Rangers Rescue Stranded Climber On Teewinot Mountain

Grand Teton National Park (WY)
Rangers Rescue Stranded Climber On Teewinot Mountain

Rangers rescued a stranded climber from the east face of Teewinot Mountain on the evening of Wednesday, October 20th, with the assistance of an interagency contract helicopter. Eric Steinmann, 26, of Wilson, Wyoming, called a friend via cell phone to report that he was in a location on the mountain from which he could not continue climbing without risk of falling. The friend then contacted the Teton Interagency Dispatch Center to report Steinmann’s predicament, and rangers launched a rescue mission to reach Steinmann and bring him to safety. During a reconnaissance flight, rangers determined that Steinmann was located on a steep pinnacle, high on the east face of Teewinot. With little remaining daylight and predicted low overnight temperatures, a decision was made to insert one ranger via the short-haul technique and place Steinmann in an aerial evacuation suit for a short-haul extraction from the peak. The ranger soon arrived and prepared him for the flight to the Lupine Meadows rescue cache. The rescue concluded just 40 minutes before “pumpkin hour,” the designated time beyond which the ship cannot fly according to FAA regulations. Steinmann told rangers that he’d intended to climb the fourth class route up the east face of Teewinot Mountain. Being somewhat new to mountaineering, Steinmann had climbed multiple peaks in the park this summer with various partners, but this was his first solo climb in the Teton Range. When he realized that he could no longer continue to climb without great risk of falling, he made the prudent decision to call for help.