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 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