HIKERS RETURN LIGHTER, ENLIGHTENED ABOUT HISTORY OF DONNER PARTY.

Byline: Jim Skeen Daily News Staff Writer

Lee Bergthold suffered frostbite to both hands, and lost three toenails and 22 pounds.

Tina Bowers lost 10 pounds, went into borderline hypothermia and at one point wore a down jacket on her legs as an extra pair of pants.

The pair said they were glad to see Antelope Valley sunshine after enduring incessant snowstorms and wind chills of 20 below zero during a 35-day, 350-mile trek through Nevada wilderness to Death Valley.

``I remember crying one night. It was so cold I couldn't sleep,'' Bowers said Monday, a day after the pair struggled into Death Valley National Park to complete the trek they started Dec. 23 near Battle Mountain, Nev.

Bergthold, 61, an Antelope Valley College photojournalism instructor and longtime wilderness traveler, and Bowers, 33, a part-time Gas Co. meter reader and one of Bergthold's photo students, made their trek to prove the ill-fated Donner Party in 1846 had an alternative to starvation and cannibalism in the Sierra Nevada.

``I think the Donners could have made it the way we went,'' Bergthold said in a posthike interview Monday. ``They would have had some hardship, but it would have been better than the Sierras.''

The pair said said they are still feeling the effects of their adventure.

``My hands are numb. I really can't feel with my fingers,'' said Bergthold, a lean former Marine Corps survival instructor who spends 50 to 60 days a year in the backcountry.

During the trek, the pair say, they had sunny skies only two days. The rest of the time they encountered snow, rain and hard winds.

``It was storm after storm,'' Bowers said. ``It just wouldn't let up. I had forgotten how cold cold can be.''

The pair carried 60 pounds of gear each on their packs, including 10 days' worth of food at a time. A support person, Bob Brister, dropped off food every 10 days at prearranged rendezvous points.

Delayed by storms, the two hikers had to stretch out their first 10 days worth of rations to last 15 days before rendezvousing with Brister for more provisions.

They dreamed about food the whole trek.

``We kept thinking about what we were going to eat (after the hike) - the chocolate cake we're going to eat, the peanut butter sandwiches,'' Bowers said

The two hiked from Battle Mountain - about 190 miles northeast of Lake Tahoe - to the northeastern corner of Death Valley National Park. The route they followed from Walker Lake Basin - about 80 miles east of Tahoe - could have been used, Bergthold argues, as an escape route for the ill-fated Donner Party.

The group of 87 men, women and children had traveled west from Walker Lake Basin into the Sierra Nevada. There, they were caught by heavy snows in November 1846 at a mountain pass near Truckee, just off the route of present Interstate 80.

Blocked by snow, the travelers settled at a nearby lake for the winter. Thirty-four members of the Donner Party died in the Sierra. The survivors resorted to eating the flesh of the dead.