At about 7:15 p.m. Saturday, the county’s Emergency Dispatch Center was notified of a missing snowmobiler east of Heber City in the Duchesne Ridge area. The 53-year-old man was snowmobiling with friends when he was separated from the group.
Wasatch County Search and Rescue Commander Kam Kohler said the timing of the call was perfect as a DPS helicopter happened to be returning from a call in Vernal.
“They're just passing through our airspace, and while they were passing through, they just said, ‘Hey, flip over to Wasatch Search and Rescue channel, let's see if they have anything going,’ and of course, they heard us on the radio dispatching our guys up on the mountain,” he said.
The helicopter contacted the two search and rescue snowmobile teams and asked if they needed assistance. The team then shared the man’s last known GPS location.
“It turns out that the person had been stuck, couldn't get his snowmobile out, so he was walking out, and the DPS chopper went to the coordinates that we gave them, turned on their infrared cameras and picked up this guy right up,” Kohler said.
Kohler said the man was walking through a big meadow on a trail when the helicopter's infrared cameras spotted him. The technology detects heat-producing objects, animals or people in low visibility circumstances, like fog or darkness. That saves time during rescue operations.
The DPS crew was then able to land in the meadow, pick up the snowmobiler and fly him to the sheriff’s office.
Kohler said the helicopter’s assistance saved search and rescue teams around 45 minutes. He said it’s normal for DPS to support search and rescue efforts, but a helicopter happening to be so close is rare.
He said the man was also lucky he wasn’t injured.
“When the chopper was sent to those coordinates, we had no idea if the guy was in distress, if he was injured, if he was stuck with a snowmobile on top of him, I mean, there's so many scenarios that could come into play,” he said.
Kohler reminds all backcountry visitors to be prepared for the unexpected.
