Three Visalia men were honored Wednesday by the National Park Service for their rescue of a Squaw Valley woman who fell through a snow bridge earlier this month at Sequoia National Park.

Park officials presented Stefan Barycki, Christopher Edwards and Michael Voyles with NPS Search and Rescue pins during a news conference in Fresno.

"It's citizens like this that make the world go round," said Sequoia and Kings Canyon park superintendent Karen Taylor-Goodrich.

The three men, all in their 20s, were hiking and taking photographs along the Farewell Gap Trail near Mineral King on June 14 when Barycki noticed a small backpack on top of a snow bridge that spanned Franklin Creek, near the spot where he had stashed his water bottles.

Little did they know that the backpack belonged to Marcia Rasmussen, a 51-year-old ultramarathon runner who had been trapped for 3 hours inside a snow tunnel. Suffering from frostbite and hypothermia, Rasmussen had managed to excavate a hole just large enough to shove her backpack to the surface.

When Barycki picked up the backpack, he saw the hole – and the top of Rasmussen's head.

The three men quickly dug her out, and Edwards and Voyles went for help as Barycki and a passing backpacker warmed Rasmussen by wrapping her in a sleeping bag.

"You don't ever expect to see something like that," Voyles said of the surprise of discovering someone buried under the snow. "It feels good to be able to help someone who really needed it."

Rasmussen recovered enough to hike out on her own, but she still came away from the incident with frostbite on both hands and one knee. She said Wednesday that her condition is much improved.

Two weeks after the accident, the snow bridge at Franklin Creek had completely melted.