JACKSON, Wyo. — Teton County Search and Rescue (TCSAR) announced that its members rescued a group of four snowmobilers stuck on the Togwotee Pass trail network on the evening of Sunday, Feb. 2.
The stranded group consisted of two men and two teenage boys visiting from Minnesota. TCSAR posted on Facebook that the group sent out an emergency text-to-911 via satellite with their coordinates to the Teton County Sheriff’s Office Dispatch Center. Dispatch contacted TCSAR and indicated that the party of four was in the vicinity of the K and V trails. The group had an iPhone with satellite messaging capability as well as a satellite-specific communication device.
“This incident showed how the SAR team was able to use the technology in an emergency,” TCSAR wrote. “As the incident unfolded, one of the men was using his iPhone to text his wife via satellite. She connected with TCSAR, who asked her to tell her husband to initiate a text to TCSAR incident command. He did so, which enabled back-and-forth text communication between his party and incident command at TCSAR.”
According to TCSAR, volunteers responded with teams on snowmobiles due to the high winds and drifting snow, which limited visibility. Just past midnight, a group of six volunteers located the missing party about eight miles from the trailhead.
“They were cold but otherwise unharmed,” TSCAR wrote on Facebook. “The trail they were on had essentially disappeared under snow drifts.”
TCSAR said via social media that the volunteers helped to dig out two of the stuck snowmobiles. The two men in the missing party were able to ride their sleds out of the backcountry while the two boys were transported via snowmobile by TCSAR volunteers. All parties returned back to Togwotee Mountain Lodge. The volunteers then returned to the TCSAR hangar in Jackson just before 3 a.m.
