Phillips Canyon

It's Wheeled Litter Season in the Tetons: TCSAR Responds to Injured Trail Users

On Sunday, June 22, a 35-year-old local male was trail running by himself in Phillips Canyon when he went down with a knee injury. At 2:10 p.m., he placed a call to 911 after determining that he was unable to walk and would need help getting out of the backcountry. 

TCSAR volunteers transport an injured trail runner down Phillips Canyon on Sunday, June 22. Photo: TCSAR

Teton County Search & Rescue responded with a team of volunteers on foot. The volunteers accessed the canyon from the trailhead on Fish Creek Road, and found the patient 2 miles up the trail.

The team assessed his injuries, and packaged him for transport in the wheeled litter. The volunteers then brought him down the trail to a waiting ambulance, completing the mission in 2 hours, 50 minutes.

The rescue on June 22 was the third time in just more than a week that TCSAR has used the wheeled litter to bring injured trail users out of the Teton backcountry. Photo: TCSAR

This was TCSAR’s third wheeled litter rescue in about a week. On June 14, volunteers placed an injured female hiker in the wheeled litter for a 1.3-mile transport out of Teton Canyon. Then on June 19, the team had the wheeled litter in action again about 1.2 miles up Spring Creek, south of Alta, to help an injured dirt biker get out of the backcountry.

TCSAR Responds to Injured Mountain Biker on Phillips Ridge Trail

At 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, September 4, TCSAR was called to respond to an injured mountain biker on the Phillips Ridge Trail. The 35-year-old local male, riding alone, was descending a series of switchbacks on his bike when he crashed about a mile from the trailhead on Fish Creek Road. He sustained multiple upper body injuries.

TCSAR responded with teams on foot and in a RZR side-by-side. The volunteers reached the patient and found him next to the trail. They were able to help him walk a short distance to the RZR and transport him down to the trailhead. Opting against an ambulance, the man met his girlfriend there and she transported him to higher medical care.

The volunteers headed back to the hangar in Jackson, completing the mission in 1 hour, 55 minutes.

TCSAR volunteers use a RZR side-by-side to access an injured mountain biker on the Phillips Ridge Trail on September 4, 2024. Photo: TCSAR

The Fine Line Podcast Presents: A Very Close Call in Phillips Canyon

Jackson, Wyo. — Season 8 of The Fine Line podcast rolls onward with a story about a mountain bike crash with potentially serious consequences on a favorite local trail. The episode dives into the effectiveness of the BackcountrySOS app, and how Teton County Search & Rescue volunteers responded with delicate treatment of potentially life-altering injuries in the field.

“A Bridge Too Far: The Phillip’s Log Strikes Again” airs today, May 23, at 2 p.m. on KHOL 89.1 FM, and afterward on your favorite podcast platform.


Thanks to Rick Gordon and Dr. Tobin Dennis for sharing their experiences so the rest of us can learn—right as mountain bike season ramps up across the Mountain West.

Produced by Backcountry Zero, Season 8 of The Fine Line is presented by Stio, with support from Arc’teryx and KHOL. Original art by Jen Reddy Ink. The Fine Line’s theme song is by Anne & Pete Sibley, with additional music produced by Ben Winship. The Fine Line is produced and hosted by Matt Hansen, with editing and sound by Melinda Binks.

Learn more about The Fine Line atBackcountryZero.com.