Honoring Volunteers Ted Kyle and Terri Romanowski for Their 20 Years of Service with TCSAR

In 2001, TCSAR welcomed 10 new volunteers to the team. From that class, only two are still with the squad: Ted Kyle and Terri Romanowski. A lot has changed in the two decades that they have been showing up to give back to the Jackson Hole community, but what hasn’t is their dedication to TCSAR.

The team recognizes these special anniversaries by awarding commemorative buckles to volunteers who reach the 5-, 10-, and 20-year milestones. It’s not every year this happens and depends on when the team previously took on new class members. Last year, the team recognized Chris Stiehl and Carol Viau for hitting the 20-year mark.

Join us as we extend our gratitude for Ted and Terri’s dedicated service, and look back on the lessons they’ve learned while volunteering at TCSAR.

Ted Kyle. Photo: TCSAR Foundation

Terri Romanowski, and Bob Marley the horse. Photo: TCSAR Foundation

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Ted Kyle
SR# 13
Ski Shop Manager

During Ted Kyle’s first winter in Jackson Hole, in 1992-93, the area didn’t get a lot of snow. A lifelong skier who grew up in New Hampshire and served on the student ski patrol while attending Middlebury College, Vermont, he decided to spend at least another year in the valley. But the next winter, he blew out his knee. As the years went by, he kept making excuses about why he couldn’t leave. “Probably in my fifth year, my mom asked, ‘So do you just live in Jackson now?’” he said. “And I was like, ‘Yeah, I think I live here. This is it.’” 

Other than working at a ski shop for six months in Sydney, Australia, he’s been in Jackson ever since. Compelled to give back to the community, he joined TCSAR in 2001. Though he worked as a realtor for 10 years, and as an appraiser for a few years after the 2008 recession, he has mostly worked at local ski shops. Since 2015 he has managed the shop at Snow King Mountain. His knowledge of gear helped him serve as Gear Advisor for TCSAR for four years. Today, he’s married and has two kids, 11 and 15 years old. When he’s not in the shop or hanging with his family, he can often be found ski touring in Grand Teton National Park, mountain biking or floating the Snake River.

Why did you join TCSAR?
It seemed like a good way to get back into helping people and being part of the community. And the guys that I knew who were on the team were always talking about what a great group it was.

How have things changed over the years at TCSAR?
The advisors (team leaders) were really consistent and essentially held their roles until they left town. Today, leadership rotates more often, which I think gets more people involved. And definitely the gear and everything we have now is amazing compared to what we had back then. We had a uniform jacket, but you pretty much had to supply all your own stuff.

What’s the hardest part of being on TCSAR?
Leaving my family or work to go on a rescue, and my attendance certainly shows that. One of the questions we used to get asked is: If you’re at a birthday party and a call comes in, what do you do? The answer was supposed to be: You drop everything and go. But in the years since, I’ve realized that, no, that’s not the right answer. Your family has to come first. And your job probably has to come first, depending on what you do. The volunteer activity is super important, but if you skip out on all your wife’s birthdays, you’re going to be in big trouble. And if you’re not at your kid’s soccer games, you’re gonna be in trouble. The rest of your life is gonna falter if you don’t prioritize, right? Which unfortunately means I miss a lot more stuff. So I think the hardest part right now is the stress of wanting to be in two places at once. Not wanting to miss out on the kids growing up and doing things, but also feeling bad about not being on as many rescue calls.

What do most people not know about TCSAR?
That it’s free. Even after 20 years on the team, we still run into people all the time who say they didn’t call because they were afraid of the expense. 

Ted Kyle at the Snow King Mountain ski shop. Photo: TCSAR Foundation

What is the most valuable lesson you’ve learned at TCSAR?
The value of teamwork. We do have a lot of absolute rockstar people, but it’s the way that we work together that gets stuff done. There aren’t many rescues where it comes down to just one person. 

Who has had the biggest impression on you?
I go back to founding member Doug Meyer. As a new member, I felt like he knew everything. Part of his personality was ‘my way or the highway.’ But if it was his way, you knew it was always gonna be the right way. Jake Urban also. Jake was always looking for the cutting edge of the latest techniques. I think he helped open the team’s eyes that we’re not just Teton County Search & Rescue but part of this whole Search & Rescue world and that we need to be on the front edge of it. And I think we are now.

What was it like to be a TCSAR member during Covid?
I was on the call for the avalanche victim up at Togwotee (February 18, 2021) when we were up there randomly training on snowmobiles. We were doing CPR and it was after we’d been vaccinated. There was this unspoken, ‘We’re just doing this and we’re not dealing with masks, and we’re not telling these young kids whose friend is dying in front of them that they’ve got to put on masks.’ It was like, ‘Alright, this is up to the vaccine.’

What advice do you have for someone who wants to be a volunteer?
Go for it. It’s an amazing experience. As a new team member, you might be asked to go buy pizza. You might be a paramedic but you might not get sent to the patient right away, and instead get sent for pizza. And as a new team member, you have to accept that that’s the way it is. 

What should people be thinking about when they’re going into the Jackson Hole backcountry?
It’s not SAR-related, but don’t leave trash out there. And call us if you need us.

Why have you stuck with it for 20 years?
The team, absolutely. It’s such a great group of people.

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Terri Romanowski
SR# 25
Dispatcher, Caretaker, Radio Coordinator

You might know Terri Romanowski as the dispatcher at Teton Village or as a tram operator for many seasons. It’s a long way from where she grew up in a tough neighborhood in East Cleveland, Ohio. As a kindergartener, she attended many different schools and was part of the federally mandated busing program to help desegregate schools in the 1970s.

In high school she entered a vocational education program for auto mechanics and beauty school training. Being a female, she was denied acceptance into auto mechanics even though she’d already rebuilt a carburetor and installed a C4 transmission. As Terri was saving for college, working as a beautician, she went to a temp agency and got a job in a lab for preventative maintenance analyzing oil machinery for Standard Oil (now British Petroleum). The company kept her on and paid for her college at Cleveland State and Cuyahoga Community College, eventually promoting her to national inventory accountant. After eight years, her job was eliminated as part of corporate downsizing.

She then traveled the world, visiting 36 countries, and decided to follow a lifelong dream by moving to Wyoming. With an uncle in Rock Springs, she moved to Jackson in 1996 and got a job as a lift operator at the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. Working as a tram op, she saw a need for more medical training and became a certified Red Cross instructor. A few years later, a tram mechanic named Steve “Chewy” Barker, a TCSAR member at the time, recommended that she apply for the team.

“He said, ‘You’re a good person, you can talk to people, you care about people, and you help people without being judgmental. You’d make a good rescuer,’” she recalls. 

On a pivotal moment at TCSAR and backcountry recreation:
In 2002, we had a mountain bike rescue on Teton Pass, where the patient said he had a shoulder injury on Black’s. After a drawn-out search, he was found elsewhere. After that, the Forest Service talked about not having mountain biking up there because it wasn’t organized and people were building illegal trails. This led, in part, to the formation of the Teton Freedom Riders, who came in and started building trails, which led to the network of trails on the pass.

What was a memorable mission in the beginning of your SAR career?
We were helping the Park and FBI investigate the death of a man in the Arizona Creek area. We had the whole team out there and I was with Ray Shriver, his dog and Glen Messersmith. When we got done, Ray said, “I didn’t want to alarm you, but we were being followed by a grizzly bear. I said, ‘Oh, my God, how did you know?’” This was a wake-up call for me. Ray always had a sixth sense.

How do you decompress after an intense rescue?
I had a lot of tragedy in my life growing up, and I’ve learned to deal with many different situations. I’ll visit nature, go on a hike, bike, ride horses or my dirt bike, as well talk to my brother. Animals also help me; they are my saviors. I currently have several animals I care for. My favorite is Bob Marley the horse, he always cheers me up.

Has being a SAR volunteer changed the way you operate in the backcountry?
My friend says I pack too much. He’ll lift my backpack before we do something and give me that look. I always carry a first aid kit and make sure I’m prepared.

What’s the hardest part about being a volunteer with TCSAR?
The hardest part is trying to juggle all of it. I want to do more for SAR but working three jobs just to make ends meet doesn’t give you enough time. You have to be creative to make it work.

“Don’t worry, about a thing, cause every little thing, is gonna be alright.” Photo: TCSAR Foundation

What motivates you to help out at so many Foundation education workshops?
Education is an important piece and the TCSAR Foundation, along with my fellow teammates that instruct, are doing a wonderful job with that. I feel like people are going out better prepared than they were before attending the programs, or at least we have them thinking before heading out. 

What do many people not know about TCSAR?
With more digital devices out there, people think they can take their cell phones and just call for a helicopter. And, you know, it’s not always that easy. For one thing, the helicopter is not always going to be available because of weather or you may not have cell reception. It may take hours for us to get to you.

What’s the most valuable lesson you’ve learned at TCSAR? 
There are situations that will humble you. Know your limitations and honor them. 

What makes a good TCSAR volunteer?
Someone who is patient, kind, understanding, willing to listen, to show up and be there, and be accepting of all types of people.

Who had the biggest influence on you?
Ray Shriver. He had this glow about him on rescues. Kathryn Hess as well, God rest her soul. She was always such a huge inspiration for me.

What’s the best thing to happen to Jackson in the last 20 years?
More wildlife awareness on the roads, mountain bike trails, the Foundation and hangar, which facilitates all the needed gear so we can help the community. We used to work out of our cars, storage units, and Adams Canyon.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to be a TCSAR volunteer?
Realize that it’s a job you’re not going to get paid for, and you may even spend money. But your pay is the reward of helping someone.

What keeps you coming back?
I love it. It’s my heart and soul. I may not be the best rescuer, but I know that I’ve touched a lot of people’s lives.

Buckle Up: Two TCSAR Members Recognized for Serving on the Team for 20 years

Each year, TCSAR recognizes its members who’ve passed the 5-, 10-, and 20-year marks by handing out limited-edition TCSAR belt buckles. There are two members who this year crossed the hallowed 20-year threshold: Carol Viau and Chris Stiehl, both of whom joined the team in the same class of 2000. There are only a handful of members who have been on the team longer: Tim Ciocarlan, Mike Moyer, and Mike Estes go back to the team’s founding in 1993, while Jenn Sparks joined in 1998. As a small gesture of honoring Viau and Stiehl’s commitment, we wanted to make sure you know who they are and why they continue to show up and give back. Together, they offer a unique perspective into how TCSAR as well as Jackson Hole has evolved and changed over the years.

Carol Viau and Chris Stiehl show off their fresh new TCSAR buckles. Thanks for all your hard work, sacrafice and dedication! Photo: TCSAR

The year 2000 was a big one for Carol Viau. After moving to Jackson from Layton, Utah, first in 1988, then returning in the early ’90s, she spent several years doing mostly seasonal work. This included ski instructing, construction, and waiting tables in Jackson, as well as commercial fishing and working for a heli ski company in Alaska, and spending a winter in Chamonix. But in Y2K, she started putting down roots, and got an office job. Then, she saw an ad in the paper that Teton County Search and Rescue was looking for new volunteers. She applied, went through training, and has been on the team ever since. 

“I remember asking my boss to have a certain schedule so that I could waitress in the evenings, and possibly leave the office to go on rescues,” she says. 

“On the best thing to happen to Jackson in the last 20 years:

”You can finally buy a good baguette in town.””

Her first rescue was a search for a hunter who’d been injured after falling off his horse near Bryan Flats south of town. As the team combed a ridgeline in the dark, she made a loud whistle, to which the hunter and his guide responded with a gun blast. When they approached the injured party, Carol saw the two men sitting next to a campfire. But in the flickering light of the flames, she was confused to see two legs hanging from one of the horses. The legs turned out to be prosthetics belonging to the injured hunter. A double amputee, he’d lost his legs in a farming accident after falling into a grain silo. When Carol asked him what his pain level was, he responded, “Not as bad as when I lost my legs.” The team loaded the large man into the wheeled litter, and trudged through the night. As Carol describes it, “We basically carried him through deep, slippery muck for hours and hours over a thousand downed logs.” 

The team got the man to an ambulance at 3 a.m. Exhausted, Carol drove home but still made it to work the next day, on time, at 7:15 a.m.

Carol Viau, in the early days of her TCSAR career. Photo: TCSAR

 On how things have changed at TCSAR:

 We used to meet in the County Commissioner chambers. Sometimes, the chambers would be full, and so we’d go to the Brew Pub and meet there. 

On why she has stayed on:

I like problem solving, and each rescue is a little bit different. Sometimes it’s straightforward and you see similarities. But it’s interesting to see the ways in which people get stuck and how you’re going to get them out. It’s definitely sent me to places in the county where I’d never been before, and a lot of times it’s not on a trail.

On the physical demands of being a SAR Volunteer:

After that first rescue, I thought, ‘Holy crap, that was exhausting. But that was awesome!’ It really opened my eyes to how physically hard this job can be.

On the hardest part about being a volunteer:

Having to choose between making money to pay my bills and going to help someone else. I like to joke that if I didn’t join SAR, maybe I’d be in a market home instead of an affordable home.

On finding balance:

My partner has been very supportive. He has a great understanding of how important SAR is to me. If we get a call-out, he’ll make me some food really quick or some hot tea for me to take. Now, the balance is figuring out a job that’s flexible so I can go out on rescues, as well as not be exposed to the coronavirus. The person I care for is elderly and can’t be exposed to the virus, and my mom is in assisted living and I want to be able to go visit her.

On something most people don’t know about SAR:

People look at it as this exciting thing, but maybe they don’t realize the toll it can take on some rescuers. If you join SAR, you’re going to see dead bodies, and a lot of times there will be physical trauma involved. Some people deal with it better than others, and I try not to judge. There will be times we have a fatality and we have to package the patient or victim, and if there’s enough of us, I’ll say, ‘If anyone doesn’t want to see this, you can step back.’ And sometimes that happens. I’ve tried to offer that to my teammates.

On the best thing to happen to Jackson in the last 20 years:

You can finally buy a good baguette in town.

On the best thing to happen to TCSAR in the last 20 years:

I never thought we’d have our own building or Foundation. We have a lot of equipment, support, and we have a place to meet. Not that it was bad before and I didn’t mind it, but we have a lot more resources now. Which is good because of the simultaneous increase in call-outs. If we didn’t have the resources, we wouldn’t be able to handle it. The burn-out rate would be really high and the team would not be nearly as efficient.

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Chris Stiehl (right) calls Ray Shriver (left) one of his most important mentors. Shriver passed away tragically while on a TCSAR mission in 2012. Photo: TCSAR

Chris Stiehl moved to Jackson in 1997 after graduating from Washington and Lee University, in Lexington, Virginia. He planned to stay for two years. While working at Plaza Liquors, he heard that Jackson Hole Fire/EMS was giving away free hot dogs as part of a public awareness campaign. As every 22-year-old ski bum knows, you let no free hot dog go by. The meeting propelled him to get his EMT, and he began volunteering to drive the ambulance. A few years later, in 2000, he applied for Teton County Search and Rescue. Today, he’s a fire captain, paramedic, husband, and father of two.

On why he joined TCSAR:

It seemed fun. You get to go do cool stuff, get trained, and helping other people was something that had an appeal to it. 

On what makes a good SAR volunteer: 

People assume it’s a collection of skill sets of a high level recreator. But it’s not. Nobody is ready to go right out of the gate because they are a climber, kayaker, or backcountry skier. The unexpected part is whether or not you are available. If you have a schedule to drop what you’re doing and respond, that’s a major asset.

Another big piece is if you fit into a team. It’s not a cool kids club. If you’re a jerk, you’re not going to be the best asset.

You also have to have an eagerness and humility to learn new things, and be able to accept mentoring and guidance.

On who influenced him:

Mike Moyer was always out ahead of me. He’s an OG on the SAR team, and a longtime high level medical provider in the valley. He showed me that doing frontcountry medicine is fun and rewarding, but taking those skills and applying it to backcountry conditions is about as rewarding as it gets to the way I’m wired. Also, Tim Ciocarlan and Ray Shriver were very important to our class of volunteers.

On finding balance:

Having a super supportive spouse has been the cornerstone of my success. Beyond that, the team feels as committed to me as I’m committed to them. As my participation ebbed and flowed due to work or family, I put pressure on myself but I never felt like I was on thin ice. It’s helped that the industry of SAR has evolved, allowing for better risk mitigation strategies, which has kept it interesting and exciting. Plus, you don’t just learn something once. You have to continue to get better.

On how TCSAR has changed over the years: 

We’re better able to support volunteers. We have better gear, and provide mental health and childcare support. Jet boats weren’t a thing when I joined the team. RZRs are new now, and, of course, the helicopter, which has changed the way we respond. It’s for the better, but I’m always cautious of having an over-reliance on technology. You still have to do the ground work.

On the best thing to happen to Jackson in the last 20 years:

The opening of the backcountry gates at Teton Village. It seemed like all the adults got in the room and said, ‘This is the right thing to do.’

On what most people don’t know about SAR:

The risk they impose on rescuers when they go out unprepared. If you need help, we don’t have the luxury of not going. Maybe we’re not going tonight, maybe the risk is too high for right now, but sooner or later, we’re dropping everything and we’re going to come.

 On keeping with it:

It’s a great family of rescuers to be part of. At this point, I might have some hard-earned wisdom to offer the next generation of folks. But I still want to be able to give back to a pretty awesome community and a really great team.