Missing Backpackers Saved by a Cell Phone

June 19, 2008— -- Two lucky hikers, lost for days in Denali National Park, were rescued after they'd somehow managed to find a cell phone signal in the vast Alaska wilderness.

Abby Flantz, 25, of Gaylord Mich., and Erica Nelson, 23, of Las Vegas were reunited with family members Wednesday.

"We were really lost," Flantz told "Good Morning America" today, explaining the two were following a river using a map, but the terrain became difficult and it seemed as if their route was a lot longer than they'd anticipated.

They had walked completely out of the park when they were found, after officials used triangulation from their cell phone to find them.

The first call came from Nelson to her mother Wednesday at 9:15 a.m. local time. Nelson told her mother, who had flown from Las Vegas to help with the search, that both she and Abby were OK and not injured.

That prompted a Denali National Park spokeswoman to send out a triumphant -- but premature -- news release under the subject line "Lost Hikers Found!" Something had been lost in translation, since though alive, their exact location was not yet clear.

Eleven hours later, the women were located.

They were spotted by a National Park Service plane 15 miles north of where they set out and 8 miles west of an Alaska highway. They had crossed over of the park's northern boundary.

And this time the spokeswoman got it right.

"Abby Flantz and Erica Nelson were grinning from ear to ear as they disembarked the helicopter at the Denali Park airstrip at 4:55 p.m. today and walked into the waiting arms of their anxious families," spokeswoman Kris Fister wrote.

In Nelson's first phone call, search managers had the women provide specific landmarks to help narrow the focus area. They were told to go to high ground and make themselves as visible as possible.

Two helicopters were sent. After an hour of scouring the area with no luck, a third helicopter and plane joined the effort. Ground teams, some with dogs, went to the same location on foot.

Nelson successfully called her mother a second time at 3:30 p.m. local time -- six hours after the first. The battery on her cell phone was low, and authorities instructed her to communicate by text message to conserve power.