Ray Rides With Us

On this day, we commemorate the life and legacy of Ray Shriver. Ray was a founding member of Teton County Search & Rescue who died in a helicopter crash while on a rescue mission on February 15, 2012. He was also a father, partner, friend, dog-handler, skier, mountaineer, and valued community member. As seen in this photo (Ray is wearing the green helmet), he was instrumental in helping to train volunteers for short-haul and other helicopter operations, along with myriad other rescue skills.

Ray’s legacy of hard work and integrity lives on within TCSAR.

“Ray's serious focus during training and missions could be intimidating at times for younger team members, but the example he set was, ‘Keep your head in the game,'" remembers Mike Moyer, another founding member of TCSAR who continues to serve on the team.

“We do important and dangerous stuff,” Mike says. “There's a time for laughter and there's a time for kidding, but there’s also a time to keep our heads in the game, particularly when we’re doing the more risky stuff. 

“In Ray's honor, let’s keep our heads in the game.”

Thank you to all who continue to support TCSAR in Ray's honor. He will always be a source of inspiration for the entire TCSAR family.

The Fine Line podcast presents "The Ray Shriver Story"

On February 15, 2012, Teton County Search and Rescue received an emergency call to help an injured snowmobiler in the Togwotee area, about 60 miles northeast of Jackson, Wyoming. The response started like many others, with the team gathering at the hangar to decide on a plan. Given the remote nature of the accident, they decided to send the helicopter pilot with two SAR volunteers, Mike Moyer and Ray Shriver. The routine call would turn out to be anything but, as tragedy unfolded beneath the blue Wyoming sky, forcing the volunteers to search for their own, with Shriver, a founding TCSAR member, paying the ultimate price.

In this two-part series, TCSAR volunteers and Shriver’s two sons remember him as an influential, if hard-nosed, team member and father, and explain how they were able to emerge from the wreckage and move forward. We also speak with Moyer about the crash, while volunteers Carol Viau and Tim Ciocarlan talk about the team’s response and recovery.

Learn more about Shriver and how you can help the TCSAR Foundation keep his memory alive by visiting the Shriver Society page.

Thank you to Roadhouse Brewing Company for sponsoring The Fine Line and their support of backcountry safety in Jackson Hole.