Thanks to a massive effort, two snowmobilers were rescued from the Beartooth Mountains on Saturday — more than two days after they became stranded in the high country.

One of the men reportedly told their rescuers that they had expected to die within a matter of hours.

Park County Search and Rescue teams, assisted by volunteer members of the Cody Country Snowmobile Association and Snow Search, carried out the mission east of the Top of the World Store. 

The two Montana snowmobilers — Trevor Deal of Bridger, 22, and Maison Ostwald of Laurel, 21 — had gone snowmobiling Thursday morning, according to the Park County Sheriff’s Office. However, the men contacted a friend at 5 p.m. Thursday to say one of their sleds had become disabled and they were trying to make it to the highway on the other sled.

When the men still hadn’t checked in by 8 p.m. — and with their location unknown — the sheriff’s office was notified and Park County Search and Rescue activated. The team searched all night and over the next two days, supported by more resources from the ground and air. Dozens of volunteers joined the effort.

Searchers eventually found tracks that led to Deal and Ostwald, near the base of Table Mountain.

Both men were exhausted, dehydrated, and hypothermic when reached Saturday morning, the sheriff’s office said. Deal refused treatment while Ostwald was transported to the hospital and eventually flown to the Idaho Falls Burn Center for treatment of severe frostbite.