12 stranded hikers found safe; common sense and prayers, the hikers used their heads — and kept the faith. John M. Hubbell, Meredith May and Ulysses Torassa:

It could have been disaster. Death in the utterly quiet wilderness, two miles above sea level. With nobody around to know you’re gone.
But it turned out differently for three groups of hikers that were imprisoned by weekend snowstorms in the Sierra Nevada high country. All of them were rescued Thursday, and the real tale of their ordeal is that in many ways it wasn’t an ordeal. They were pretty experienced in the outdoors, they had good equipment and, most important in the eyes of professional rescue workers, they stayed together.
On Thursday, as they were brought to safety and the hugs and kisses of their loved ones, they told their stories.