Search and rescue team evacuates impaled hiker from Blueberry Lake
Volunteers from Tip Top Search and Rescue use a wheeled litter to safely transport a hiker whose leg was impaled by a stick down the steep, rocky terrain back to the Boulder Lake trailhead on May 23. Courtesy photo.
PINEDALE (WNE) β A 72-year-old man whose lower leg was impaled by a stick while he was hiking near Blueberry Lake was evacuated by volunteers from Tip Top Search and Rescue at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 23.Β
The manβs hiking partners applied an improvised tourniquet to try to control the bleeding, but they needed help getting 1.5 miles back to the Boulder Lake trailhead.Β
While most people were well into their three-day weekend, TTSAR volunteers left their plans and families and responded to the Boulder campground, where they hiked in to meet the injured man.Β
Upon arrival, TTSAR members determined additional measures were necessary to control the bleeding. They applied pressure to the wound, replaced the make-shift tourniquet with a more effective combat application tourniquet, or CAT-T, packaged the patient and prepared to transport him to the trailhead.Β
Volunteers used a wheeled litter to evacuate the patient down the rocky, steep terrain. EMS was staged at the trailhead, where they rendezvoused with the search and rescue team. The man was transported to the Sublette County Hospital emergency room for medical attention.
This story was published on May 28, 2026.Β