Boots (and Skis) on the Ground: TCSAR Rescues Injured Skier from Taylor Mountain

Jackson, Wyo. — At 12:29 p.m. on Friday, March 13, Teton County Search & Rescue received an emergency alert for an injured skier on the South Ridge of Taylor Mountain. The skier, a local 28-year-old female, sustained a knee injury while skinning up from the Coal Creek drainage. Unable to ski or hike out, her partners called 911.

TCSAR dispatched three teams to approach the scene on skis and placed a helicopter team on standby. One volunteer team, consisting of three members who live on the west side of the Tetons, reached the patient first. She was about 800 feet up the mountain and roughly a mile from the Coal Creek parking lot. The volunteers evaluated the patient’s condition and made a plan to get her out of the backcountry.

The other ski teams arrived shortly afterward, and all worked together to transport the patient by rope and toboggan to the Coal Creek parking area. The effort involved 25 volunteers and took 3 hours, 31 minutes to complete.

Volunteers encountered slick conditions in their response, which served as a timely reminder that skiers heading into the backcountry should expect to find unforgiving conditions. Ski crampons and other tools that help amplify traction on snow and ice should be strongly considered as our temperatures fluctuate between the seasons.

TCSAR Rescues Skiers from Teton Pass

Teton County Search & Rescue volunteers responded to two separate incidents on Monday and Tuesday, January 12 and 13, on Teton Pass. Both calls involved backcountry skiers suffering lower leg injuries that prevented them from exiting the backcountry on their own.

At 3:43 p.m. on Monday, January 12, TCSAR received an alert of an injured female skier in the area of the Do-It Chutes (pictured). The skier was located in a timbered chute several hundred feet above Hwy 22.

TCSAR responded with a short-haul team in the helicopter, and placed skiers on the ground as backup. The helicopter inserted two volunteers directly on scene, where they were able to package the patient for transport. The team then short-hauled the patient to a waiting ambulance with Jackson Hole Fire/EMS at the Coal Creek parking lot, completing the mission in 3 hours, 17 minutes.

At 10:28 a.m. on Tuesday, January 13, the volunteers were paged for an injured male skier in the Black Canyon area of Mount Elly. TCSAR responded with a helicopter team, while a ski team was positioned as backup on the top of Teton Pass. 

With the patient being about 400 feet below the summit of Elly, the helicopter landed in an open field of snow uphill from the scene. With the help of the man’s ski partners, TCSAR volunteers carried the patient up the hill to be placed inside the helicopter. The heli then transported him and the rescuers to the TCSAR HQ in Jackson. All team members were out of the field by noon, completing the mission in less than 2 hours.

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.