Steve Putnam received the good news on his Tuesday flight from Washington, D.C., to Denver.

Denver police relayed the information to the United Airlines jet crew: Putnam's son and his son's fiancée were found near Ski Santa Fe after spending three nights lost in the woods.

"The stewardesses brought me a double shot of whiskey and then brought us a bottle of wine to celebrate," Putnam said.

Rescuers found the two snowboarders — Dr. Adam Putnam, 36, an emergency room physician, and Rachel Fehl, 30 — alive and mostly unscathed at about 9:40 a.m.

Steve Putnam had been unaware until Monday evening, when speaking with a reporter, that his son was missing. He left his Massachusetts home Tuesday morning to fly west not knowing whether the couple was alive. "You are talking to one of the happiest guys in the world," said Steve Putnam, whose niece drove him from Denver to Albuquerque to see his son and Fehl.

Searchers located the pair after triangulating their cell phone's signal and sending a National Guard helicopter to an area south of the initial search grid, said state police spokesman Peter Olson.

In a 911 call Tuesday morning, Adam Putnam told dispatchers he and Fehl could see helicopters hovering overhead.

"We've had three pass overhead, but they can't see us because there are 50-foot junipers around us," he said.

Each time one passed, Adam Putnam said he "frantically" waved a snow shovel, though he sounded calm and hopeful.

"Every time I get to talk to you, it feels like a miracle because I shouldn't have a battery in this phone anymore," he told the dispatcher.

The couple had stomped "SOS" in the snow on Little Tesuque Peak, along the ridge between the Santa Fe Municipal Water Shed and the Big Tesuque basin, Olson said.

Paramedics were lowered to the couple, and the two were hoisted aboard a Black Hawk helicopter, flown to a National Guard base near Santa Fe Municipal Airport, then taken by ambulance to St. Vincent Regional Medical Center, where they were treated and released.

The couple suffered cold but not frostbitten toes, mild dehydration and exhaustion, said St. Vincent spokesman Arturo Delgado. They had slept on pine branches inside a snow cave they dug, said Delgado, who met with the couple before they were released. Fehl mentioned the nights had been very cold, which made it hard to sleep, Delgado said.

Delgado said they had only fitness goo — an energy bar in gel form — for food during the four days and three nights. They also had a water bladder, which they filled with snow intermittently and placed inside their clothing so it would melt, Delgado said. He didn't think they could build a fire.

"They seemed exhausted but in good spirits," Delgado said. "They needed sleep and food."

He said Adam Putnam and Fehl had taken avalanche training two years ago.

According to state police, which is in charge of search and rescue operations, Adam Putnam and Fehl took the Millennium Lift to the top of Ski Santa Fe on Saturday, then hiked north to the Nambé Chutes. After doing the chutes, the couple climbed back up and became lost, Olson said.

They spent Saturday night in a snow cave dug with a shovel the couple had with them, according to David Clark, who was part of the incident command overseeing the search. "I think that shovel was the key to their survival," Clark said. "It allowed them to build snow caves, and they used it to help signal the helicopter."

White-out snow storms Sunday and Monday grounded aircraft that would normally have been searching for the couple. "The weather was horrendous," said Reed Shelton, a member of the Atalaya Search and Rescue team, one of only two teams in the state trained in avalanche rescue. "The visibility was less than 20 feet. You could hardly see anything."

The extended storm dumped 26 inches of snow on the ski basin, increasing the risk of avalanches, Shelton said. He said he couldn't remember the last time they had someone lost for three days and nights in winter.

Eight teams of four people were searching for the couple all day Monday until 8 p.m. on the ground in the Nambé Chutes and Lake Peak area, which is where they said they were when they called 911 from a cell phone Sunday night, Olson said.

The mood among struggling searchers Monday night was "very frustrated," Shelton said. "It is so hard to know that someone is out there and they badly need our help, and we can't get to them."

But the couple was a long way from where they thought they were and where the searchers were looking. They said they thought they were north of the ski area but were found to the south on a ridge at about 11,500 feet elevation on the edge of the watershed, Olson said. They were both standing and waving their arms at the helicopter pilot, he said.

Adam Putnam and Fehl recently moved to Albuquerque from Pennsylvania, according to Putnam's father. Adam Putnam works as an emergency room doctor at all Lovelace hospitals in the city.

In 2007, Adam Putnam graduated from a three-year residency program in emergency medicine at St. Luke's Hospital and Health Network in Bethlehem, Pa., according to spokeswoman Denise Rader.

The couple, who have been together several years, moved to Albuquerque so Fehl could pursue her nurse practitioner degree at The University of New Mexico, according to Steve Putnam.

Maj. Ken Nava, a spokesman with the New Mexico National Guard in Santa Fe, said this was the 12th rescue that Guard helicopters have helped with since last January.

New Mexican staff writer Jason Auslander and the Associated Press contributed to this article.