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Park rescue dialed in

Four-day search is over after pair uses cell phone to make contact

By BETH BRAGG and JOSEPH DITZLER
bbragg@adn.com

Published: June 19th, 2008
Last Modified: June 19th, 2008 at 12:24 AM

Alaska's latest into-the-wild story got a happy ending.

Two hikers missing since Friday in Denali National Park were flown to safety around 5 p.m. Wednesday, healthy and unharmed after their unplanned adventure.

Erica Nelson, 23, and Abby Flantz, 25, were greeted by family members after a helicopter plucked them out of the wild. They were found outside the park on the northeastern side.

In an interview late Wednesday night as she prepared to attend a thank-you dinner thrown for about 100 searchers, Flantz said the two never really felt lost, never panicked.

"We didn't think we were lost," she said. "But at one point we thought, 'this is taking a long time.'"

Since they had planned to be out only one night -- a hike out behind Mount Healy and back -- they had limited food with them, Flantz said. Two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches between them, about five granola bars and two small packs of cereal -- Lucky Charms for Flantz.

She said they started to ration their food and spent the days walking and talking about friends and family. The only wildlife they came across was a porcupine.

"We'd talk about anything," Flantz said. "And we did a lot of praying."

She admitted their spirits began to sink as their food and water ran out, and it started raining. But both women said they stayed optimistic.

"I thought everything would be fine," Nelson told KTUU Channel 2 News at the park's airstrip, where the helicopter returned them to civilization.

"We didn't run into any animals; we saw some fresh tracks, but we stayed positive that we'd know how to handle it.

"It was pretty fun."

Fun for them, maybe, but serious business for those involved in the four-day search. By Wednesday, more than 100 people -- searchers and support staff -- were involved in trying to find them.

For four days, searchers scoured the Savage River region for any trace of Nelson and Flantz. On Wednesday, crews from four Lower 48 national parks joined the Alaskans, who began air and ground searches Sunday.

The two out-of-state seasonal workers -- Nelson is from Nevada, Flantz is from Minnesota and both work for the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge -- were reported missing when they didn't show up for work Saturday morning, and searchers started scouring the Savage River region where they were believed to have disappeared.

Tucked in their packs was Nelson's cell phone. Every day they pulled it out to check to see if they could get a signal, Flantz said, but they were wary of trying too often and maybe running the battery down.

After talking to the women Wednesday night, park service spokeswoman Kris Fister said they were smart to stay together, and stay calm. They were making their way toward the Parks Highway Wednesday morning when Nelson tried the cell phone again.

This time, it worked.

CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?

Nelson's mother, Ellane, flew to Alaska earlier this week to wait for news about their daughter. Both families were meeting with park officials at 9:15 Wednesday morning to learn about the day's search plans when Ellane's cell phone rang.

Caller ID indicated the call was from her daughter.

"Her face looked like she'd seen a ghost," Fister said.

On the other end of a weak phone connection was Erica, who said she was calling from somewhere along Dry Creek, on the eastern edge of the 100-square-mile search zone.

Even then, seven or eight more hours passed with no sign of the women, although four helicopters, an airplane, 10 ground searchers and two search dog teams were looking for them.

Around 4 p.m., Nelson was able to reach her mother again. Shortly after that, a plane spotted the women and a chopper was sent to get them. They were picked up about eight miles west of the Parks Highway, Fister said.

Cell phone coverage is unreliable in the park.

"Coverage would be real spotty," said Coke Wallace, a hunting guide whose Midnight Sun Safaris is located on Stampede Road, not far from where the women went missing.

"They're pretty blessed (to find a signal), because I wouldn't ever count on a cell phone myself out in the Bush. I carry a satellite phone."

Fister, who works at the park services headquarters in Denali, said she can't get a signal with her phone when she's at work.

INTO THE WILD

Before Nelson and Flantz began their adventure, they inquired about the old school bus on Stampede Road where wanderer Chris McCandless starved to death in 1992 not far from where the women lost their bearings.

His story inspired the book and movie "Into the Wild," and the book and the movie have, in turn, inspired a number of pilgrimages to the bus by people seeking to explore the place where McCandless' search for simplicity came to a deadly end. Wallace said he's led a number of people to the bus.

"They did ask about the bus initially," Fister said, "but then they were told how far away it was."

On Wednesday night, Flantz said McCandless' bus was never part of their plans.

Instead, the women made the Mount Healy wilderness area east of the Savage River, maybe 15 miles away from the bus, their destination. They received a permit from the National Park Service to camp there for one night, but got lost along the way.

The women kept moving. One night turned into two, then three, then four, then five, then six.

As they did, their parents headed to Alaska to wait for news. Relatives and friends around the country stood vigil.

At Denali on Wednesday night, Flantz' parents described their daughter as level-headed and self-assured. Still, having her missing in the middle of Alaska wasn't easy.

"It was pretty scary," Kathryn Flantz said. "We were overwhelmed, I think," said her husband, James.

In Carson, N.M., where Nelson has lots of relatives, prayers were offered for the women Tuesday night.

"We had a special prayer with the whole community," Ken Brown, Nelson's great-uncle in New Mexico, said in an e-mail. "Erica is related to 80 percent of the thousand or so members of the community."

Each day the search grew, and by Wednesday efforts had increased to include 16 ground teams, five helicopters and an airplane. Teams from four Lower 48 national parks -- Grand Teton, Mount Rainier, Sequoia-Kings Canyon and Yosemite -- joined the search Wednesday, as did a team from the Alaska Mountain Rescue Group.

Find Beth Bragg online at adn.com/contact/bbragg or call 257-4309. Find Joseph Ditzler online at adn.com/contact/jditzler or call 1-907-352-6715.