PIERCE COUNTY, Wash. — Nathaniel Endicott and his mother, Karla, were all smiles at Sea-Tac Airport, just hours after he learned his wife of about one month made it back from a hike on Mount Rainier alive.
"I was reading stories when she went missing," said Endicott, "becoming increasingly paranoid."
Endicott said his 24-year-old wife, Lacy, was on a three-week adventure with her mother before starting graduate school in Saint Louis, Missouri, in the fall.
They took a road trip to Washington and Lacy decided to hike Mount Rainier by herself. Her mother-in-law was at Mount Rainier last year.
She was asked what she told them about Washington state.
"Oh, that it was beautiful and just how much we love this area," said Karla Endicott. "And the people are just so friendly and wonderful."
But Lacy told rescuers that sometime Sunday during her hike at Mowich Lake, she stepped off the trail to take a picture, lost her footing and slid down a steep slope. It was so steep, she couldn't make her way back up so she spent Sunday night in a hollow log to keep dry.
At 5 p.m. Monday, she heard rescuers calling her name but it took an hours-long technical rescue to pull her out of the ravine.
"We just felt from the moment things started going wrong that everybody rallied and we could not be more grateful," said Karla Endicott.
"I'm just so thankful," said Nathaniel Endicott, "for everything that they do."
He said in a text that Lacy was too exhausted to talk about her ordeal on camera. She was told she was about two hours away from suffering from hypothermia.
But she came through with just bumps and bruises. For that, says her husband, who is also 24, they are relieved.