Montana ice climber rescued after 30-foot fall on South Fork

Posted 2/11/20

Rescue personnel evacuated a 42-year-old Billings ice climber from the South Fork on Saturday, after he fell some 30 feet.

Richard James Dvorak was climbing with a party of 10 when he fell from …

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Montana ice climber rescued after 30-foot fall on South Fork

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Rescue personnel evacuated a 42-year-old Billings ice climber from the South Fork on Saturday, after he fell some 30 feet.

Richard James Dvorak was climbing with a party of 10 when he fell from the top of the third pitch on the Broken Heart ice flow, the Park County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release. Dvorak suffered injuries to his pelvis and ribs and fractured his left femur, the release indicates.

It took rescuers hours to reach the remote ice flow, which is located about 38 miles southwest of Cody and roughly three-quarters of a mile north of the South Fork Highway.

First responders were dispatched shortly after 11:30 a.m., with two Park County Search and Rescue ground teams immediately heading to the area. They were assisted by a pair of members of the Cody Regional Wilderness Medical Team as well as five volunteers from the Big Horn County Search and Rescue Unit, who were summoned for additional manpower, the sheriff’s office said.

The Park County teams attempted to take a tracked snow vehicle into the area, but the vehicle was only able to make it about halfway to the ice flow amid the rough terrain.

“Rescuers had to hike in from there,” said Charla Baugher-Torczon, a spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office.

A Park County Search and Rescue volunteer and a member of the Cody Regional wilderness team were able to ascend the ice flow and reach Dvorak around 2:30 p.m. Several ice climbers who were recreating in the area also leant a hand.

“After his [Dvorak’s] injuries were stabilized, rescue personnel packaged him for the descent by rope down two ice flow pitches,” Baugher-Torczon said. “He was then carried down the mountain to the Argo and then transported the rest of the way out to a waiting ambulance.”

Dvorak was brought to West Park Hospital around 8 p.m.

Park County Search and Rescue Coordinator Bill Brown, who was on scene, commended the “excellent cooperation” that resulted in a successful evacuation.

“I can’t say enough about the response by the Wilderness Medical Team, our neighbors to the east in Big Horn County, and all of the ice climbers in the area who came to assist,” Brown said in the release. “When the need was there, everyone stepped up.”

Brown also credited a five-day technical mountain rescue course — attended by both Park and Big Horn County search and rescue members last year — that emphasized new techniques using modern, lightweight rope rescue gear.

“It’s training such as this that enhances inter-agency cooperation and better prepares our volunteers for high angle evacuations,” Brown said. “Our new gear performed flawlessly.”

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