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HUNTINGTON - A discouraging day gave way to a hopeful night at the Crandall Canyon mine Friday.
Rescue workers trying to reach six miners trapped more than 1,800 feet under a mountain initially absorbed a pair of dispiriting setbacks. First, a microphone lowered down a 2 1/2 -inch drill hole detected no sounds indicating the miners trapped since Monday's collapse are still alive. A second blow came later when workers confirmed that the air sampled from the area tapped by the drill has oxygen levels too low to sustain life.
By Friday evening, however, there was also cautious optimism. A larger, 8 -inch drill that is boring into the mine from another direction chewed its way Friday evening to within 242 feet of the cavity where officials believe the miners are. It is expected to reach the location "in the wee hours" Friday night or Saturday morning, according to the mine's owner, Bob Murray.
The larger bore hole would allow larger, more sophisticated cameras to look as far as 100 feet into the cavity for signs of life.
For that reason, the miners' families and rescue workers remain hopeful, said Murray, who appeared exhausted and frail.
"The families are doing very good. Indeed a couple points received laughter at our meeting," Murray said. "It really made me feel good to see that - even for a few moments."
Murray met rescue workers when they emerged from the mine Friday evening and prayed with them. "They are totally committed," he said.
Robert Stickler, head of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), said the 2 1/2 inch drill bit "drifted" more than 80 feet on its way down but still managed to punch through into a passageway.
Initially workers reported 20.5 percent oxygen levels, which would sustain life. But Murray said initial high oxygen samples were thrown off by surface air trapped inside the drill pipe.
The actual oxygen content is a meager 7.5 percent - not enough to support life.
But Stickler cautioned that the samples may be from a small area and that other pockets in the rubble may have trapped oxygen in levels high enough to keep the men alive.
"We believe they are alive until we find otherwise," he said. "We are not going to make the assumption - that could be wrong."
Two other factors also are in play. Stickler said some readings from air samples indicated carbon monoxide levels of 180 parts per million, which could be deadly over long periods of exposure.
Jim Holms, a physician at LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City, said time and exposure levels are key to determining carbon monoxide's effect on a person. Brief exposures to high levels can be deadly, but lower levels can also be detrimental.
The 180 parts per million "is not extremely high, but long exposures at long levels can cause problems," said Holms, who is part of the Intermountain Hyperbaric Medical Center.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration limits workplace exposure to carbon monoxide to 50 ppm for up to eight hours, Holms noted.
Longer exposure to higher levels can lead to heart and brain problems, he said.
The potential for hypothermia also is worrisome. Mine officials have said the mine temperature is a constant 58 degrees - not a dangerous temperature on its own, said Colin Grissom, a critical-care physician and wilderness medical expert at LDS Hospital.
But if the miners' clothing is wet, they could suffer from hypothermia, or low body temperature, he said.
Being wet in cool conditions can cause a 25 percent increase in body heat loss, Grissom said. "If they stayed dry, there's every reason to think that wouldn't be a factor," he said.
While drilling crews bore down from above, mine-rescue teams encountered mixed conditions as they advanced about 400 feet in the fresh-air tunnel where the trapped miners were working, leaving a little more than 2,000 feet to go.
That tunnel is also the designated escapeway from the section, which means it would be the tunnel the miners would have been trained to use as an exit in an emergency.
There are two other tunnels parallel to it that they could have used if the escapeway were blocked.
Murray Energy Vice President Rob Moore said rescue teams were slowed by "some difficult roof conditions" in one section, requiring them to slow their forward advance while erecting additional roof and wall-support materials to prevent more caving.
But mine owner Murray also noted that rescue teams also found small, 2- to 4-foot sections of tunnel in which no caving had occurred.
"They can be traveling by foot to a point and then they can't travel" any farther without having to haul out piles of coal and rock, he said. "The pace they're going is much faster because they're not reaching the magnitude of outbursts."
In addition, Moore said rescue teams had widened part of the tunnel, increasing prospects of doubling the amount of machinery that can be used to remove rubble.
Still, the rescue team has no idea whether more or less fallen rock will be encountered as they progress deeper into the mine.
"Progress has been slow because of difficult conditions," said Moore. "It's tough, tough work."
Candles lit the playground of Huntington Elementary School on Friday night as friends and family of the six trapped miners gathered once again for a vigil.
Anika Farmer and her 14-year-old daughter Chelsie, residents of Castledale, organized the vigil in honor of the families and to ask for the community members to continue their prayers.
"Don't give up hope," Farmer said, in tears.
Farmer, whose family also has a mining background, said miners are like one big family and they support one another.
The names of the miners were not read or said aloud, but posters with their photos and names hung on one of the walls of the elementary school building for people to write personal messages on.
"No goodbyes, see you around," Kyle Wilson wrote on all of the posters.
"Two weeks ago, that's the last thing they said to me when I left to go to another mine," Wilson said, wiping away tears. "This was my crew." The posters will be given to the families of the trapped miners.
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* GREG LAVINE and ROXANA ORELLANA contributed to this story.