Searchers have found four women who became lost while they were snowshoeing in the Gold Creek area of Snoqualmie Pass.

The Kittitas County Sheriff’s Office said 50-year-old Marynell Matt, of Vashon Island, and three of her friends left the Gold Creek Snow Park off exit 54 shortly after noon Sunday for an afternoon of snowshoeing. Another woman in the party was identified as 53-year-old Venetia Runion of West Seattle.

Police said that at about 4:30 p.m., Matt called 911 to report that she and her party were lost. Matt said they had left the main trail and were traveling cross-country.

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Deputies and rescue personnel were called to the area and a search was started. Search coordinator Deputy Mark McBride was able to maintain cell phone contact with Matt and her party and worked to pinpoint their location.

WATCH IT: Women Cold, Wet, But Safe

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The search teams used snowmobiles and snowshoe teams, and worked with the cell phone provider to narrow the search area by pinging the local towers. A helicopter was unable to search because of the weather, and it had snowed more than seven inches in the area since the search began.

Kittitas County Undersheriff Clayton Myers said though they were in phone contact with the women, poor visibility made it hard for the women to give searchers reference points.

Rescuers were able to narrow the search to Gold Creek itself, and on its tributaries in the Gold Creek Basin, because the women reported hearing water.

Myers said after spending a freezing night on the mountain, the women were cold and wet, and until they were found at about 1 p.m. Monday, scared.

It took several hours to get the women back to the snow park where their car was parked and a command post was set up.