5 Skiers Lost for 4 Days in Subzero Cold Turn Up Safe : Search: Two reach a trading post in Rockies and others find a cabin. They survived by eating snow.

On the same day that experts pronounced their chances of survival as nil, five cross-country skiers missing for four days in a Rocky Mountain region of extreme avalanche danger turned up safe Tuesday.

Two skiers called authorities from a pay phone at a trading post. Several hours later, a rescue helicopter found the others near a remote mountain cabin. Three of the five suffered frostbite, but only two were hospitalized.

The five survived subzero temperatures by seeking shelter in snow caves and cabins, and by eating snow.

As the search parties were preparing to reassess their strategy Tuesday under the presumption that the skiers may not have survived, Elliott Brown, 43, of Golden and Ken Torp, 50, of Conifer telephoned from the Taylor Park trading post, about 15 miles southeast of where they disappeared, reporting that they were dehydrated and slightly frostbitten but otherwise safe.

“We’re absolutely elated to be alive,” said Torp after being flown to Aspen. A former chief of staff for ex-Gov. Dick Lamm and an expert mountaineer, Torp has done climbs in Alaska and Nepal.

“There was no question in our minds at any point that we weren’t going to make it. It was just a matter of how ugly it was going to be,” he said.

Brown, a metallurgist, clutched his bandaged fingers to his chest on the way to a sheriff’s vehicle and said: “Well, Ken and I found ourselves on a long, cold trip. I still remember Ken saying: ‘Elliott, the good news is I know where we are. The bad news is I know where we are.’ ”

Brigitte Schluger, 50, a Denver art gallery owner, and Dee Dubin, 40, and her husband, Rob Dubin, 38, owners of a Denver video production firm, were discovered Monday afternoon by a search and rescue team that spotted them from the air from an Army helicopter.

“We were following ski tracks when we saw this fella waving at us near a cabin,” said Mel Druelinger, a rescue mission coordinator. “He’d also stamped the word HELP in the snow.”

Schluger and Dee Dubin were found resting inside the cabin and suffering from frostbite to their fingers and toes. The three were airlifted to Aspen Valley Hospital. The two women were then flown to Denver for special medical attention.

The five were among seven friends and relatives who set out Friday from a tourist resort south of here expecting to stay overnight in a wilderness hut and return Saturday. Instead, they split up into three groups after their party lost its way in a blizzard Friday.

Richard Rost, 34, of Boulder and his girlfriend Andrea Brett, 42, of Denver reached their starting point seven hours later on Saturday.

Authorities launched one of the largest search-and-rescue missions here ever, with up to 80 rescuers on skis, in snowmobiles and in helicopters.

Torp said he and Brown spent two nights in the open with no shelter or sleeping bags, but they found a ranger cabin Monday night in the abandoned mining town of Dorchester near Taylor Park.

Dubin said he, his wife and Schluger spent Saturday night in a fabric-covered snow pit, Sunday night in a snow cave and Monday night in a government cabin. He said the two women suffered intensely from the cold, and Schluger was so incapacitated by it that she had trouble skiing Tuesday.

“It’s miraculous that all five survived given the extremes of snow and avalanche danger here,” Druelinger said. “They were extremely glad to see us.”

Later, Pitkin County Sheriff Bob Braudis attributed the survival of the people he euphemistically called “our Popsicles” to “backcountry Darwinism.”

“The gene pool these people exhibited will be successful,” Braudis said.

By Monday afternoon, 450 avalanches had been reported in the Colorado mountains since an avalanche warning was issued Feb. 17, according to Knox Williams, director of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, who said that only about 10% of all avalanches get reported.

“They were in some of the most avalanche prone terrain in Colorado, but if you can recognize dangerous terrain you can work your way through some very difficult mountains,” Williams said. “These people have proved it.”

When Torp and Brown reached the trading post, Ilene Craner, 45, fed them soup and hot chocolate. “They broke down a couple of times thinking about their lost friends who they were afraid had not made it,” Craner said. “We all cried a little.”

Brown and Torp were treated at Gunnison Valley Hospital and flown to rescue mission headquarters at Aspen Airport, where they broke into tears again--this time at the sight of waiting friends.

Researcher Ann Rovin in the Denver bureau contributed to this story.