Craig Smith recently went back to the hiking trail and looked up at that 2,000-foot cliff in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, and he could feel himself stranded with his cousin all over again.

His leg broken in two places, he was suspended by a cable 900 feet over the rocky ground.

The 2002 Air Academy graduate and his cousin, Ken Sherbenou, was back at the chasm near Montrose doing a reenactment of the 2006 ordeal for the Travel Channel show, “Got Home Alive!” The show airs tonight.

“The actual reenactment was the really emotional part, just reliving the whole thing again,” Smith said during a phone interview from his home in New York City, where he makes a living as a sax player. “It was the first time we’d been back there since the accident, so it was a pretty emotional experience.”

It was also a unique experience for the Travel Channel show, which usually uses actors to restage various survival dramas.

“They had Kenny and I play ourselves,” Smith said.

Smith and Sherbenou managed to escape from the canyon in a 17-hour drama that  involved rappelling down one cliff and crawling out of the canyon with no water.

Smith hasn’t seen the show yet, but a short clip online suggested the show would be worth watching, he said.

“It looks pretty cool,” he said. “I’m really excited.”

Craig Smith Photo by GAZETTE FILE