulder and leaving her unable to try and regain her footing.

She sat on that precarious perch for about 72 hours but luck was with her. It quickly became apparent to the climber that others had wound up in similar dire straits. Someone had left a supply box on the ledge filled with enough water to keep her alive.

But Bruinsma knew it would eventually run out and she couldn't stay there forever. Aware that someone would come looking, she used two things to save her own skin: her brains - and her bra. 

With nothing else available to attract the attention of rescue crews, the plucky tourist stripped off her sports bra and tied it to a broken cable used to transport timber in cars along the mountain gaps.

When a repairman fixed the wire last Thursday, the car came up - and so did the bra attached to the tether. The worker was aware of the missing hiker, put two and two together and called authorities, who circled in a helicopter and saw the lost woman waving to them with her one good arm. They lowered a winch and an exhausted Bruinsma was finally lifted to safety, cold, injured and hungry - but still very much alive.

Officials credit the bra with saving her life.

"She's a very smart girl, and she acted very resourcefully," praises Berchtesgaden police officer Lorenz Rasp. "She kept her shirt and jacket for warmth, but thought the sports bra could work as a signal."

Bruinsma still hopes to run her race but has cut her Austrian vacation short and returned to her parents in Colorado. It's not clear if she plans to say off the mountains in that state for now, but if she does go back, you can be sure she'll have all her gear with her - including the same type of sports bra that provided the kind of support no one could have expected.