JimL:
I recently had my helicopter education improved by an old-timer - the subject was departures from confined areas. Liked what he said so much that I wrote it up for Vertical magazine.
Basically, it involved backing up from the front of a confined area in order to keep the barrier in sight, and allow a known flight path back to the ground in the event of an engine failure (or lack power available).
Same logic might be used here - backing up will put you in the HV curve, but with a known landing spot in sight that's ahead of you. And evidently there is very little cyclic movement needed to get back to the spot - just lowering the collective will also move you forward towards the spot.
Interesting technique!