Helicopter Hoist Pulls Injured Hiker From Cliff Ledge on Mount Timpanogos
Sheriff's office releases footage of hoist operation that saved injured hiker from narrow ledge at 11,000 feet
The Utah County Sheriff’s Office released helmet-camera footage this week showing a rescue specialist lowered onto a narrow cliff ledge 11,000 feet up Mount Timpanogos, where a hiker had been stranded since sliding several hundred feet off the trail on Oct. 26.
The woman, whose name has not been released, suffered serious injuries in the fall. She came to rest on a precarious shelf near the summit of the 11,752-foot peak, the second-highest in the Wasatch Range. A sheriff’s office search plane spotted her first, circling until a Utah Department of Public Safety helicopter could reach the location.
Video from the operation shows the rescue specialist descending on a hoist line, securing the hiker into an air-lift vest, and both being raised together into the helicopter. The DPS crew then flew her to a waiting ambulance. Lone Peak Fire Department medics transported her to Utah Valley Hospital.
The sheriff’s office said Tuesday she is recovering well.
Mount Timpanogos draws thousands of hikers each year to its two main trails — Aspen Grove and Timpooneke — each a roughly 14-mile round trip with nearly 5,000 feet of elevation gain. By late October, conditions shift rapidly. Snowfields freeze into ice ramps. Scree fields turn unstable. The mountain’s glacier, a persistent hazard, has claimed lives for decades.
The Timpanogos Emergency Response Team formed in 1983 after multiple fatalities in ice crevasses. This year alone, DPS helicopters have conducted at least four hoist rescues on the peak, including two over Labor Day weekend and another in September when a man tumbled down an embankment.
County sheriffs in Utah are legally responsible for search and rescue in their jurisdictions. The Utah County SAR team fields about 50 volunteers who respond to more than 100 calls annually. A fixed-wing aircraft added to the fleet in 2022 has improved initial spotting — exactly how this rescue began.
As winter approaches, the same trails that took this hiker to the summit will become mountaineering routes requiring ropes, crampons, and avalanche awareness. The sheriff’s office continues to warn that summer hiking experience does not translate to late-season safety on Timpanogos.
