Story highlights Miyuki Harwood, 62, of Orangevale, California, had been missing nine days in the Sierra Nevada Mountains

Search crews found her Saturday morning and she was airlifted to a hospital in Fresno, California

(CNN) The searchers were getting worried.

Miyuki Harwood, 62, of Orangevale, California, had been missing in the rugged Sierra Nevada Mountains for nine days. Search teams on foot, two helicopters and a drone had come up dry.

"She was really at the end of the time period when we thought she could survive," Rusty Hotchkiss, a California Highway Patrol flight officer, said at a press conference Saturday.

But on Saturday morning, the search ended happily when ground crews located Harwood east of Courtright Reservoir in Fresno County, the Fresno County Sheriff's Office reported.

"She heard them talking, she heard voices and she grabbed a whistle she had with her," Hotchkiss said. "That alerted the rescuers to find her."

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