Rescued Hiker: "We Accepted We Might Lose Things, Some Toes, Fingers"

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KEENE, NY (CBSMiami) -- Two college students rescued from the snowy summit of New York's second-highest mountains are recovering in the hospital from hypothermia. They survived 48-hours stranded in blizzard conditions. The Department of Environmental Conservation says Tuesday afternoon that rangers and state police in a helicopter found 19-year-old Madison Popolizio and 20-year-old Blake Alois in Schenectady County, on 5,115-foot Algonquin Peak in the Adirondacks.

DEC says rangers evacuated the hikers from 265 feet below the mountain's bald summit using a helicopter and flew them to a Saranac Lake hospital for treatment of hypothermia.

Madison and her boyfriend are experienced hikers and said their climb started out fine but then, "we just started plummeting down into endless snow," she explained.

After the fall, they were trapped in a snow bank for two days and it became a brutal test of will.

"I was freezing," recalled Madison who also said she owes her life to Blake.

"He told me how much he loved me and what our lives were going to be like when we got out."

For two freezing days and nights, rescue crews searched almost around the clock in four feet of snow and more bad weather was coming.

By that time, Madison says she and Blake were hallucinating. They were seeing and hearing things that weren't there until they heard something that was there.

"And I looked at him, and I was like 'did you hear that one?' And he was like yeah, I heard that one (emotional) And we both just started screaming," said Madison. "The first thing I can remember was him saying that 'we're going to make it out of here'."

Blake is still in the hospital and could lose some toes to frostbite.

"We accepted we might lose things, some toes, fingers," said Madison. "I asked him if he would still think I was pretty if I didn't have any feet," she cried laughingly. "And he said 'you could lose both your legs, both your arms and you would still be the prettiest girl in the world'."

She says they never considered the worst.

"We made an agreement early on when we got trapped that neither one of us could die because we couldn't leave the other one alone."

Madison is still struggling to walk because of the frostbite on her feet, and her teeth may be fractured from days of violently chattering in the cold.