GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK — Grand Teton National Park (GTNP) announced Monday that the Teton County Search and Rescue (TCSAR)’s helicopter team rescued an injured skier from Prospectors Mountain on Sunday, Feb. 4, after her skiing party triggered an avalanche.
The skier, a 29-year-old local woman, sustained serious injuries after she and her party triggered an avalanche near the top of the Banana Couloir at 10,800 feet, according to GTNP’s press release. Three of the skiers were able to “self-arrest” when the avalanche caught them. One of the men was carried 500 feet. The woman was carried 1,500 vertical feet by the snow slide. GTNP said neither skier was fully buried.
The TCSAR heli arrived with three rescue volunteers and a pilot. They short-hauled the injured skier off the mountain and transported her to a waiting National Park Service ambulance at Windy Point Turnout. Short-hauling involves a helicopter suspending a person from a 150 to 250-foot rope. GTNP says this technique is often used in the range to allow rescuers better access where conditions for landing a helicopter are too steep or rocky.
The other four skiers made it down the mountain unassisted.
“With new snow falling on the Tetons, backcountry users are being reminded to read the daily avalanche forecast at bridgertetonavalanchecenter.org,” GTNP shared via press release. “Grand Teton and TCSAR are appreciative of the collaborative effort to bring this incident to a close.”
