SAN JOSE MINE, Chile — Sixty-six agonizing days after their gold and copper mine collapsed above them, 33 miners were offered a way out Saturday as a drill broke through to their underground purgatory.

Word of the drill's success prompted cheers, tears and the ringing of bells by families in the tent camp outside the mine.

The drill reached the miners at a point 2,041 feet below the surface after 33 days of drilling.

But now comes a difficult judgment call: The rescue team must decide whether it's more risky to pull the miners through unreinforced rock, or to insert tons of heavy steel pipe into the curved shaft to protect the miners on their way up.