Missing hiker Tiffany Slaton details her survival journey in California mountains

The day before Tiffany Slaton’s 28th birthday, she was looking forward to eating a pack of Dunkaroos — cookies with frosting dip — that she’d saved as a makeshift birthday cake.

The day before Tiffany Slaton’s 28th birthday, she was looking forward to eating a pack of Dunkaroos — cookies with frosting dip — that she’d saved as a makeshift birthday cake. It was the only real food she had left after surviving 24 days lost in the Sierra Nevada mountains, subsisting on wild leeks and boiled snow.

What had originally started as a three-day solo camping vacation around Shaver and Huntington lakes in Fresno County, California, turned into a weekslong journey of survival. It ended at a cabin more than 40 miles away, at Vermillion Valley Resort, where Slaton was found by the resort’s owner on Wednesday.

By the time she was rescued, Slaton had endured 13 snowstorms and climbed to altitudes of 11,000 feet, officials said Friday. In addition to dropping 10 pounds from the ordeal, she also lost her tent and sleeping bags, and was forced to abandon her bike at a trailhead sign.

Tiffany Slaton, 28, of Jeffersonville, Ga., was found safe near Lake Edison in Fresno County.Fresno County Sheriff's OfficeAt a press conference Friday alongside her parents and Fresno County Sheriff John Zanoni, Slaton spoke publicly about her journey for the first time. Zanoni called her story one “they would make movies about.”

“It is truly an incredible story of perseverance, determination and survival,” the sheriff added.