Base Over Apex

PD and I could hear a couple of women on the high walk calling a dog when we were on our morning walk but couldn't see them.
When we had got to the extreme end of our walk and were returning on the high walk we could still hear them calling.
Eventually I saw a woman in amongst the trees but seemed to be struggling with something.
I went over and found that her companion was with 3 dogs at the bottom of a seven foot vertical drop with 3 dogs  with the river in spate about three feet behind them. They had been there for nearly half an hour and couldn't get back up due the mud (more slippery than ice) and no tree branches being strong enough.
Luckily the woman with me had an extending lead so we got the other lady to tie the lead on one of the dogs and between the two of us we were able to drag it up the slope. I then took it and used another lead to tie it to a tree before going back and doing the same with the other two dogs (not as easy as it sounds due to the extremely slippery mud, the barbed wire fence and the constantly breaking branches).
After that I managed to calm the lady at the bottom of the drop and get her to move along the river bank which gradually got higher. Eventually with the help of the other lady I got her up to the fence and then over it ….. without any of us getting injured on the barbed wire. Not easy I can assure you. It didn't do my back any good but it meant that she didn't hit the panic stage which she certainly would have done if I had had to phone the fire brigade.

So all was well in the end.