Rescuers safely guided two men out of the snow-covered forest Tuesday morning, after the pair got lost in whiteout conditions while climbing on Mount Hood.

The climbers and their rescuers emerged at Kurt's Konnection Trailhead, just off Highway 26, shortly after 11 a.m. From there, the climbers were taken to Timberline Lodge for a debriefing. Matthew Pitts and Justin Votos, both from Portland, were in good condition but were checked by paramedics as a precaution.

"We lost our way and ended up further west than we thought we would be," Matthew Pitts told KGW, just after reaching Timberline. Matthew and Justin said they found themselves in whiteout conditions. At times, they couldn't even see their own feet and were afraid any misstep would send them tumbling over a cliff.

They said they had reached the Leuthold Couloir when "wicked weather" moved in Monday night, so they descended to Illumination Saddle. Eventually, they built the snow cave and waited for a break in the storm.

"I thought that we had the weather window, so we started climbing and about 4:30-5:00 when we got to Illumination Saddle it was picture-perfect," Votos said.

But blizzard conditions soon came in.

"Probably some of the worst weather I've ever seen, it's a little scary when you can't see," Votos said.

With the whiteout conditions you can't see where you're putting your feet, we had to come down really slow, really carefully, to just make sure we weren't walking off a ledge or something," according to Pitts.

Rescue effort began Tuesday morning

Searchers got a break in thier rescue effort when a call got through to one of the men's cell phones. The climbers said they had built a snow cave and spent the night inside it, according to Jim Strovink with the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office.

After the cell phone call, the pair began heading down the mountain, but they couldn't give rescuers an exact location since they did not have a mountain locator device. However, the pair found a Geocache, which helped searchers zero in on them. A Geocache is a box with a known GPS location, used in a game similar to a treasure hunt that's popular with backcountry adventurers.

"It was pretty surprising, pretty amusing, when we were looking at our Geocache, that's when the sheriff called me, "Votos said. "We didn't even know they were looking for us until then."

 Slideshows: Climbers emerge | Rescue effort

 Raw video: Watch search effort

 Map: Climbers' route on Mt. Hood

 Map: KGW coverage of rescue

Searchers following the climbers' phone and Geocache clues found them around 10 a.m., and then led Votos and Pitts toward Kurt's Konnection Trailhead, near Government Camp.

Wind was 'blowing sideways' in early morning

Rescuers said there was heavy snow and the wind was "blowing sideways" causing very limited visibility early in the morning. Hours before the searchers headed out on foot, members of Portland Mountain Rescue had boarded two SnowCats to head up the mountain but those vehicles turned back after news of the cell phone call that determined the climbers were at a lower elevation.

Authorities first got word of the missing climbers around 9 p.m. Monday. Friends said the two men had planned to descend the mountain on the west side and expected to arrive at Timberline around 3 p.m. Monday.

More: Check weather condtions

The overdue climbers' vehicle was spotted in the parking lot at Timberline. Pitts and Votos had at least one cell phone, but efforts to use the phone to locate the men were initially unsuccessful.

 More: Rescue renews debate over mountain locator units

Searchers included units from Portland Mountain Rescue, Mountain Wave, the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office, American Medical Response and the Portland-based 304th U.S. Air Force Rescue Squadron. A base camp was set up at Timberline Lodge, which is at about 6,000 feet on the 11,239-foot mountain.

Deadly time of year on Mt. Hood

It was almost a year ago that three climbers perished on Mt. Hood in similar blizzard-like conditions.

Background: Three die on Mt. Hood in Dec. 2006

Rescuers eventually found Kelly James dead in a snow cave near the summit. His two climbing companions, Brian Hall and Jerry "Nikko" Cooke, were never found but were presumed dead.

The three friends were from out of state and had chosen the mountain's dangerous north side as their route.

Two months later, three hikers and a dog named Velvet were saved after falling over an icy ledge. More than 35 climbers have died on Mount Hood in the past 25 years.

There have been many rescue efforts over the years on Mount Hood, one of the more often-climbed glacier peaks in the country.

(KGW reporter Pat Dooris also contributed to this article.)