A Russian visitor on a snowmobile trip in Wyoming was seriously injured Saturday afternoon near the Top of the World Store in the Beartooth Mountain Range. While the accident was very serious, the snowmobiler had luck on his side: It was also the Cody Country Snowmobile Association’s annual avalanche awareness training weekend, and an experienced team quickly responded to rescue the man.

The visitor was snowmobiling on U.S. Highway 212 in the area of the store at around 12:30 p.m. when he drifted off the road and hit a bridge guardrail. The rider was ejected over the guardrail and fell approximately 10-15 feet down into a boulder strewn creek bottom, according to a Tuesday press release from the Park County Sheriff’s Office and the Snowmobile Association.

While members of the man’s party attended to him, another rider went for help at the nearby Safety Shelter located at Island Lake Campground — where several members of the Cody Country Snowmobile Association, Park County Search and Rescue and the Park County Snow Search Team were on their lunch break from the association’s annual safety class.

“At about 12:30 we were rolling some chili out, and then here comes this gentleman, pretty frantic,” recalled Association President Bert Miller.

A team, including Dr. Aaron Billin (who took the lead on the medical team), Dustin Rosencranse, Frank Carus, Miller and several Park County Search and Rescue and Association members immediately rushed the half-mile to the scene.

Billin, a 10-year veteran of Park County Search and Rescue, quickly learned that the man had suffered a severe lower fracture of his right leg, a large contusion of his abdomen and significant facial trauma. While he was wearing a helmet, the impact with the boulders shattered the front of the helmet, the sheriff’s office reported.

The man was packaged using a full body air mattress along with a spinal board and transportedback to the Safety Shelter in a rescue sled.

The Park County Sheriffs 911 center requested First Flight of Wyoming’s medical helicopter, which flew to the Safety Shelter and took the rider to the trauma center at St. Vincent Regional Hospital in Billings. Officials said they did not know the man’s condition on Tuesday.

Prepared for disaster

The Association’s training started Friday night at the Holiday Inn of Cody. Nearly 100 trainees were at the classroom training, some from as far away as North Dakota. Frank Carus from the Teton Avalanche Center led the session with Jake Skeen, owner of Beartooth Rides and Guides in Cody.

Saturday’s field day training started at 10 a.m. at the Beartooth Safety Shelter, with approximately 70 folks in attendance. Field day trainers Carus, Skeen and Noah Howell of the Teton Avalanche Center each led their own stations, including training on how to operate your beacon for burial locations and how to deal with interference, probing for the avalanche victim and digging snow pits to check on the snow condition.

On most other days — when 70 people aren’t on the scene training for disasters in the snow — it could have taken up to an hour for Search and Rescue volunteers to reach the crash scene by snowmobile, Miller said. Patients can be evacuated by helicopter, but conditions in the Beartooth range rarely allow for the flights. Fortunately the weather was perfect Saturday.

“It was actually a fantastic bluebird day,” Miller said.

The club has a heavy-duty work snowmobile and a large tote trailer to get injured riders back to the safety shelter or down the mountain when bad weather makes that necessary.

Miller immediately stoked the fire at the safety shelter so it would be as warm as possible for the victim, who was wet after falling in the creek. He said the incident points to how quickly things can suddenly go wrong, the need for proper training and how “valuable” Search and Rescue is to the snowmobile community.

“There’s no money in it. They’re just like the volunteer fire department,” Miller said. “They do what they do out of the best of their heart and put themselves in some interesting situations at times.”

He also praised the work of Dr. Billin, who rode in the rescue sled back to the safety shelter with the injured rider to comfort him.

Billin helped rescue another injured rider two years ago, Miller said. “I enjoy being around him. He’s so professional, and yet, he is just one of the guys too.”

Shelter ‘worked exactly as it should’

While Billin led the medical treatments, Miller and Rosencranse raced out to a spot for the helicopter to land, packing down the snow and putting up a windsock to help with the landing. Others monitored the radio and prepared medical supplies. When there is an incident on the Beartooth Mountains that requires Search and Rescue, the club safety shelter becomes a command center and is equipped with a radio and medical supplies.

“The safety shelter worked exactly as it should,” Miller said. “With the sheriff’s radio up there we have direct contact to the law enforcement center. You’re really in contact with the air flight and everything.”

The injured rider was kept as comfortable as possible while waiting for the helicopter. Within about 50 minutes First Flight was at the shelter. The team made their assessment and bundled the patient for the flight to Billings, which took about 35 minutes.

Though the incident was a horrible tragedy, Miller said it became an excellent training opportunity for club members, most of whom have taken the weekend training program multiple times.

The annual free event is open to the public. The club serves a free dinner during the classroom training and their piping hot chili served for lunch during field training is famous among sled enthusiasts.

Miller was very thankful afterwards.

“The Cody Country Snowmobile Association’s Avalanche Training was a great success this year, and we learned more than we thought we set out for,” he said in a statement. “Thank you to Park Country Search and Recuse, Teton Avalanche Center and all the club members who helped out. And all our sponsors.”

Sheriff Darrell Steward commended all those involved by stating that “through excellent teamwork and training, a severely injured man was quickly evacuated to higher care.”

(Editor's note: This first paragraph has been corrected to note that the training was conducted by the Cody Country Snowmobile Association, not Park County Search and Rescue.)