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.

Over the course of 45 minutes, the women texted landscape descriptions they could see from their spot. At the same time, the cell phone provider used cell site information to home in on the exact location, and the information was forwarded to search pilots. "At 4:22 p.m. the park fixed-wing aircraft spotted the pair," Fister wrote. "They were quickly picked up by an incident helicopter and brought to the park's airstrip."

Nelson and Flantz had spent six nights in the wilderness, five more nights than they'd originally planned. The pair, both working for the summer at a travel lodge near the park, had been dropped by a shuttle bus Thursday, June 12, for what was supposed to be an overnight hike.

They failed to emerge from the park Friday and were reported "overdue" by concerned co-workers when they failed to show up for their afternoon shifts. Nelson was expected in Houston as the maid of honor at her sister's wedding this weekend.

The search magnified over three full days as ground teams combed a 100-square-mile swatch of backcountry.

Authorities were optimistic that the women, described as experienced hikers but unfamiliar with the area, would be found. They could not, however, rule out darker scenarios, such as the two possibly meeting with foul play or getting attacked by a grizzly bear or a park wolf.

The women were in good physical shape and were relieved to be reunited with family and friends. They were down to their final bit of food when the search team arrived and were using melted snow as a water source. "We were on our last granola crumb," Nelson told "GMA".

Perhaps a second piece of cake is in order for Nelson when she fulfills her bridesmaid duties this weekend.