The rescuers heard voices. They crawled through a sludge-filled tunnel deep underground where employees of a hydroelectric plant in Nepal had been trapped for nine days. "We are coming!" Lt. Col. Ganga Baral, one of the leaders of the operation, said he had called out. "Don't worry, the Nepali Army is coming."

On Friday morning, two mud-caked survivors were rescued from the tunnels and hoisted into the open air, an extraordinary moment captured on video and in photos by the army. The improbable rescue provided a measure of hope after a glacial collapse unleashed a tsunami of mud and boulders that killed more than 1,300 people in Nepal and Tibet and left thousands missing. The men were rescued from a hydroelectric center buried so deeply that engineers used satellite images to pinpoint its location.

Hirashova Maharjan, wife of rescued worker Kabir Maharjan, described her husband as deeply disoriented after being airlifted to Kathmandu. "He didn't even recognize me," she said. But his condition has improved. "He is stable now," she said. "We're so happy. We are crying with happiness."

The two men were rescued from a tunnel in the Upper Trishuli 3A hydropower project. The body of a third man was also recovered, according to Dirghayu Kumar Shrestha. More than 40 other workers were thought to be inside the tunnel, according to Sanjay Sah, one of the rescued men. Mr. Sah said he thought three or four people were still alive in the area where he was found. "I tried to get everyone out and tried to warn everyone. But then I ran out of time," he said. Mr. Sah recited prayers "over and over again" during his time trapped underground.