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When Daniel Case found himself stranded deep in the Flat Tops Wilderness, he stuffed his clothes with leaves and pine needles to protect him from the cold night air.

The tip, learned in wilderness survival school, was among strategies the 22-year-old credits with helping him survive a painful night in the woods after a rough fall.

On Wednesday, Case settled stiffly into a chair at Yampa Valley Medical Center to talk about the life-threatening experience last week that left him severely hypothermic with a puncture wound and multiple fractures in his lower back.

It started as a day-hike June 30 with his girlfriend, Emilia Campbell, southwest of Stillwater Reservoir. The two are working at Stagecoach State Park for the summer and were hiking in the Flat Tops for the first time.

They headed up Bear River Trail until they reached a large snow patch covering the trail. They walked over the snow, reconnected with the trail and followed it to the top of a plateau.

The two headed back down the trail at about 4 p.m., but they couldn't find the trail on the other side of the snow patch. With the parking lot and trailhead in sight, Case and Campbell took a shortcut that eventually led them to a steep slope with a series of ledges.

They scooted safely over the ledges into dense forest, but soon found themselves looking down another steep section with a 9-foot drop.

Case slowly lowered himself over the ledge, but, with nowhere to put his foot, dropped onto another steep ledge. He ended up tumbling and sliding about 40 feet over two cliffs.

He landed, disoriented but conscious.

"It was the scariest thing I've ever seen," Campbell said. "It was like a nightmare."

Campbell scurried around the ledges looking for a safer route to reach Case.

A certified emergency medical technician, Case checked himself for broken bones and paralysis. He was OK but could feel a large, bloody wound on his back.

Campbell made it to Case about a half-hour later. It was too painful for him to stand, so she left him her CamelBak and headed toward the reservoir for help.

After bushwhacking through thick forest, she found the trail and quickly made it back to the trailhead and Bear Lake Campground, where a host called for help.

Members of Routt County Search and Rescue and the Yampa Fire Department arrived in the area at about 8:30 p.m. Members of Garfield County Search and Rescue joined the search later.

Darkness, cold and reality soon set in for Case. Dressed only in cotton shorts, a T-shirt and a thin polyester long-sleeve shirt from Campbell's CamelBak, Case realized he could die of hypothermia if he didn't try to walk.

So, breaking the golden rule of wilderness survival -- to stay put -- Case grabbed a stick and began hobbling toward the reservoir.

"I was coming to grips with the fact that I could die," he said.

For three hours, Case stumbled through the forest, painfully dragging his knees over dead trees. Eventually, with no hope of finding the trail in the darkness, he lay between two trees.

Case spent the night drifting in and out of sleep, shivering violently in 40-degree temperatures. His joints were so swollen and locked that he barely could move.

Freezing and dehydrated -- he had run out of water hours earlier -- Case began to hallucinate that flashlights were coming toward him. At one point, he thought the moon was a searchlight from an airplane.

"It was terrible," he said. "I was calling out, and I couldn't figure out why they were not calling back to me."

Searchers likely were calling his name, they just weren't near Case. Campbell, who was out with rescue teams, said they called off the search at about 2:30 a.m.

As daylight broke, Case realized he was practically invisible in a very thick patch of trees. So he slowly made his way toward a creek, following it downhill, where he hoped it met the reservoir.

He finally found the trail, and five minutes later, met a team of rescuers on four-wheelers. More rescuers came to the scene, wrapping his back and carrying him on a stretcher back to the trailhead to a waiting ambulance.

"Those guys were great," Case said. "They did a fantastic job."

Campbell heard the news just as a helicopter from Denver was about to land near the reservoir for an aerial search.

"I was so relieved," she said.

Case, who has a bandaged leg and is still very sore, was released from the hospital Sunday.

Before a daily treatment for his puncture wound, he and Campbell reflected on what they learned from the experience and what they might have done differently.

"In hindsight, trying to go down that cliff was one of the stupidest things I've done in my life," Case said. "I was overconfident."

The situation, though scary, might have been much worse: Case might have hit his head, injured his spine or punctured a major artery in the fall. It might have rained or stormed that night, Campbell said.

For not knowing the area very well, the two should have been more prepared and aware.

"I would say it's kind of a warning for us to temper our confidence," she said.