JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. — You know the old adage: Practice like you play. Or how about ‘no train, no gain?’ For Tip Top Search and Rescue, recent training missions turned all-too real.
The Tip Top team was busy with a weekend public awareness clinic at the Horse Creek Trailhead last Saturday morning when, just after 10am, a real call for help came in. A snowmobile rider from a group headed into the mountains returned stating one of their members had crashed into a bridge about 7-8 miles up the trail. Tip Top members were offered a few snowmobiles to ride from people in the parking lot in order to respond quickly and assess the scene.
SCSO Deputy Laing brought the SAR trailer with rescue equipment to the parking lot. The rescue toboggan was then unloaded and responded to the scene of the accident. Upon arrival, an injured female suffering from an apparent shoulder injury was packaged and brought out to the trailhead. Sublette County EMS was staged at the parking lot ready to continue treatment of the injured rider and transport her to St. John’s Hospital in Jackson.
A huge thank you goes out to the riders in the parking lot willing to help TTSAR members respond so quickly until support gear arrived.
“Our best wishes to the injured rider as she begins a long road to recovery,” Tip Top stated.
The following day, Sunday, February 13, 14 members of Tip Top SAR completed a mock avalanche scenario trailing in the Bacon Ridge area of the Upper Green on the Bridger-Teton National Forest. This mock scenario included a simulated emergency alert from a satellite locating beacon (Garmin Inreach) with unknown status reported.
TTSAR members responded to the coordinates given, assessed the area for safe entry, and began measures to locate and retrieve buried avalanche transceivers. They then packaged the ‘injured’ team member and transported them to a staging area where a Landing Zone had been identified by awaiting SAR members.
After the training was completed and members had begun to return home, wouldn’t you know it…again a pageout came in.
TTSAR members were alerted of an actual emergency consisting of an injured snowmobiler on the Union Pass Trail near Klondike Creek. As the team gathered and headed back towards the Upper Green parking lot, the reporting party let dispatch know they had gotten the injured rider out of the mountains and was driving them to St. John’s Hospital in Jackson via private vehicle. All emergency personnel breathed a sigh of relief and returned home.
