KILLINGTON, Vt. (AP) – Four Pennsylvania men spent a subzero night and day in the woods after getting lost outside the boundaries at Killington Resort. They were rescued after a helicopter spotted their campfire.

“I had some Christmas cookies with me I gave them,” said Game Warden Donald Isabelle, one of the first rescuers to make contact with the four missing men in the woods late Monday afternoon. “They were pretty hungry. It didn’t take them long to eat.”

More than three dozen rescue workers launched a search around 4:30 a.m. Monday when the four men were reported missing by another man, who told Vermont State Police his friends had skied out of bounds at Killington Ski Resort around 12:15 p.m. Sunday and never returned to their hotel room.

Searchers battled frigid temperatures and the clock Monday, combing the trails and back woods of the ski resort. They were hampered by about 4 inches of freshly fallen snow.

It wasn’t until around 3 p.m. Monday that a Vermont National Guard helicopter that had recently arrived at the scene spotted a campfire and the men in the woods.

The helicopter crew directed rescue workers already in the woods to the four men, who were able to locate them and guide them out of the woods.

The four missing men and their guides emerged around 5 p.m. Monday, nearly 30 hours after they were last seen skiing out of bounds.

William Sharp, a climatologist with the National Weather Service based in Rutland, said the temperature dropped to between 20 and 25 below zero.

The lost men, all from Perkasie, Pa., included two snowboarders and two skiers.

Jared Rush, 22, and Michael Styer, 23, were the snowboarders. Jared Raytek and Thomas Arnold, both 23, were the skiers.

The men were treated by paramedics and then taken to Rutland Regional Medical Center for checkups.

Vermont State Police said they were notified at 4:30 a.m. Monday that the men were missing by their friend, Joel Barlow, 23, also of Perkasie, Pa. He told police he and his friends went skiing Sunday afternoon at the top of Killington Peak when they traveled off the trail, out of bounds.

Police said Barlow made his way to the base lodge at Rams Head and took a bus back to his Killington hotel room. Police said he awoke around 3 a.m. Monday and realized his friends were still missing and called authorities.

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Information from: Rutland Herald, http://www.rutlandherald.com/

AP-ES-12-21-04 0808EST