TCSAR received a call at 9:45 on Sunday, October 16th from the wife of one of the subjects. The weather was partly cloudy in the morning but deteriorated throughout the day with rain, sleet, hail and snow. 6-10 inches of snow was reported at the scene.
TCSAR arrived at Darby Canyon at mid-day and began coordinating with Driggs SAR who was already on scene. After initially checking the wind and ice cave entrances, it was decided to assemble teams to do a through trip of the cave.
Both teams entered the cave in the early evening. Around 9:30pm one team found notes left from the missing party inside the cave, dated at 2pm. The note read that the party was headed toward the ice cave entrance and needed help.
At this point, another team was assembled to head back into the wind cave to wait for one hour to see if the missing subjects arrived. Th subjects were found and all teams exited the wind cave by 1:45am. All volunteers and the subjects arrived at incident command by 4am.
This was a huge effort put forward by the 40+TCSAR and Driggs team members, over 9 members of the public. The operation time lasted 19.5 hours.
For more information please contact Teton County Sheriff’s Department.
