A man from Cressona was one of four rescued from Mount Washington after becoming disoriented because of weather conditions.
Wayne Ebling, 59, of Cressona, was one of 15 people who hiked the mountain Sunday.
"He's an avid hiker. He's always going hiking," his wife, Cindy Ebling, said Monday.
Ebling and the others were part of a group from Quest, a leadership group at Bloomsburg University, that also provides outdoor activities. Rhea Mitchell, 22, of Danville; Andrew Snyder, 22, of York; and Kelly Sloan, 33, of Bloomsburg, were also rescued.
The four had lost their way while they were descending the 6,288-foot summit.
Ebling said her husband said the adventure sounded like fun. He went with a friend from the group.
"All the people are in good shape that we rescued last night," Rick Wilcox, president of the Mountain Rescue Service, North Conway, N.H., said Monday afternoon.
Wilcox said 12 people from the rescue service and five from the U.S. Forest Service, along with two snowcats, truck-sized vehicles with traction, went to find the missing hikers. He said the hikers were lost because of "limited visibility."
The group used a GPS device to call for help, which was relayed to the appropriate authorities.
"They set their thing off at 5 p.m.," Wilcox said of the device.
The Mountain Rescue Service was called by the Forest Service for assistance, Wilcox said.
"If we had not found them, they would all have been dead. They would not make it though the night," Wilcox said, adding the temperatures were below zero with 95 mph wind gusts.
The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department, state police, the U.S. Forest Service, the Mountain Rescue Service, the Appalachian Mountain Club, the Harvard Mountaineering Club and the Mount Washington Observatory all helped in the rescue effort.
"What I heard is that they were behind some rocks," Wilcox said of where the four hikers were found.
Ebling said she didn't realize her husband was missing until she received a call at 11 p.m. Sunday from someone with Quest.
"It was complete and total disbelief," Ebling said of her reaction to the news.
She later received a call from someone with the forest service saying they were descending the mountain at 2 a.m.
They reached the base of the mountain at 3:30 a.m., Wilcox said.
Ebling said Monday evening that she last spoke with her husband at 8:30 a.m. while he was in a hospital.
"He told me he suffered hypothermia and frostbite on his toes and fingers," she said.
She was expecting him home Monday.
"I am totally sleep deprived," Ebling said.
She does not know what she will say to her husband when she sees him but is glad he is "not a Popsicle up on the mountain."
An employee of Quest did not return a call for comment Monday.
"This rescue effort, in some of Mount Washington's worst weather, was an enormous success that saved lives," Forest Service Snow Ranger Christopher Joosen said, according to The Associated Press. "It also was another example of volunteer teams working together with federal and state agencies to help mountaineers who are lost and hurt. Each organization played a critical role to the extant that lacking any of their contributions, this mission may have ended very differently."