A hiker suffering from hypothermia was rescued from Medicine Bow Peak in southeastern Wyoming on Sunday after becoming stranded high on the mountain.
According to the Carbon County Sheriff’s Office, dispatchers at the Carbon County Unified Dispatch Center received a distress call from the stranded hiker on August 30th. The incident prompted a coordinated response involving sheriff’s deputies, search and rescue volunteers, dispatchers, and emergency medical personnel.
Deputies with the Carbon County Sheriff’s Office responded and established an Incident Command Post as additional resources were coordinated. Volunteers with the Carbon County Search and Rescue East Division were then paged and responded to the emergency.
Searchers Climb Above 12,000 Feet
After checking in with Incident Command, search and rescue personnel began hiking up Medicine Bow Peak in an effort to locate the hiker.
Medicine Bow Peak rises to more than 12,000 feet and is one of Wyoming’s most prominent high elevation destinations. Conditions at high altitude can change quickly, and exposure to cold temperatures can become a serious threat for hikers who are unable to continue their descent.
Searchers successfully located the stranded individual on the mountain and provided basic emergency care before beginning the effort to bring the hiker down. The victim was transported from the mountain to waiting emergency medical crews with South Central Wyoming EMS.
Teamwork Leads To Successful Rescue
The Carbon County Sheriff’s Office credited the coordinated response of dispatchers, deputies, search and rescue volunteers, and emergency medical personnel with helping bring the incident to a successful conclusion.
Sheriff Alex S. Bakken thanked the responders involved in the mission and noted that the outcome could have been very different without their work and teamwork.
The rescue serves as another reminder of the risks associated with high elevation hiking, particularly when cold temperatures and rapidly changing mountain conditions are involved. Even during late summer, hikers venturing into Wyoming’s highest terrain can face potentially dangerous exposure conditions.
Thanks to the coordinated efforts of emergency responders and volunteers, the stranded hiker was safely brought down from Medicine Bow Peak and transferred to medical crews for further care.