In separate events early this week and late last week, three people needed medical attention and evacuation from popular recreation areas near the Heber Valley.
Monday afternoon, a Search and Rescue and Wasatch Fire team went out to the Strawberry River area and helped two women. According to rescuers, the two were riding one snowmobile together and crashed head-first into a creek bed.
Over a span of two hours, the responders provided first aid and brought the women back to the trailhead. They took one in the snowbulance, a snowmobile toboggan attachment with an enclosed stretcher with shock suspension.


Two days prior on Saturday, a Search and Rescue crew and firefighters responded to another snowmobile crash at the top of the Daniels Loop, also in the Strawberry area. Photos show the nose of the snowmobile against a tree.
They delivered the 30-year-old patient to the Daniels Summit in the snowbulance. From there, he left in an ambulance.
As winter storms continue, backcountry conditions become more treacherous.
In a recent interview with KPCW, Wasatch County Search and Rescue Captain Kam Kohler said anyone who heads into the backcountry should always plan for the worst and tell someone where they plan to go.
“If I'm going to go snowmobiling,” he said, “I've got gear to be able to get me into the backcountry but also cover me in an emergency situation, meaning I've got all the avalanche gear, the safety gear, the airbag, the avalanche beacon, shovels.”
He also said people should plan for the worst-case scenario. That means bringing equipment to last a night in the cold, even if they only plan to spend a couple of hours away.
“Food, water, shelter, communications,” he said. “What am I going to need to get me through this, even if things don't turn out the way I plan? That's when people get in trouble. They're going to go up and ride their snowmobile or their neighbor's snowmobile for a couple of hours, and it doesn't go that way, and also, now they're way over their head with no equipment to get them by.”
More information about Wasatch County Search and Rescue is available on the agency’s Facebook page.