Vern Kehler hugged his wife Liona as she lay on a stretcher wrapped in a sleeping bag and blanket. The couple cried and held each other before paramedics lifted her stretcher into an ambulance.

She has mild hypothermia but is safe -- news Kehler had been waiting to hear for nearly 24 hours.

"I am so, so happy and grateful and exhilarated and so grateful to God," Kehler said.

Liona Kehler, a 33-year-old avid hiker of Winnipeg, set out on a solo hike along the Mantario trail to Mantario Lake—approximately 30 kilometres—with a plan to camp overnight Wednesday and return Thursday afternoon. She never did.

A RCMP Search and Rescue team, the Office of the Fire Commissioner and Search and Rescue Manitoba arrived early Friday morning. Two separate crews combed the trail by land while a Civil Air Search and Rescue Association plane searched by air.

By noon, teams had found her footprint, but not her.

Kehler waited patiently in a car at the trail head. He said each hour felt like forever.

"The trail itself can be treacherous at the best of times," said Sgt. Stu Evans with RCMP Search and Rescue. "The terrain itself, it's low. It's high. It's rocks. Of course this time of year, it's frozen."

At around 2 p.m. Friday, a CASARA plane spotted Kehler from the air near Hemingway Lake.

"They saw her from the plane and she was waving. She's alive. That's a good thing," Kehler said, overcome with emotion.

Search and Rescue coordinated a rescue effort. A team travelled by boat to pick her up and transport her to an area where a helicopter could land.

The chopper returned her to the trailhead where her husband waited.

"I'm so grateful to all these people," said Kehler of the rescue team.  

"It's a good day," Evans said, with a smile and a thumbs up.

Woman missing after hiking on Mantario Trail