A One-Wheeled Cloud Peak Rescue

On Monday, July 29, 2024, at 7:40 pm, the Big Horn County Sheriff's Department received a text to 911 from a group of six 15-18-year-old males hiking on Cloud Peak at approximately 11,400ft of elevation stating they had tried to summit Cloud Peak late in the afternoon and were unable to descend without assistance. Some of the group had stayed behind while others tried to summit. Eventually, they became separated into three groups. Big Horn County Search and Rescue was paged out at 7:45 pm. While the team was staging, more information came in from part of the group stating that one of the members had collapsed and was unresponsive. A short time later, Incident Command received information that one subject was alone and unable to find any of the others in his party.

Because of the deteriorating situation, the decision was made to request assistance from an air medical resource to fly SAR members to the mountain. Guardian Air Medical from Cody was available and accepted the flight request. At approximately 9:30 pm Guardian left Basin with the first SAR team. The SAR team was dropped at the base of Cloud Peak next to the falls on North Paintrock Creek and Guardian returned to Basin for the 2nd SAR team. Because of the location and possible deteriorating condition of the subjects, the decision was made to activate the WYARNG and Wyoming Hoist Team for a hoist-capable Blackhawk.

The first SAR team hiked up Cloud Peak towards the location of the group with satellite communication. At approximately 11:30 pm the upper group was able to find the middle group at 11,400 ft. They were told to stay in that location until located by SAR. The first SAR team was able to locate the group of 5 around 1:30 am on Tuesday morning. The second SAR team, after being flown in by Guardian, was able to locate the last subject at approximately 2:30 am on Tuesday morning. Because two of the subjects were possibly suffering from altitude sickness and unable to travel, the decision was made to remain in place and wait for the WYARNG. The WYARNG arrived on scene at approximately 9:30 am. A SAR team member, who was with the group of five, also a member of the Wyoming Hoist Team, utilizing the WYARNG Blackhawk and crew, hoisted all five subjects in the upper group and moved them to their base camp at Misty Moon Lake. The WYARNG was able to perform a one-wheel landing close to the second SAR team and last subject at an altitude of 10,800 ft and picked them up, offloading them at Misty Moon Lake at approximately 10:15 am. The WYARNG flew to the Greybull Airport for fuel and returned to Misty Moon Lake to transport all 6 subjects and SAR team members to the West Ten Sleep trailhead. All subjects were safely at their vehicle and SAR team members were clear of the mountain by 12:30 pm on Tuesday.

We would like to remind the public that even though social media may make the mountains look inviting and easy to navigate, any area in the Cloud Peak Wilderness, without helicopter access, takes many hours to hike into, and moving injured patients without a hoist can be nearly impossible.

Please do your homework prior to traveling to the mountains, remember to always bring the 10 essentials in your pack, don't travel alone, set a realistic turnaround time and stick to it and if possible have a way to communicate via satellite and know how to use it. Without good weather, communication between stranded subjects, and the use of two helicopter services, this mission could have had a very different outcome.

We want to say a huge thanks to the crew from Guardian Air Medical out of Cody, the Wyoming Army National Guard crew from Cheyenne, our dispatchers at the Big Horn County Sheriff's Department, the Big Horn County Search and Rescue, our team members on the Wyoming Hoist Team, Wyoming Office of Homeland Security who all worked tirelessly through the night to coordinate and pull off a technical rescue and bring 6 people safely off the mountain. We are very grateful for the partnerships with all these organizations that have been built over the years that once again saved our team many hours of very difficult work on this mission. We could not have completed this mission timely without their cooperation.