A ground rescue team is trying to reach the hikers, who are stranded at about 8,000 feet elevation near Spire Point northeast of Darrington. At last report late Thursday night, the rescuers were said to be within a couple hundred feet of the stranded pair.

A rescue helicopter from the Whidbey Island Naval Air Base tried to reach the hikers several times, but weather conditions prevented a rescue operation.

"We got to within 2 miles, but they're up on the face of a mountain so that's what's preventing the search," the pilot said.

Matthew Edwards, 33, and his girlfriend, Robin Gibson, 27, both of Wisconsin, called 911 around 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and said they were trapped on an 18-inch ledge on a face of the mountain.

By Thursday afternoon, rescue coordinators in contact with the pair via cell phone convinced the couple to move off of the ledge, but there was still concern for their well-being.

"They're tired. They're cold. They're hypothermic," search and rescue spokesman Joel Pratt said.

Edwards and Gibson had traveled to Washington to hike a portion of the Pacific Crest Trail through the Cascades. Rescue officials said the two hikers took a wrong turn. They hiked down a rocky area and got scared and in over their heads.

The terrain is very rugged and the two lost most of their gear while they were climbing down, leaving them with only one sleeping bag and part of a tent.

A helicopter was dispatched from the Whidbey Island Naval Air Station to rescue the two on Wednesday night, but they could not get to the peak due to deteriorating weather conditions. A three-person "fast team" of rescuers began hiking in Thursday morning, hoping to make it to the two stranded hikers to provide dry clothes and food.

Later on Thursday, however, the weather had cleared enough that a Navy helicopter was able to drop in a second rescue team. The helicopter headed back to the scene for another possible rescue attempt Thursday, but returned without success.

Officials hope the gear provided by the fast team will help stabilize the two hikers so they are able to make it through another night. Overnight lows at the hikers' location are expected to drop into the mid 40s early Friday.

Edwards contacted rescue crews Thursday morning on his cell phone and said the Gibson's condition was "dire," but sheriff's officials said in a later conversation both Gibson and Edwards reported that they were "stable."

He also told rescuers that he has hiked the same trail twice before.