TCSAR Rescues Mountain Biker on Teton Pass

At 12:40 p.m. on Tuesday, July 22, Teton County Search & Rescue was alerted to an injured mountain biker on the Phillips Canyon trail. The biker, a 47-year-old local woman, had crashed while descending the trail and sustained injuries that prevented her from getting out of the backcountry on her own.

TCSAR volunteers maneuver the wheeled litter carrying an injured mountain biker down Phillips Canyon on July 22, 2025. It was the team’s fourth mountain bike rescue of the summer on Teton Pass, and the season’s eighth rescue call overall for that location. Photo: TCSAR

TCSAR responded with numerous volunteers. Two teams approached the scene from the Phillips Bench trailhead before going on foot packing the wheeled litter via the Arrow Trail. A third team went up Phillips Canyon from the trailhead on Fish Creek Road.

Volunteers reached the patient and her friend at approximately 2:40 p.m., and packaged the patient for transport in the wheeled litter. The team then rolled and carried the patient about three miles down the trail to Fish Creek Road. From there, the patient and friend self-transported to higher medical care. TCSAR volunteers made it back to base at 4:30 p.m.

This was the volunteers’ eighth time responding to a rescue call on Teton Pass this summer, four of which have been for mountain bikers.

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