Re: Bryce Rangers Rescue Two Lost Hikers

Two Utah women lost in the park’s snowy backcountry were located and rescued by rangers in a recent overnight incident.

At approximately 6 p.m. on the evening of January 11th, the women called 911, stating that they had lost the trail near the Corral Hollow area. They had started at about 11 a.m. from Rainbow Point (elevation 9115 feet) in an attempt to day hike the Riggs Springs loop trail (about 8.5 miles). The area was almost entirely covered by snow up to three feet deep.

They were able to follow tracks along the trail to the Corral Hollow designated backcountry campsite, arriving by about 4 p.m., but approximately 30 minutes past Corral Hollow they lost the trail. Using only the map in the park brochure, the women then decided to travel cross country, following a drainage towards the bottom of the Pink Cliffs, which they reached after several strenuous hours of postholing through the snow. There they succeeded in finding another portion of trail, but without any tracks on it.

As darkness fell the women decided to call for help, which necessitated climbing a nearby windswept ridge to attain cell phone reception, and then took shelter next to the trail, where they started a signal/warming fire. Weather conditions consisted of temperatures down to the high 20s with winds gusting to about 35 mph.

Due to limited available resources, and sporadic text message communications which yielded conflicting information about their possible location and uncertainty about their ability to endure an unplanned winter night out without serious consequences, rangers contacted park dispatch at Glen Canyon NRA and requested a Classic Lifeguard helicopter (stationed in Page, Arizona) to assist in pinpointing the party’s location. Classic located the women and was able to provide their approximate GPS coordinates to rangers.

Rangers David Hansen and David Sutherland then snowshoed cross country to the point the women were last seen by the helicopter and located the two women nearby by using emergency whistles. Both individuals were in good health and after refueling with food and fluids all parties were able to hike out to Rainbow Point, arriving just after 4 a.m. on January 12th.

The women said that they had overestimated their expected speed and endurance in the difficult conditions and thought the trail would be easier to follow. Rangers credit the incident’s positive outcome to their good physical condition, their foresight in bringing warm clothes, bivy sacks and a fire starter, and their good judgment in calling for help and then staying put. They were counseled on poor equipment choices (leaving snowshoes in their car and not carrying a topo map, compass or GPS), and their decision to continue on after realizing they had lost the trail, rather than retracing their own tracks. Ranger Tyla Guss was the incident commander.

Thanks for posting. You learn something everyday...