SALT LAKE COUNTY, Utah (ABC4) – Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue (SLCOSAR) crews conducted two separate missions over the weekend when two groups of hikers became stranded.
The first incident occurred Saturday afternoon, as SLCOSAR was called out to assist two stuck hikers on the West Slabs of Mt. Olympus.
The pair of hikers was reportedly climbing un-roped and near the top of the route when they were “unable to continue moving up or down hill safely.”
According to SLCOSAR, three teams were deployed, including a team of four that was inserted via “skid load” by a DPS helicopter and two ground teams that began hiking up the standard approach route.
Soon after the beginning of this mission, SLCOSAR says that a second call came to help hikers in Little Cottonwood Canyon and one of the ground teams was recalled to head over to the second incident.
The West Slabs team “quickly accessed and secured the two patients,” according to SLCOSAR, utilizing rope rescue techniques. They say anchors were built, rescuers were lowered or rappelled, and patients were raised or belayed up to the safety of the ridge.
Once on the ridge, all reportedly began the descent route, which involved “scrambling, down climbing” and other rope rescue techniques.
The descent went smoothly, authorities say, with “excellent views of the valley and a stunning sunset over the GSL.” The ground team was met near the base of the Slabs, and SLCOSAR says everyone hiked back down to the trailhead and was off the mountain around midnight.
See below for photos of the incident.
The second incident, which occurred while teams were conducting the West Slabs rescue, reportedly happened when a group hiked up to Lake Blanche, up and over the Big Cottonwood Canyon/Little Cottonwood Canyon ridgeline and down into the Lisa Falls gulley.
The party had been out all day, were worn out, running out of water and could not continue down the treacherous terrain safely, according to SLCOSAR.
After resources from the West Slabs rescue were rerouted to Lisa Falls, three teams were deployed at the base of the falls for “a hasty team to climb up to the stranded party, a team behind them to affix rope lines for the descent, and a drone team to help locate the patients.”
The drone team located the patients and found them to be nearly 2,000 vertical feet off the road.
After about three hours, SLCOSAR says they confirmed that the patients were too high and too far in for a feasible ground rescue, and DPS was called in to hoist the patients directly out of upper Lisa.
All members for the Lisa Falls rescue were reportedly off the mountain by 9:30 p.m.
See below for photos of the incident.
SLCOSAR is an all-volunteer team and is always on call as a service to the residents and visitors of Salt Lake County.
You can donate to the team by clicking here.