TEEN BETTER AFTER RESCUE FROM SNOW; YOUTH ENJOYS MEAL WHILE RECUPERATING.

Byline: Eric Wahlgren and Eric Leach Daily News Staff Writers

A day after his dramatic rescue, the 14-year-old snowboarder who survived six days in a snowy canyon spent Saturday in the hospital resting with relatives and savoring something he'd gone without for a long time: a real meal.

Jeff Thornton's condition has improved since Friday, when he was listed in guarded but stable condition after rescuers flew him by helicopter to Foothill Presbyterian Hospital in Glendora, a hospital spokeswoman said.

``His vital signs are stable. He's in good spirits,'' Jean Palmer, the hospital's vice president of patient care, said Saturday. ``And he has enjoyed his first meal.''

The discovery of the husky high school freshman from Brawley in Imperial County, who became lost Feb. 7 at an Angeles National Forest ski resort, ended a massive search by rescuers and a death-defying ordeal for Thornton.

Although Thornton told his family he had stayed alive in the wilderness by drinking water from a stream, relatives on Saturday were still grappling with just how he hung on in an area blasted with snow and winds of up to 80 mph.

``I'd say determination saved his life,'' said Thornton's uncle Marc Shapiro, who was snowboarding with his nephew when he apparently took a wrong turn and ended up on the back side of the Mountain High resort.

``I think he was too young to give up,'' said Shapiro, 30.

Although Thornton's body temperature was quickly warmed up from a low of 94 degrees after he was admitted, doctors on Saturday continued to monitor his frostbitten feet, legs and hands.

Dr. Gurjeet Kalkat, Thornton's physician, told reporters Friday that it was unclear whether the teen-ager, a high school football player, would lose any of his extremities. Kalkat has estimated Thornton could spend as long as a week in the hospital recovering.

``Jeff's job now is to regain his strength, and he is in excellent care to do just that,'' said his mother, Lori Thornton, and stepfather, Bill Maness, in a statement read by Palmer on Saturday.

``Our job is to get on with the business of being a family,'' the statement read.

Besides his family, Thornton had a few other visitors Saturday, including Larry McCabe, a paramedic with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, who rode with Thornton in the chopper back from Bear Gulch, where he was found.

``We gave him a T-shirt from our unit,'' McCabe said. ``He seemed to really like it.''

Although Thornton's parents declined to speak to the media Saturday, through their statement they thanked the various public safety agencies and search-and-rescue teams that helped find their son.

Thornton was discovered about 2 p.m. Friday by Art Fortini and Randy Katai, two climbers with the Sierra Madre Search and Rescue Team, who used ropes and other climbing gear to reach the spot below the ridge where he was last seen.

``The commitment of everyone involved is a reaffirmation of all that is good in human beings,'' the parents' statement read.

Katai, a 47-year-old Altadena resident who works in the movie industry, continued to marvel Saturday over the 5-foot-9-inch, 215-pound teen's survival in sometimes subfreezing conditions.

``Neither one of us expected to find him alive,'' he said.

Rescuers arrived none too soon, Katai said. Foul weather had prevented them earlier in the week from searching the treacherous area where Thornton was found. A new batch of storms that began pounding the area over the weekend could have kept search teams out for days, bringing the teen-ager closer to death, he said.

``He was dying slowly of exposure,'' Katai said. ``Maybe it would have been his last day if we hadn't found him.''

The pair climbed down 2,000 feet below the ridge where Thornton was last seen by Shapiro through a steep, icy canyon before they discovered footprints. Then they scaled down the face of two 30-foot waterfalls before finding the teen beside Bear Creek, Katai said.

``A quarter-mile past the last waterfall, we came around a bend in the creek and saw him sitting there,'' Katai said. ``I yelled his name. I was absolutely ecstatic. Jeff said he didn't believe we were real. He thought he was hallucinating.''

Katai said Thornton was wearing a two-piece snowboarding suit that appeared to be windproof and waterproof, but had lost his left boot, hat and gloves.

``He thought it was Tuesday,'' Katai said. ``He was amazed when I told him it was Friday.''

Despite the fact that the teen-ager was tired and disoriented, he was in good shape given the lack of food and the exposure to subfreezing temperature over several days, Katai said.

Shapiro said he is still not sure how Thornton managed to lose his bearings. The teen told his family his snowboard hit a rock and that he might have hit his head after falling and lost consciousness, his uncle said.

When the two separated, Shapiro said he believed Thornton knew the way back down the hill.

``I figured, He's down at the bottom getting pizza,'' Shapiro told reporters Friday.

After Thornton failed to show up after several hours, Shapiro notified authorities, triggering a search that would last six days.

Shapiro said he attributed the survival of his nephew, who is a center on Brawley Union High's football team, in part to his hefty physique and bulky gear.

``He had a snowboarding outfit, kind of like a wet suit,'' Shapiro said. ``He said he kept bundled up in a little ball the whole time. He did have a little belt pack with some food - little candies.''

Asked what Thornton wants to do now, his uncle said, ``He just wants to get back snowboarding.''

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PHOTO Jeff Thornton

Found alive after snowy ordeal