GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK — Two hikers from Louisiana spent a scary night in waist-deep snow in the national park before making it to safety, a rescue official said Thursday.
Emergency dispatchers took a 911 call from the hikers at 10:30 a.m. Monday, said Greg Shuping, emergency operations chief in Haywood County.
The backpackers were at the Laurel Gap shelter and about to get on the Balsam Mountain Trail. The dispatcher had only enough time to get basic information about their conditions, supplies and direction of travel before the phone they were using died.
