a family lost in the snow. >> i said to god i completely need you now. >> reporter: a trip to see a glacier takes a completely wrong turn. >> somebody was looking after us. >> reporter: snow bound in a lonely highway. a young family shows grit and determination to make it out alive. >> i said we're not doing this for you, we're not doing this for me, we're doing it the for the baby. >> reporter: and buried under

an avalanche for days she never gave up. snow rescues straight ahead on a second look. good evening and welcome to a second look. i'm julie haener. winter is a time for skiing and adventures in the snow. but it can also bring treacherous adventures trapping people miles from the help. tonight stories of survival. we begin with a story of survival. pria david first brought us the story in 2007. >> reporter: their harrowing experience started on sunday when the family set out to cut down a christmas tree. they drove to the snowy wilderness about 25 miles northeast of chico an area so remote cell phones don't work there. >> so easy to get turned around, we got the tree. cut it down and started climbing down. and soon we realized we don't know which way to go.

>> reporter: lisa sam's the children's mother and dominguez' ex-wife reported them missing. search crews started looking for the family. the bay area rescue team joined the effort and struggled through sleet and ice and snow drift up a 5-foot wall. then this afternoon the helicopter rescue team spotted them. >> once we shut down the helicopter and i waved them up they started running up. the little girl was in tears, i'm glad we could help. >> reporter: the family had written the word help with tree branches. the family had hunkered down but still exposed to the cold and waited for that help to come. it was hugs and warm blankets all around as the two younger children 12-year-old joshua and 14-year-old alexis walked off the rescue helicopter and into the arms of volunteers who had been searching for them.

the helicopter made a second trip and returned a short time later delivering the father, 38- year-old fredrick dominguez and his 18-year-old son christopher. >> they looked pretty good and they're in great spirits. they're feet are a little wet. we took the girls up first. we got them warmed up in the helicopter. we left gear for the father and son. we gave them clothing. and moments later we went to pick them up. the snow was starting again. >> reporter: tonight dominguez spoke about the ordeal from the hospital. he says he and his children were soaking wet from the very start. and he explained how they had to rub each other's feet to keep from getting frostbite. >> my children depend on me. honest to god, i completely

need you know. >> reporter: his prayers and families prayers were answered with their rescue. the family's mother got the good news through the phone. dominguez says it's the kind of ordeal that helps him see life differently. >> you have your faith, you have family and you have your friends. you know what, when you're in a place when you think wow, i may not make it. all you want to do is tell those people how much you love them. how much you miss them. >> reporter: as for the rescue team. >> we're thrilled. what a wonderful time of year for this to happen. what a wonderful christmas present for everybody. >> it was 17 years ago that a texas family left their home for a ski trip. it took two days before the family of three was found. >> we realized we're buried. and it's a weird feeling but you don't want to really stress

that. this is just an adventure. >> reporter: that adventure began for higgins and his family when they left texas in their suv and went into new mexico. >> we started going up an inclimb and the vehicle stopped moving. >> reporter: the family had food and water but were now entombed. >> we mentioned to each other, do we have enough air in this car is it possible to run out of air. >> reporter: they were able to make cell phone contact and tell rescuers their approximate location. >> we knew it with a look. we both knew we were in trouble with a look. but all we could say is i love you. and we would pray and you know, and if this is god's will, it's god's will. >> as one night turned into two, the situation turned desperate. >> there was even one time she said, i'm thankful we're here together as a family. it's a difficult place to be. >> reporter: finally around 1:30 on wednesday morning, a

rescue team arrived. >> all i remember is yvonne said they're here. and she had looked over at the driver's side window and saw the rescuers digging. >> reporter: now this father could only thank those who found his family and made his prayers come true. >> my mom is the first one that told me this was her christmas miracle. this was her best christmas present she could get. it was knowing she still had her family. still to come on a second look. >> don't take no for an answer. >> when police declined to help. one family launched their own help for a couple missing in the california desert for weeks. >> a helicopter goes down on an alaskan glacier leaving passengers an crew trapped in sub -- and crew trapped in sub zero weather.

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on both coffee and espresso. nespresso vertuoline. experience the revolution of coffee. welcome back, a young bay area couple went on a weekend camping trip. but they got stuck, police refused to launch a search but their family refused to give up on the two. mike mibach brought us the story. >> reporter: it was a mother and son embrace that seemed never to end. and for a few moments, it did not. >> it's good. >> we lost about, eight or nine maybe 10 miles in the snow. and then when we heard the

helicopter we just dropped to our knees and it was just like the tears were just coming down. just of relief. >> reporter: last weekends the fremont couple and three dogs took off for a camping trip. the two were expected back monday but never made it. as they left their campground. a campground they had used once before the streams that surrounded their campground became too high for their tacoma to cross. >> we broke into a cabin up there and they had a big giant can of tomato sauce. so we ate tomato soup for about three or four days. >> we didn't know what time it was for the whole week. >> reporter: laret's family

alerted his family. then a clue popped up, liu's credit card was used in lake county. police would not launch a search but his family did. >> don't take no for an answer. don't let them sugar coat it. don't let them gloss it. just jump in with both feet and go for it. we felt we knew what was going on. although we did not all the have the support we wanted and needed. the couple says they rationed food and had about a days worth left. knowing that at first light they started walking and by mid- afternoon they were located by ryan's family flying over head. the lesson they learned. >> tell people -- where you're going. it was supposed to be a trip of a lifetime with

breathtaking views of alaska's glacier. as rita williams reported back in 1999, one novato couple ended up with a story. >> when three helicopter crashed and everybody is okay. somebody is looking after us. >> reporter: if it hadn 't been for this dramatic rescue the zell 's wouldn't be here. on what was supposed to be an hour long helicopter tour of a glacier. >> we landed on a herbert glacier. i was leaning over a crevase. >> i don't know what quite

happened but we ended up upside down in the snow in the helicopter hanging from our seat belts. >> reporter: ronny zell sprained a wrist, broke a tooth. her husband had a few cuts, a black eye. but the five sight seers on board and the pilot were in pretty good shape. they built a snow wall around the wrecked helicopter for shelter. before dark, they spotted two different rescue helicopters then watched them crash. >> two helicopter went down trying to get to us. >> it was some dispair. >> reporter: nine rescuers in the dark somehow found the igloo. rescuers and the rescued huddled together overnight. during a brief clearing in the weather saturday morning, the coast guard air lifted them out. >> how many do we have back there now?

>> fourth, this is a fifth. >> reporter: the coast guard air lifted all of them. the pilot, his feet wet shivering cuts on his face never complained. rich and ronny zol walked off the rescue helicopter saturday morning still bundled up. only then did they learn that three months ago everyone on board anothersighted seeing helicopter died during a rescue. >> we were pretty much adventure out. >> when we come back to a second look. >> the glacier. >> lost in waist deep snow as temperatures plunged below zero. the story of a young family who's drive to survive saw them through.

welcome back to a second look, three days after

christmas in 1993, a young couple along with their five -month-old baby left the bay area for idaho. but outside of reno they became stranded in deep snow on a remote road. this is john fowler's report on the incredible endurance and determination of jim and jennifer stopal. >> i just figured that we would stay here and die and not do anything or try to do something and die that way. so we did what we could and tried to get out of there. >> reporter: last tuesday the stopals turned north from their intended route and chose highway 299 to cut through the snow bound sierra. they drove the two lane road signs declare the back country highway through this path in the warner mountains. migrating geese are among the few living things able to survive the harsh winters here. this part of the high desert appears more like antarctica. temperatures plunged to minus four and never got above minus

two. their truck bogged in the snow in an area highway patrol described as the middle of nowhere. the family stayed in the truck running the engine. but in five days and nights no one drove by. >> just really concerned about freezing to death, or starve to death or if anybody was going to come get us. we were just worried about our family being worried about us. >> reporter: they walked unknowingly in the direction of one of the most remote wilderness areas in the continental u.s. through waist high snow drifts, carrying a sleeping bag, a little food and their baby. >> we had them wrapped in a regular sized sleeping bag, folded in half and the one inside of a baby sleeping bag inside of a bunch of nighties. and we had them in a garment bag that we had hooked the

garment bag on to my belt. and he started to cry and i started again and he would go back to sleep. >> i started losing faith. >> i told her we're not doing this for you. we're not doing this for me we're doing it for the baby. >> reporter: after 12 exhaustive miles they found a rock outcrop in what turned out to be hell's canyon. jennifer and baby clayton wrapped in a sleeping back went for help. >> i was afraid they were going to try to kick me out. other than that it was cramped quarters but we were warming up. jennifer nursed baby clay, she ate snow. >> it was really hard. it was scary whether or not he would make it by himself. >> and i was worried the same way. worried he wouldn't make it because they had no food.

>> any final words? >> we just you know said i love you, this that and the other. gave her a kiss. i promised her i would make it. >> reporter: by now james had realized they had gone the wrong direction. circled around the block and finally after slogging down the snow for another 23 hours, he waved his hands at a snowplow workers. >> he was coherent, real alert. able to fairly pinpoint the location of where he had left his wife and child in a cave on the side of a hill. >> he's more than a hero to me. he is. he is. i don't think i could have picked anyone better. he had the courage and the drive to get us out of there

and he promised me he would do it and he will always be my hero. >> reporter: the stopa's story quickly got the attention of studios. their story was made with neil patrick harris and it was called snow bound.

well -- welcome back to a second look. a series of avalanches released a 30-foot of snow. one young resort worker

survived trapped beneath the snow and rubble where no one could hear her cries for help. in 1989, ktvu's bob mackenzie talked to ana conrad about her ordeal. >> april 2, 1982. exhausted volunteers continued their search for victims of the previous day's disaster. an avalanche that had striked the alpine meadow ski resort crushes several buildings and burying at least eight people. by this time after a long night of freezing weather, rescue workers were losing hope of finding anyone alive. >> a miracle. it would be a miracle. >> reporter: one person knew that there was a survivor. but she could tell no one. that person was the survivor herself. anna conrad. a woman that at the moment these pictures were taken were buried in snow and rubble known as the summit building. could not move her body and her voice would not carry through the snow above her but she could hear the rescue workers

digging. >> i spent a lot of time thinking about my boyfriend. i spent a lot of time thinking about my family how much they meant to me. and i spent a lot of time figuring out how to get out of that hole. >> reporter: one by one the victims of the avalanche were found but they were found dead. now ominously the weather was turning against the searchers. >> we are pulling everybody out, our people who have been up in the area. simply because the avalanche danger is at a level again where we don't want to have anybody up there. >> as a storm raged over the following days, anna conrad's friends anxiously waited. they had no way of knowing she was alive or that they had passed so close to her. after the night, the weather cleared and two people were still missing. >> we didn't know where they were. they were near the summit building.

>> reporter: using dogs and metal rods to pry the ground below. >> i knew they were yelling for me. i knew they were outlooking for me. that reenforced my belief. >> reporter: then the miracle. >> we have found annie conrad. she's alive. we just have the helicopter flying in to bring her out along with a doctor. >> reporter: suffering from hypertherm ya, shock and severe frostbite but very much alive anna was flown by helicopter to truckee. >> i wasn't in any kind of pain. i had no idea what had happened around me at that point because i was just exstatic to be out of there. and they felt my legs and they asked me if i could feel them feeling my legs and i had absolutely no feeling to my leg. it was the first shock that i had. >> just thank god that miracles really do happen. >> with her overjoyed family around her ana was interviewed

by ktvu's rita williams. >> i could move a little bit fortunately but not much. it's hard to live by yourself for a while. >> we heard that you could hear them calling for you. >> i called out but they couldn't hear me. that was the only time it was close. it was frustrating when they left after they talked to me. >> what was it like today when they found you? >> fantastic. they are all friends. every single one of them i knew just about. so it was like seeing a bunch of people you loved, it was great. we heard that the pick was coming in and you were reaching for snow. is that how you managed to survive. >> one of the guys that knocked the snow from the locker, and i

was eating know. he saw my hand. that's how they found me. the dog found many me first eventually. >> did you ever give up hope? >> no, i knew they would be there. i was praying for them to come back today and they did. >> any time you're ready. >> but the courage to survive is the courage to overcome. a year after her accident, ana conrad was skiing again. and today she has a new home, a husband and job as ski safety coordinator for mammoth. her artificial leg doesn't slow her down much. >> when did you decide you were going to ski again. >> the day they told me i was going to lose my leg. it was a shock, real awful but at the same time i had to think

about it and realize that there wasn't anything i really couldn't do. >> other people might find themselves in a dangerous fix the way you did. what advice would you find for them? >> you have to have faith in yourself and you have to have faith in the people that are there to support you because that's the most important thing. i never lost faith in those people that were looking for me. that is this week's second look. i'm julie haener. thank you for watching.

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