DENVER -- A Colorado woman stranded on a rocky ledge in the Bavarian Alps for nearly three days was rescued after she used her sports bra to signal for help.

Berchtesgaden, Germany police officer Lorenz Rasp said that he helped lift Jessica Bruinsma, 24, of Colorado Springs to safety by helicopter on Thursday after she caught the attention of lumberjacks by attaching her sports bra to a cable used to haul timber down the mountain.

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

"Hanging the bra out saved her life because a logger saw it, heard about the search for a missing woman, and called mountain rescue."

"Just to have her wits about her to know that was her chance when that cable started to move is amazing," said Jessica's brother Jack. "After three days of boredom and absolute pain and panic. That's impressive."

An Alpine rescue team, including five helicopters and 80 emergency workers, had been searching for Bruinsma since she went missing June 16 after losing her way in bad weather while hiking with a friend in the Bavarian Alps near the border with Austria.

She fell 18 feet to a rocky ledge, 4,100 feet high, where she spent the next 70 hours on the narrow overhang, sustained by water that she found by breaking into a supply box on the ledge.

She badly bruised a leg and dislocated a shoulder in the fall, and the cliff was too isolated for her to climb free, Rasp said.

Rasp said the cable was only within reach because the timber transport system was out of service. When a repairman restored the line on Thursday, the cable car started moving up the mountain and Bruinsma's bra reached the worker at the base.

Rasp said his rescue team followed the cable line up the cliff side in a helicopter and found Bruinsma standing on the ledge, waving with her good arm. After circling once, they lowered a winch to Bruinsma and lifted her aboard.

"She did so well because she is in very good shape," Rasp said. "She has been training for a marathon -- her goal is to finish in 3 hours and 10 minutes."

Bruinsma told Rasp that she has scrapped plans to stay in Berchtesgaden to learn German and plans to return home to Colorado Springs with her parents after she is released from the hospital. He said she still plans to run the marathon, if she recovers in time to keep training.

Jessica's family believed her stubbornness helped her survive.

"She told Jack (her brother) on the phone," said Jessica's sister Elana Bruinsma. "That when she was crawling back and forth from this cave and outside to get attention she said 'I will not be another statistic, I will not be another statistic.'"

A hospital spokeswoman said Bruinsma is being treated for Compartmental Syndrome and fractured ankle as a result of her fall.

The family expects Jessica to return to Colorado Springs sometime in July, once she is healed enough to travel.