October 14, 2005

Grand Teton National Park rangers provided mutual-aid assistance for a rescue operation in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area of central Idaho (about 250 miles west of the park) over the Columbus Day weekend. During adverse weather conditions, three Grand Teton rangers and a Teton interagency contract helicopter conducted a successful technical rescue of a father and son who had spent the night of Friday, October 7th, stranded at the 10,000 foot elevation on Thompson Peak near Stanley, Idaho. Local rescue personnel in Idaho were not able to reach the stranded climbers, and stormy weather further hampered efforts to complete a ground-based rescue.

As a result, Sawtooth National Recreation officials requested the technical support of Grand Teton's staff in conducting an aerial rescue effort on Saturday. Rangers completed their mission just minutes before "official dark" on Saturday, which saved the climbers from spending a second night exposed on the vertical mountain face in wet and frigid weather conditions. Grand Teton rangers used the short-haul system to insert two rescue personnel onto a ledge near the stranded climbers. This rescue method involves suspending a rescuer below the helicopter while tethered to ropes attached to the belly of the helicopter. It allows for precise placement of the rescuer onto a ledge or cliff near the victims, where the helicopter cannot otherwise safely land. The stranded climbers were also extracted from their precarious perch using this same short-haul method. Each climber was flown accompanied by a ranger – suspended in tandem on the same rope system – to a nearby mountain saddle where the helicopter could land.

The rescued climbers were then placed inside the ship for a flight to the valley floor of Stanley Basin, where emergency medical personnel were waiting to asses their physical condition. They were cold, wet and suffering from mild hypothermia but otherwise okay. [By Jackie Skaggs, Public Affairs Officer]