June 18, 2008

Missing Denali hikers found alive after 5 days

"It's a miracle, I can't believe it"

One of two missing backpackers in Alaska's Denali National Park for six days, called her mother at 9:15am Wednesday from a cell phone and told her she and her friend were well and needed a rescue.

One of the two missing backpackers in Alaska's Denali National Park for five days, called her mother Wednesday morning and told her she and her friend were well and needed a rescue.

Search member Alice Rindell told AlaskaReport by phone from the park's headquarters that the mother of Erica Nelson, Ellane, said "It's a miracle, I can't believe it" after she got the call from her daughter.

The Denali park resort workers Abby Flantz, 25, of Minnesota and Erica Nelson, 23, of Nevada, left for an overnight camping trip on Thursday and didn't show up for work the next day.

Denali Park Service officials told the women to stay put while two helicopters were dispatched to pick the women up.

After three hours of searching they still had not found the women and decided to search a new area 5 miles west of the Parks Highway near Mount Healy.

A helicopter eventually located the two.

At around 5pm both hikers landed at the park's headquaters and were reunited with their families.