North SAR squad rescues stuck snowmobilers

A pair of Montana snowmobilers who had become stuck on the Big Horn Mountains east of Lovell Monday afternoon were found and taken to safety by members of the North Big Horn County Search and Rescue Squad.

Captain Wes Mangus said the North Squad received a call at about 4:30 p.m. Monday of four snowmobilers stuck near Paradise Falls. The squad was quickly mobilized, and as members climbed the Big Horns, Mangus said, better GPS data pinpointed the snowmobilers near the Paradise Falls parking lot.

The squad mobilized at the Crystal Creek Rest Area parking lot and headed east.

“We had a great response from the squad, -- 16 members,” Mangus said. “We sent eight on snowmobiles and three in a side-by-side with tracks, and five were standing by at the parking lot.”

Mangus said the Paradise Falls parking lot is about four or five miles to the east of the deployment site, and as the rescue crew neared the Sheridan County line, they saw the trail groomer coming from Burgess Junction, which made their progress much easier, especially the side-by-side.

“That was nice to see, because it (the highway) was deep and super rough, and the wind was blowing hard,” Mangus said. “Our side-by-side can’t go if it’s too deep, and after we passed him, the side-by-side could keep going.”

The squad members kept looking to the right and in about another half mile spotted lights about 80 yards off the highway.

“It was just starting to get dark. We had wanted to get eyes on them before it got dark,” Mangus said. “We headed off the highway and basically disappeared (in deep snow). I was standing on my snowmobile, and it was up to my waist.”

It turned out that there were two snowmobilers, not four, and the pair from Montana had planned to drive from the Crystal Creek parking lot to Bear Lodge for dinner.

“The visibility was terrible. I couldn’t see 40 feet in front of me,” Mangus said. “Deep snow sucked them off the road, and they were trying to keep going in deep snow when one of them ended up in a blowout (a snow gully caused by wind action in the snow). He messed up his sled and went over the top and broke his handlebars.

“It was disabled at that point, but they were able to get the sled out and tried climbing back up to the road but kept getting buried. They hadn’t made it very far.”

The SAR crew got the broken sled going, checked the two men out and got both sleds up to the highway.

“We tied ropes to the broken sled, and Kevin Winterholler pulled it back to the parking lot,” Mangus said. “The other guy was able to ride his sled back.”

The snowmobiler with the broken sled rode in the side-by-side, and all met back at the Crystal Creek rest area, where the snowmobiles were loaded back onto the trailer and the two men headed home to Montana.

Mangus said the squad cleared the site around 8:30 and got home around 9. He said the squad worked very well together during the incident.

“We’ve got one of the best squads we’ve had in a long time,” he said. “If we didn’t have them, we couldn’t do what we do.”