LOVELOCK, Nev. (AP) — A search resumed Monday in the remote mountains of northwest Nevada for a couple and four children who went to play in the snow and haven’t returned after a night of sub-zero temperatures.

Pershing County deputies said aircraft and crews on the ground were searching for 34-year-old James Glanton, his 25-year-old girlfriend, Christina McIntee, and the four children: a 10-year-old, two 4-year-olds and a 3-year-old. The relationship between the couple and children was unclear.

Officials said the group went to the Seven Troughs area Sunday in a silver Jeep with a black top but hadn’t returned home. It was unclear what supplies they might have been carrying or whether they were able to communicate with rescuers.

“I’m hoping they all huddled together and stayed in the Jeep,” Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Chuck Allen said Monday. “That would be a best-case scenario.”

The situation was considered especially urgent because of unseasonably cold temperatures. In the nearby small town of Lovelock, temperatures dipped to 16 below zero early Monday, National Weather Service Meteorologist Mark Deutschendorf said.

Dispatcher Jerry Reid said the search began Sunday evening and continued through most of the night. A Navy search and rescue team was assisting Pershing County authorities, and the Civil Air Patrol was expected to join the effort, Reid said.

Several inches of snow was on the ground in the area, but the black top on the silver 2005 Jeep should help make it easier to spot from the air, authorities said.

The Seven Troughs is named after a series of seven parallel canyons below Seven Trough Peak — elevation 7,474 feet — in the Kamma Mountains stretching north across the Pershing-Humboldt county line.

Allen said it’s an isolated area with spotty cellular coverage.

It’s about 20 miles northwest of where Lovelock sits on Interstate 80, about 80 miles northeast of Reno and about 20 miles southeast of the Black Rock Desert, where the annual Burning Man counterculture festival is held.

“It’s remote, and it’s rocky,” Nevada Department of Wildlife spokesman Chris Healy said. “There are good dirt roads into the place, but they are dirt roads, and it is cold and snow so it’s not ideal.”

The Pershing County sheriff’s office said in a news release that Glanton, McIntee and the children had gone to the area to play in the snow. It did not elaborate.

Healy said Seven Troughs is a popular area for hunting chukars, a pheasant-sized winter game bird.

“So it’s not the kind of area where there would be nobody around,” he said Monday. “But most chukar hunters are smart enough not to go out in the weather we have now.”

http://www.rgj.com/viewart/20131209/NEWS/312090029/Search-underway-couple-4-kids-Northern-Nevada-snow

This is horrible, I hope they are all ok. I worked with her for a few years and we talk all the time still.

Saying a prayer your friends will be okay...

Lord God I pray you bring this family back home safely. Please Lord God keep them warm and protect them from the cold temperatures. In Jesus name I pray. Amen

They were found today!

A Nevada father is being credited with keeping his girlfriend and four children alive and well by using innovative methods like heating up rocks and burning tires to help them survive two days trapped in the snow.

The desperate search for the group, who were reported missing after they failed to return from a mountain trip near Lovelock, turned jubilant Tuesday when all six were found in good spirits.

"They stayed together and that was the key that allowed them to live through this experience. You don't see that that often in search and rescue," said Paul Burke, search-and-rescue coordinator for the state. "They did some pretty unusual things, heating up rocks and things. Staying together, that was a big deal."

About 200 people had joined in the rescue effort for James Glanton, 34; his girlfriend, Christina McIntee, 25; their two children, Evan and Chloe Glanton; and Shelby Fitzpatrick and Tate McIntee, a niece and nephew of McIntee's. The children range in age from 3 to 10.

The family told authorities their Jeep had overturned just off a road. A member of the rescue team said the engine would no longer start, but the group stayed in the upside-down vehicle for shelter, burning the spare tire to keep warm as temperatures dipped to 16 degrees below.

"Their father kept them alive and well," said Patty Bianchi, CEO of Pershing General Hospital, where the six were taken. "Everybody is in good shape. There was no frostbite. They are stable. They suffered a little exposure and dehydration, but that is all."

A cellphone forensics team analyzed which towers the woman's phone was in contact with during their trip, giving searchers a better idea of where they might be, Hahn said. They were so far out in the wilderness that they apparently were unable to call for help, although there was enough signal strength to leave a basic electronic trail from the early stages of their ordeal, air patrol officials said.

Search volunteer Chris Montes said he and two rescuers with him first spotted children's footprints in the snow Tuesday morning, then followed a set of Jeep tracks until they found the flipped vehicle and the family beside it.

"They just said that they knew somebody was going to find them," Montes said.

Gov. Brian Sandoval tweeted about the discovery shortly after the news broke.

"Very glad to hear the missing family in Lovelock has been found and they are safe! Thank you to all who worked so tirelessly to find them!"

Reitz said a signal from the missing woman's phone showed they were in the Seven Troughs area 25 miles northwest of Lovelock on Sunday. After that, the search was expanded to a much wider area with two airplanes and two helicopters assisting ground crews.

"The mood where I'm at's ecstatic," said Col. Tim Hahn, who commands the Nevada Wing of the Civil Air Patrol, which had six planes searching for the group. "We are thrilled beyond words."

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/12/10/missing-nevada-family-found-safe/

Miracles DO happen !
So glad to hear that your Friends
And their children have been found safe and sound ...

All over the news tonight and yes wonderful news?

Shows that keeping your head and using the resources you have can get you through a lot.

Hopefully anyone traveling through this winter season considers the risks and pack some important emergency supplies. Better yet take a safety/survival course or at least read up on the subject.

Telling your travel plans is essential to survival if you get stranded because then help is sent out sooner when you don't show up or check in on long journeys.

that is a relief to hear!

Praise God! When two or more people gather in prayer, prayers are answered! I heard this on the news also! Thank you God for giving this family the knowledge and wisdom for the survival methods!

lpdon, just logged on and saw this, glad everything worked out okay!

Happy to hear!
Those kids will have a great adventure story for life.

Miracles do happen.
I am so happy that they have all been found safe and sound!

The father is one smart guy, using rocks and tires to keep warm.

Happy endings! ...