TCSAR Responds to Distressed Hunter in Horse Creek

At 7:32 p.m. on Friday, September 26, Teton County Dispatch received an emergency alert for a hunter having a medical issue in the North Fork of Horse Creek, a remote area that lies to the southeast of the Cache Creek drainage. The alert regarded a 66-year-old man from Oregon who was reported to be in severe distress. 

The man was in a guided group of elk hunters. After dusk, the group had been hiking down a steep trail back to camp when the man could go no further.

Teton County Search & Rescue responded with two ground teams, each taking side-by-side vehicles up Cache Creek. When the vehicles could go no further, two volunteers continued on bikes. When the bikes could go no further, they continued on foot until they reached the patient about a mile past the divide between Cache Creek and Horse Creek. The second ground team came in on foot carrying the wheeled litter.

As the team treated the patient, they considered going down into Horse Creek, but opted to go back up to Cache Creek toward their vehicles and a potential landing site for an emergency helicopter. The team placed a request for an air ambulance out of Riverton but it was called off due to darkness and challenging terrain (the TCSAR ship was not available because it cannot fly at night).

The team then packaged the patient in the wheeled litter and transported him back up the divide and into Cache Creek. From there, they placed the man in one of the side-by-sides and drove him to the trailhead and waiting ambulance from Jackson Hole Fire/EMS.

The volunteers returned to TCSAR HQ at 2:30 a.m., and prepped the equipment for the next mission.

TCSAR Pulls All-Nighter to Rescue Injured Hunter

At 7:30 p.m. on Friday, September 27, Teton County Search & Rescue volunteers were alerted to an injured hunter on Mount Leidy. The hunter, a 66-year-old man from California, became injured when he fell while walking down the steep north face of Leidy. The man, who was with a group of hunters from Wyoming, was unable to stand up or walk. At the time of the injury, the group was not near their camp and they were not equipped to spend the night out among the elements. Their location was described as being very remote in extremely thick timber.

The group put in an emergency call to 911, which was connected to TCSAR. With the helicopter grounded due to darkness, TCSAR would be in for a ground response—and the mission turned into an all-nighter.

TCSAR assembled a group of nine volunteers who went into the field. They drove a SAR truck towing a RZR side-by-side as far as they could up a Forest Service road. When the truck could go no farther, a team jumped in the RZR to drive up an old logging road that hadn’t been used in years. Multiple downed trees blocked their path. When the RZR became stymied by deadfall and timber, two volunteers made a fast track through the forest to the patient in order to provide initial care and comfort. Meanwhile, the rest of the volunteers hiked in carrying the wheeled litter.

There was so much deadfall it took the volunteers three hours to get the wheeled litter to the patient. At 2:30 a.m., TCSAR placed the patient in the wheeled litter, and carried him through and over deadfall back to the RZR, an effort that took another few hours. The RZR then transported the man to the SAR truck, and the team gave him a ride to St. John’s Health so he could receive higher medical care. 

The volunteers made it back to the SAR hangar at 5:30 a.m., where they prepped the equipment for the next mission, and then headed home to rest.

TCSAR Rescues Injured Hunter in Horse Creek Area

Just past noon on Friday, September 13, Teton County Search & Rescue was called to respond to an injured horseback rider in the Horse Creek area.

A 50-year-old man from Maryland, on the last day of his guided hunting trip, became injured after he was bucked off his horse. An emergency call from a Garmin inReach was routed from dispatch to TCSAR, with volunteers responding in the rescue helicopter. A ground team drove to the trailhead as backup.

The helicopter was able to find a landing zone near the patient, who was not able to walk due to the injury. Without the use of the helicopter, the team would have been hiking in at least six miles to bring the man out in the wheeled litter. Instead, the volunteers had a short walk to reach the patient from the helicopter.

They assessed the man’s condition and packaged him in the suck bag, a type of full-body vacuum splint. With the help of the guides, the team carried the man to the helicopter for internal transport. The heli lifted off and transported the man to a waiting ambulance at the TCSAR hangar, completing the mission in 2 hours, 5 minutes.