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Rescued Glacier hikers back home, recall ordeal

Posted: Oct 18, 2012 10:23 AM by Surae Chinn - WUSA TV
Updated: Oct 18, 2012 10:23 AM

HERNDON, VA - We're hearing from the two Virginia men who got lost in Glacier National Park and had to be rescued. They're now home and talking about their ordeal.

"There was so much snow there was no trail to be seen," hiker Jason Hiser recalled.

Hiser, 32, and Neal Peckens from Herndon set out in the back country of Glacier National Park. They were half way up the mountain when something terrible went wrong. Peckens slipped and fell 30 yards down the steep terrain.

"When he fell, I was okay after he stopped sliding down the hill," Hiser said.

Worse still, their map blew away, and they were lost in whiteout conditions.

"You couldn't tell whether we should be going down or up, because the topographic map would have told us that," Hiser stated.

They decided the safest thing to do was hunker down, and the experienced hikers used their instincts.

"We did have an SOS sign out of burnt logs on the hillside," Peckens said.

They were stranded for four days, rationing energy bars as 50 rescuers scoured the area on the ground and in the air.

"Once we knew people were actually looking, we felt better, but it was a little discouraging to have them fly over your head and not see you. So, after we knew they were looking, it was just a matter of how long can we wait it out," Hiser said.

The men tell us they each lost 15 pounds during their four day ordeal in the woods of Northwest Montana.