CHEYENNE, Wyo. – The Wyoming Army National Guard worked with a Big Horn County search and rescue team to evacuate an injured man stranded on Cloud Peak.
On July 25 at about 7 p.m., the Big Horn County Sheriff’s Department received an Inreach SOS activation from a party of seven, including an 18-year-old male with an injured leg, stranded at 12,200 feet on Cloud Peak. Guardian Air Medical could not reach the injured man due to the altitude and heat.
The Wyoming Army National Guard in Cheyenne was called to extract the man using a hoist-capable Black Hawk UH-60 helicopter.
Ground teams were dispatched to the West Ten Sleep trailhead to climb to the injured man, with one of the teams reaching him at about 5:30 a.m. July 26. The team treated the injured hiker and accompanied five members of the hikers back to their camp.
At 6 a.m., a Black Hawk departed from Cheyenne and arrived in Greybull, refueling and picking up three Big Horn County search and rescue members, part of the Wyoming Hoist Team.
The Black Hawk flew to the Cloud Peak area and hoisted the three SAR members down to the injured subject. The Black Hawk crew executed three hoists within 5 minutes, extracting the injured man, a companion and a member of the SAR team.
The injured man was flown to the Tyrell Ranger Station and transferred to a Cody Regional Health ambulance for medical attention.
The Black Hawk returned to Greybull Airport for refueling before heading back to the mountain to drop off the second hiker at camp and airlift the remaining ground team SAR members to the trailhead parking area.
The medical evacuation was one of more than 10 calls for assistance received by Wyoming National Guard teams in the past 30 days.
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