UTAH COUNTY, Utah, Oct. 19, 2024 (Gephardt Daily) — A rescue operation began Saturday morning after a Mount Timpanogos hiker reported he could not feel his feet, so was unable to make it back to the Timpooneke Trailhead in American Fork Canyon, his starting point.
Utah County Sheriff spokesman Sgt. Spencer Cannon said helicopters with hoists aren’t typically called in for “somebody who’s just having a little hypothermia.”
But they called in helicopters, in this case, because “the feet are the problem, and they can’t walk. And carrying them down would take many hours to do from that location, and so they’ve called for helicopters to do the hoist.”
A Life Flight and a Utah Department of Public Safety helicopter responded.
The call came to dispatch at about 11:30 a.m., Cannon said at about 1:45 p.m. Another hiker near the scene was assisting the victim, who is a man believed to be in his mid-20s. Search and rescue crews are hiking to the scene, and will carry the man down if he cannot be reached with the helicopter hoist.
“It’s a steep switchback kind of area, but if the helicopter can land, they will use a hoist.” Carrying the man down would be the backup plan if other plans fail, Cannon said.
Cannon later confirmed the man was airlifted out, checked out at the scene, and driven to his residence. Cannon said that in most cases, mild hypothermia is easy to treat.
“The advice I would give to anyone going up there is to be well-prepared,” Cannon said. “This person was clearly not. It’s possible he may have encountered some conditions that he was not anticipating. But anytime you go up there, but especially this time of year, you have to plan for the worst. And the worst is that you’re going to either come upon snow or you’re going to get snow and cold weather.”
It was about 48 degrees in the valley this morning, so it was probably in the 20s or 30s at the hiker’s elevation, Cannon speculated. He added that he didn’t know how long the man had been up there, and did not know if the man had spent the night there or hiked up this morning.
“Anyway, just make sure you’re well-prepared, especially this time of year, for winter conditions.”
