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Condition of woman found stranded in wilderness upgraded

TWIN FALLS, Idaho — Doctors have upgraded the condition of a Penticton, B.C., woman who waited 49 days for rescue in the Nevada wilderness from fair to good, but they still aren’t sure when she’ll be released.

TWIN FALLS, Idaho — Doctors have upgraded the condition of a Penticton, B.C., woman who waited 49 days for rescue in the Nevada wilderness from fair to good, but they still aren’t sure when she’ll be released.

Rita Chretien has been recovering at an Idaho hospital since hunters found her last Friday starving in her van where it got stuck in thick mud in mid-March.

The 56-year-old woman was found weak and emaciated, but the medical team treating her says she’s now eating solid foods including a salmon dinner last night and a burrito and coffee for breakfast.

Snow, wind and rain today have grounded a search helicopter that was supposed to go searching for her husband, 59-year-old Albert Chretien, who set off on foot seven weeks ago from the van to get help but never showed up.

The couple were heading to Las Vegas on a business trip when they made several wrong turns and got stranded on an old logging road near the Nevada-Idaho border.

A search team of about 30 people using horses and all-terrain vehicles have been scouring the rugged backwoods of Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest since Friday looking for Albert Chretien.

(The Canadian Press, The Associated Press)