JACKSON, Wyo. — From Thursday to Sunday morning, Teton County Search and Rescue (TCSAR) volunteers responded to four separate incidents that all required the use of its emergency helicopter.
The first incident occurred on Thursday afternoon at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. According to an incident summary, TCSAR was called with a request from JHMR’s ski Patrol for a short-haul helicopter operation to help an injured skier in Granite Canyon. A woman had injured her knee while descending Endless, a 2,000-vertical-foot couloir that sits within Grand Teton National Park. TCSAR initiated a helicopter with a TCSAR volunteer and two Jenny Lake Climbing Rangers aboard. The interagency team was able to fly to the scene and successfully short-haul the patient to the landing zone at the base of Teton Village.
The second incident occurred at 2:30 p.m. on Friday afternoon, when TCSAR was notified of a snowmobile accident on Togwotee Pass. The incident involved a 60-year-old woman who hit a tree while riding with a guided group.
According to TCSAR, she suffered severe injuries to both of her legs. The team responded to the scene with a helicopter due to the remote location and nature of the accident. TCSAR also loaded up trucks and snowmobiles to drive to the location as a backup ground response.
After circling the area, TCSAR spotted the injured party about two miles from the highway on the Continental Divide Alternative Trail. The victim was short-hauled and transported to a landing zone at the Black Rock Ranger Station where the woman was transferred to an ambulance. The mission was completed in four hours and nine minutes.
The third incident occurred on Saturday at 2:27 p.m., out of bounds at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort when professional skier Owen Leeper triggered a D2 avalanche above No Name Canyon.
The slide carried Leeper over some cliffs causing an injury to his shoulder. His partner skied down to assist Leeper and they determined that Leeper could not ski out due to his injury. The pair called TCSAR, who responded with a helicopter rescue and transferred Leeper to receive further medical care. Leeper suffered an injured shoulder and other non-life-threatening injuries. TCSAR completed the mission in two hours and 13 minutes.
The last of the four helicopter responses began late Saturday evening at 9:30 p.m. and into Sunday when TCSAR was asked to assist Fremont County Search & Rescue in locating a missing snowmobiler near the Union Pass Road. Fremont County SAR had spent most of the afternoon looking for the man and requested helicopter assistance for the continued search on Sunday morning.
“At first light on Sunday, TCSAR dispatched the helicopter with three volunteers and the pilot,” said TCSAR. “The team conducted an aerial search while utilizing LifeSeeker, an aerial cellular transmitter that can pick up mobile phone signals even where there is no service.”
After nearly an hour and a half in the air, the team spotted a man waving his arms and gave the Fremont County SAR ground team directions to reach the patient.
“They found the man, uninjured but very cold, and snowmobiled him out to a warming hut.”
In its incident report on Monday afternoon, TCSAR expressed how crucial the SAR helicopter was to the success of the four rescue missions.
“All four rescues would have been challenging to pull off—if not impossible—without the use of the SAR helicopter and the highly trained volunteers and personnel,” wrote TCSAR.
Editor’s Note: The original version of this story titled “TCSAR ends the week with two heli rescues” covered two of the four rescues that occurred the week of Feb. 6. Buckrail has updated the article to include and detail all four rescues that occurred.
