Two skiers lost in backcountry get help when friends call 911, Wyoming rescuers say
Two skiers were rescued hours after becoming lost in the Wyoming backcountry, rescuers said.
A friend called 911 shortly before 5:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 28, after the two men failed to meet them after the lifts closed at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, Teton County Search and Rescue said in a news release.
Earlier that day, the pair took an aerial tram around 3 p.m. to the summit and planned on “exiting into the backcountry to ski Rock Springs, an out-of-bounds, uncontrolled area” south of the resort, rescuers said.
“Instead, they mistakenly dropped into the top of Granite Canyon, a large avalanche-prone canyon that leads into Grand Teton National Park,” rescuers said.
After getting about 4 feet of snow over the course of three days, the Tetons had a “high” avalanche danger rating, the release said.
Without knowing the men’s location, rescuers said it was too risky to “send teams blindly into the field at night.”
However, shortly after 8 p.m., a friend got a call from one of the skiers, rescuers said. The call dropped quickly, but rescuers were able to zero in on the men’s coordinates.
The pair were in an area known as “the Jersey Shore, a large and dangerous cliff band at the top of Rock Springs that has been the site of numerous accidents over the years,” rescuers said.
One of the skiers later told rescuers in an interview that they realized they had accidentally dropped into “Granite and were able to hike back up to the saddle above Rock Springs,” rescuers said.
As one of their phones had died, they were trying to save the battery on the other phone, rescuers said.
“It was five or six hours before we were able to get a hold of anyone,” the man said, according to the release.
The pair, who were “tired and cold” and without avalanche safety equipment, decided to wait for rescuers, the release said.
“We knew that if we didn’t get out of there, it might be game over,” the skier said, according to rescuers.
After getting the skiers’ location, nine volunteers skied out at 10:45 p.m. with equipment, clothes, food and energy drinks, rescuers said.
To avoid avalanche danger, the volunteers “made voice contact” with the two at 11:06 p.m. and convinced them to walk up the hill to meet them, rescuers said.
The volunteers provided the men with warm clothes and food before giving them snowshoes and helping them “walk back up the ridgeline, reaching the top tram station at 12:50 a.m.,” rescuers said.
At the bottom of the mountain, the skiers met their friends, who took them to a hospital, rescuers said.
In an interview on Monday, Jan. 30, one of the skiers expressed remorse and “gratitude for the rescue teams,” the release said.
“It really comes down to being overconfident in knowing the terrain, overconfidence in backcountry knowledge, and not having a plan,” he said, according to the release.
Rescuers said the incident should be a reminder for those “heading into the backcountry” to “check the avalanche forecast” beforehand and to have the right equipment and a plan.
Teton County is about 40 miles northeast of Jackson.
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