SEATTLE -- Two teenagers who were buried in the collapse of a snow cave are improving, making progress in a slow and painful recovery from a five-hour rescue last week in the Cascades.

Alessandro Gelmini, 14, had surgery Monday morning -- his third since the incident -- to repair a fractured ankle, said reporter Jeff Dubois. Doctors also sewed up an incision they made over the weekend to drain fluid from his leg.

Alec Corbett, 17, stood for the first time on Sunday, and may be able to start walking soon.

Gelmini told his mother he was anxious to be able to use his hands again so he could text-message his friends from the hospital.

Meanwhile, the Seattle boys' mothers talked about the collapse near Snoqualmie Pass and thanked rescuers in a news conference early Monday at Harborview Medical Center.

The mothers and firefighters from Eastside Fire and Rescue -- who cut through ice with a chain saw -- described the elation they felt at hearing the voices of Corbett and Gelmini.

"They said, 'We heard a voice, and we didn't know whose voice it was,'" said Chrissy Gelmini, Alessandro's mother. "That was fabulous. Then (rescuers said), 'We heard two voices.' OK, that's good. Now they're alive."

All agreed the survival was miraculous, as the boys fell next to boulders that prevented them from being completely crushed.

"When I first climbed up on the ice and saw that, I thought, 'There's no way anyone's alive in here,'" said Art Arpin, of Bellevue Fire and Rescue.

"And then we kept digging and digging, and we kept on going and we heard the voices. It was just unbelievable. I've been doing it 27 years and I've never had a feeling like that before."