PORTLAND -- The Philomath climber who survived five days stranded on Mount Adams with several injuries spoke with media for the first time Wednesday, saying he heard voices and had to focus his energy on staying alive instead of making himself visible to rescuers.

Mamoyac said he recalls taking a tumble and hearing a “pop” in his ankle. When he came to a stop he realized it had been seriously injured.

“I couldn’t move my right ankle … at that point I called 9-1-1 but my cell phone company wasn’t providing me with service there. I realized I was in a bad area prone to avalanches, knew I wasn’t going to make it home that night,” he said.

The climber says he was up on a ridge and didn’t know how he could get down. Mamoyac described digging holes in snow with his hands and a knife while trying to distract himself from getting too upset.

“I knew I could survive … I tried to get in tune with my surroundings, keep myself aware … I’d been in the dark before just not injured,” he said.

Mamoyac said he thought about his friends, family and girlfriend while he was stuck on Mt. Adams, and everyone else in the Portland area that was special to him.

 Background: Rescuers find Mamoyac

“That helped keep me strong and keep my morale up. I tapped into saving my energy, getting water whenever I could, not overstraining myself, not making the condition any worse, repeating, ‘You’re going to make it,’ not having a defeatist attitude,” he said.

Mamoyac knew he had to stay alive if he wanted to be rescued. He described digging up insects, mushrooms and berries, and at one point compared the taste of centipedes to Doritos.

“Ants taste like hot tamales,” he said. “I didn’t really concentrate on the taste of a centipede, I didn’t dwell on it, I was trying to keep going.”

Mamoyac says he focused on staying positive and tried not to count the days he’d been injured and alone on Mount Adams.

 Also: Climber rescued on Mt. Hood talks

“I didn’t want to let myself down. As long as I’m still alive I can still be found. After a while the days didn’t really matter. I didn’t dwell on them too much. I had a job at hand and that was to stay alive and survive. It was all mental. The physical pain that I was dealing with was very mental, too, I couldn’t allow myself to not believe, I had to have mental discipline. Part of surviving and beating the odds is believing in the impossible and having an open mind,” he said.

The scent of a granola bar wrapper led rescue dogs to Mamoyac Friday, in rough terrain at about 6,000 feet on Mount Adams.

He was wearing water resistant pants, insulated boots and gloves.

Searchers ultimately found him on a trail, dehydrated and with swollen legs, but otherwise in good shape, his family said.

Mamoyac says he saw a helicopter flying near him on the second day of the ordeal. He took off his ice crampons and tried to point them toward the sun, in order to create a reflection for rescuers to see.

“The helicopter didn’t see me though. It was maybe 100, 150 yards above me. I realized I didn’t want to spend the night in the high-country so I started to try and make my way down,” he said.

Mamoyac descended to stay warm in the hopes of crossing paths of campers he’d seen the first weekend. He also said he slept during the day because it was too cold at night and took too much energy.

“At night it was so cold. I slept when it was easiest for my body, usually in the afternoon when it was warmest and I was comfortable. I had to revert to different means of staying alive,” he said.

Mamoyac suffered a broken and dislocated ankle, broken fibula, frostbitten toes and severe frostbite on his bottom, the result of dragging himself over lava rock and glaciers for days in the attempt to get out of high elevation.

He tore his pants through early in the ordeal, leaving his rear exposed as he dragged himself down toward established hiking trails on Mount Adams.