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.

Same Trail, Different Day: TCSAR Responds to Parallel Trail For Injured Mountain Biker

For the second time in four days, Teton County Search & Rescue was called out to help an injured mountain biker on the Parallel Trail on Teton Pass. This time, on Tuesday, May 27, the patient was a 39-year-old local male who washed out on his bike while navigating a berm turn after a jump. The patient sustained a severe lower leg injury in the process. He called 911 at about 4:37 p.m., which initiated an emergency response.

TCSAR volunteers help an injured mountain biker on the Parallel Trail on May 27, 2025: Photo courtesy: Patrick Cunningham

TCSAR volunteers responded to the Old Pass Road and a truck pull-out above the trail on Hwy. 22. Volunteers arrived on foot and provided treatment in the field to alleviate pain and discomfort. The team then packaged the patient in the wheeled litter and transported him down the trail to a waiting ambulance from Jackson Hole Fire/EMS.

Thanks for being such a great patient! Photo courtesy: Patrick Cunningham