A paraglider went down on the west side of Mount Timpanogos Saturday morning, and a witness said the injured man got up under his own power and tried to hike back up the mountain before rescuers reached him. The crash was reported at about 9:49 a.m., and the man ultimately had to be hoisted off the peak by helicopter.
According to Gephardt Daily, a sheriff's sergeant identified only as Sgt. Edwards said the man was conscious and alert when crews arrived, and that he suffered moderate injuries. Despite the crash, the witness reported seeing him attempt to climb back up the slope on his own before a helicopter crew hoisted him to safety. Afterward, he reportedly drove himself by personal vehicle to get medical treatment.
The Utah County Sheriff’s Office says its Search and Rescue team has about 50 volunteers and typically responds to more than 100 missions a year. The team handles a range of emergencies, including high-angle rescues, medical calls and avalanches. The office says Mount Timpanogos has the county’s highest incident rate, attributing that to the peak’s accessibility and the number of people who visit it. The county’s Search and Rescue team serves a landscape that includes five peaks above 10,000 feet.
A Mountain With a History of Close Calls
Saturday's crash is far from the first time a paraglider has run into trouble on Mount Timpanogos. In August, a man in his mid-30s was paragliding near Mount Mahogany when he crashed near the north end of the mountain, suffering a broken leg and other minor injuries, Utah County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Raymond Ormond said at the time, according to the Herald Extra. Utah County Sheriff's Office Search and Rescue responded to that call as well.
The Herald Extra's reporting on the August incident noted more than a dozen paragliding accidents in the area over the previous 15 years, including at least two deaths. One of those deaths came just months before Saturday's crash: a paraglider died in June after crashing in Provo Canyon near Mount Timpanogos, according to KSL.com, in an incident serious enough that two helicopters searched for him while a third staged to transport him once found.
A Peak Known for Difficult Rescues
A separate volunteer program, the Timpanogos Emergency Response Team, was formed in 1983 after three fatal hiking accidents on the mountain the previous summer. In a standard year, about 150 volunteers staff the mountain on weekends from late June through September. They station radio operators at trailheads and a team near Emerald Lake, where volunteers provide basic first aid and relay information about more serious emergencies to Search and Rescue. The program is overseen by the sheriff’s office and the U.S. Department of Forestry.
Mount Timpanogos has long posed challenges for rescue crews working its steep terrain. Back in July 2017, a Utah Department of Public Safety helicopter crew used a cable hoist to pull emergency-response volunteer Talon Kohler off the mountain after he fell into a chasm and fractured both ankles, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. That rescue was one of 34 DPS helicopter rescues conducted statewide since Memorial Day that year, a pace that outstripped the roughly 100 helicopter rescues DPS had averaged annually in the preceding five years, with highs of 125 in 2014 and 121 in 2016, per the Tribune's reporting at the time.
No further details on Saturday's paraglider, including his identity or where he sought treatment, have been released.
