ALBUQUERQUE, NM — Rescuers on Wednesday pulled a Texas family from an SUV that had been buried in a snowdrift on a rural New Mexico highway for nearly two days.

State police said rescuers had to dig through 4 feet of ice and snow to free the Higgins family, whose red GMC Yukon got stuck on U.S. 56 near Springer when a blizzard moved through the area Monday.

Rescuers found David and Yvonne Higgins and their 5-year-old daughter Hannah clinging to each other and lethargic early Wednesday morning. The family is recovering at Miners Colfax Medical Center in Raton.

“By 9 or 10 Monday night, I realized there was solid snow outside my window. I tried to shove my arm through the top of the window. I thought it can’t be that deep,” the 48-year-old father said. “I pushed as hard as I could. My arm went about 16 inches and there was still snow.”

The family, who had left their home near League City, Texas on Sunday for a ski trip at Angel Fire in northern New Mexico, started to hit bad weather soon after they crossed the state line into New Mexico.

Difficult driving was reported but the road was still open. They followed a snowplow for a while, but visibility dropped to zero. “It was white. You couldn’t even see the yellow line,” he said.

Higgins tried backing up and then driving forward again. He made some progress but then the back end slipped around and the vehicle started to slide down an embankment.

He was able to keep the car running for a couple of hours, but when he went to get out to clear the exhaust pipe, his door was blocked.

The Higginses had plenty of water and food, but as the hours passed, it seemed as if they were working harder to breathe inside the buried SUV.

“We weren’t sure of it, but we think we were running out of air. That was spooky,” he said.

State police got a distress call and launched a search for the family Tuesday evening. It was unclear Wednesday where the call came from.

The Higginses were among 32 vehicles state police and guardsmen rescued from the storm, but they were the only ones who police say needed medical attention.