After the busiest May ever for Teton County Search & Rescue, June continues to keep the volunteers on their toes. Since June 1, the team has been called five times, with an additional two calls from Grand Teton National Park for emergency helicopter assistance.
TCSAR ramps up for a busy summer rescue season during a training session in May 2025. Photo: TCSAR
The increase in callouts correlates with the number of people getting out into the backcountry. With warm, relatively dry weather drawing people outdoors, TCSAR encourages everyone to remember to be prepared, practiced, and present in the backcountry, no matter your chosen activity.
“It’s been a particularly beautiful spring and early summer,” said TCSAR Chief Advisor Cody Lockhart. “People started getting out and about on the river, on the trails, and on their bikes, a bit earlier than normal this year. Not surprisingly, rescues followed suit.”
The most recent calls for TCSAR included a hiker experiencing a medical issue on Sheep Mountain on the evening of June 9. A helicopter team from TCSAR departed Jackson and was able to land near the hikers. The volunteers then treated the patient in the field and flew her back to Jackson for higher medical care.
Then, around 10 p.m. on June 9, TCSAR was alerted to a 19-year-old male who hadn’t returned from a hike up Moose Creek. Two volunteers met at the trailhead and began hiking up the drainage around 11:30 p.m. They found a large moose, but no hiker. They continued to search through the night and eventually called it off at 4 a.m. The team began looking again at 5:30 a.m. The hiker eventually alerted his family that he had made it back to the trailhead at 6:30 a.m.
TCSAR volunteers train for all kinds of rescues. Photo: TCSAR
On the evening of June 11, numerous people called in to report that a speed flyer (a low-flying type of paraglider) had crashed on Snow King Mountain. About 20 personnel from TCSAR and the Sheriff’s Office searched the area for a possibly injured patient. At about 10 p.m., the search was called off after nobody was found.
After a mostly quiet spring, the month of May included 14 calls for service, the most ever for that time of year for TCSAR. The calls included two swiftwater alerts on the Snake River near Astoria; a crashed speed flyer; a stranded motorist near Cave Falls; three calls for missing or overdue children; an injured horseback rider; two injured mountain bikers at the same location on Teton Pass; and overdue bear hunters in the Gros Ventre Mountains.
Lockhart pointed out how this wide diversity of backcountry activities means that the volunteers must also have the relative skills to respond.
“It shows the breadth of recreational activities that people are doing, and the skills that the team needs to have to sort out those problems,” he said.
If you’re heading out, please have a plan, let someone know where you are going, know your limitations, and bring the appropriate gear for your chosen activity.
Anyone who has a backcountry emergency is encouraged to call 911 as soon as possible.
