Search and Rescue Uses Chopper and “Screamer Suit” To Save Injured Hunter

The Park County Search and Rescue Team was at it again, as a helicopter was used for an overnight effort to save an injured hunter on the Shoshone Plateau.

On Oct. 9, The Park County Sheriff’s Office Communications Division received an InReach SOS activation via International Emergency Response: a 38-year-old man had been hunting in the South Fork of the Shoshone River Drainage on the Shoshone Plateau. During the outing, the hunter slid down a ravine and broke his lower leg. He was unable to climb out of the ravine and seek help.

Six Park County Search and Rescue members mobilized immediately. Using a Guardian Medical Helicopter and Sublette County’s Tip-Top chopper, they were able to reach the hunter’s location at the bottom of the ravine.

Rather than immediately extracting themselves, the PCSAR rescuers stabilized the injured hunter and stay with him overnight.

The next morning, Oct. 10, the hunter was extracted using a “short-haul” rescue. A rope was attached to the bottom of a helicopter, which lowered an attendant to the waiting team. The victim was then placed in a full-body harness — called a “screamer suit” — and attached to the rope. The helicopter then extracted the victim and transported him to the Majo Ranch, where an ambulance from Cody Regional Health was waiting.

From there, the victim was driven to Cody Regional Health. The six PCSAR members who coordinated the rescue hiked out of the ravine once the hunter was successfully extracted.

Everybody made it out safely.

Park County Sheriff Scott Steward once again praised the Search and Rescue team’s efforts, particularly for staying with the victim overnight. Steward called it “a resource that is invaluable to the residents and visitors of Park County.”