ST. PAUL - Rescuers flew from St. Paul to near Split Rock Lighthouse to carry an injured woman to a waiting ambulance, and authorities said it took less time than had local public safety personnel tried to move her over the rough terrain along Lake Superior.

"They could have extracted her .... but the terrain is pretty rugged," Minnesota State Patrol pilot Dave Willar said about ground-based rescuers in the Monday incident. "Who knows if they would have had issues with slipping."

Talking to reporters on Tuesday, Willar estimated it would have taken two hours to move the women over land, while once they arrived on the scene, he and St. Paul firefighters moved her from next to a rushing stream to a waiting ambulance two miles away in minutes.

Lori Mildon, 61, of Stillwater, Minn., was taken to St. Mary's Hospital in Duluth with non-life-threatening injuries, State Patrol Lt. Tiffani Schweigart said.

The woman was sitting down to rest in the middle of a hike, Schweigart said. She got up, only to collapse with a dislocated hip, leaving her unable to walk.

The Lake County Sheriff's Department reported receiving a call at 1:52 p.m. about the incident. Several local public safety agencies responded, but upon reaching Mildon, they quickly decided it would be faster and safer to call in the St. Paul-based helicopter rescue team due to the treacherous rocky terrain.

Willar said that once the patrol helicopter left the downtown St. Paul airport, it took an hour and 15 minutes to get to the scene. The Minnesota Aviation Rescue Team, the only such operation in the state, made a brief stop at a parking lot near Lake Superior to remove the pilot's door and attach ropes needed to carry the woman to an ambulance.

A video from a video camera on a St. Paul firefighter's helmet showed from above that Mildon was wrapped -- "like a mummy," as Willar put it -- and laying by a stream ready for transportation. Two firefighters dangling from the 100-foot rope landed, then quickly put another wrap around the women before the helicopter took a two-mile trip over forested land full of fall colors.

Only a bit of Mildon's forehead was exposed as she hung at the end of the strap below the helicopter.

While the 50-degree weather was comfortable for hikers, Schweigart said that the temperature was dangerous for an injured person.

"She was somewhat alert," Capt. Alan Gabriele of the St. Paul Fire Department said.

The incident near the shore of Lake Superior at Silver Bay, in Split Rock Lighthouse State Park, was one of 15 to 20 calls the helicopter rescue team receives each year.

MART, as the group is known, was formed in 2011 to perform rescues in situations difficult or impossible to do by ground-based personnel. It can fly anywhere in Minnesota.

Two State Patrol helicopters are capable of doing the rescue work, and four of the patrol's nine helicopter pilots are trained. Willar said they train once or twice a month, each time simulating 20 rescues.

Eighteen St. Paul firefighters are on the team so some are available each shift.

"It is almost second nature," Willar said. "It is a unique skill and we are the only ones that do it" in Minnesota.