2 Denali backpackers missing for days found alive

6/18/2008

ANCHORAGE, Alaska A Denali National Park and Preserve spokeswoman says two backpackers missing for nearly a week in the Alaska park are alive and well.

National Park Service spokeswoman Kris Fister says 25-year-old Abby Flantz and 23-year-old Erica Nelson of Las Vegas were located in the park Wednesday. She says one of the women called her mother on a cell phone and a helicopter was sent out to pick up the hikers.

The two had been last seen Thursday when they left for what was supposed to be an overnight camping trip. The search for them started Saturday when they didn't show up for work.

Fister says the women will be reunited with their families, who had flown to Alaska to be on hand for the search.