TUESDAY, September 1, 2026|
Photo – Search and Rescue members carry stranded hiker down the mountain – Courtesy CCSO
Carbon County Search and Rescue volunteers carried a stranded hiker off Medicine Bow Peak.
On Sunday, dispatchers with the Carbon County Unified Dispatch Center, a collaboration between the Sheriff’s Office and the Saratoga Police Department, received a call from a hiker stranded on Medicine Bow Peak. The caller reported being hypothermic and in need of assistance.
Sheriff Alex Bakken wrote on social media that deputies set up an Incident Command Post at the scene and called Carbon County Search and Rescue East volunteers to assist.
After formulating a plan, the Search and Rescue volunteers began their climb to the 12,018‑foot summit of Medicine Bow Peak. After an undisclosed amount of time, the volunteers located the hypothermic hiker and provided first aid. The victim was then loaded onto a gurney, and rescue personnel carried the hiker down the mountain to an awaiting South Central Wyoming EMS ambulance.
Sheriff Alex Bakken thanked the dispatchers, deputies, and searchers who assisted with the rescue, writing “without them, this story could have had a very different ending.”
