As mountain biking and hiking season ramps up in Park City, the Park City Fire District is brushing up on backcountry rescue skills to prepare for an increase in trail-related emergencies.
Park City Fire’s crews train regularly in off-road rescues, equipped to respond rapidly to injured trail users. That system was put to the test on Saturday morning when Battalion Chief Sean Briley staged a mock rescue, posing as an injured mountain biker off the La Dee Duh Trail at Round Valley.
Every year, the volume of backcountry rescues climbs. The district’s summer rescues average around 35 and are rising, as more residents and visitors venture into the more than 500 miles of trails surrounding Park City, said Capt. Matt Provost. To meet this demand, the Park City Fire District has invested in technology and training.
Briley’s mock call alerted Station 33 of the nearby incident, providing his cell number and GPS coordinates. Response teams manually entered coordinates into their trail mapping platforms of choice, some using familiar hunting map applications or simply Google. Battalion Chief Max Dosher and the crew then began assessing the best access points to rapidly reach Briley’s location at Round Valley.
The district employs three electric Zero FX motorcycles, valued for their simplicity and speed, allowing firefighters quick access even on challenging terrain. First responders on motorcycles can more rapidly assess situations, relaying patient details and planning for rescue stages.
Following Briley’s call to dispatch, Dosher deployed the first responder on a motorcycle to his coordinates via the Highland trailhead. There, responding firefighters prepared the ambulance while the first responders extracted the (uninjured) patient.
“The first thing is always locating,” said Provost. “That’s why we really rely heavily on our motorcycles. It’s a rapid response, we get to the patient, and then from that point we can get a plan together. Is it going to be somewhere that the side-by-side can just ride right up to the patient? Or is it something where they’re going to have to come to a fire road or an open meadow, and then from that point get them on foot.”
Following initial assessments, firefighters deploy specialized utility vehicles — a side-by-side capable of climbing nearly every trail system in Park City, from Flying Dog to the Wasatch Crest. Having access to the patient by way of the first responder on the motorcycle, the side-by-sides can then safely extract patients to an ambulance posted at the nearest possible access if needed, and then to the hospital.
Within 20 minutes of Briley’s call, the first responder on the motorcycle had reached him, followed closely by Capt. Chad Kramer and Engineer Tyler McAllister driving the side-by-side with additional medical equipment.
“This is how we actually get people off the trail,” said Dosher. “If we’re lucky, we can drive the side-by-side right to them. If not, we wheel them out on a stretcher and load them up that way.”
After evaluating the “injury,” Briley was secured into a Stokes basket — a stretcher mounted on a single terrain-ready wheel — and guided back to the side-by-side. Once loaded into the back of the vehicle, McAllister took the wheel, navigating slowly and steadily down the trail toward the Highland trailhead. The gentle ride was crucial to avoid jostling a real patient, but McAllister added that extra caution felt wise with two of his commanding officers riding in the back.
For narrow singletrack trails like La Dee Duh, the side-by-side is swapped for a Stokes basket outfitted with a single all-terrain wheel, allowing rescuers to extricate Briley from his location roughly 0.1 mile beyond the vehicle’s last accessible point. Credit: Michael Ritucci for the Park Record 
Credit: Michael Ritucci for the Park Record 
Credit: Michael Ritucci for the Park Record
The biggest priority and concern for rescuers, next to patient care, is response time. All of the gear and apparatus that support the district’s backcountry rescue program are geared toward efficiently securing and accessing the injured patient.
“Don’t ever think twice about calling. Getting us to come early can be the difference between a good outcome and a bad outcome,” said Provost. “Even if it’s something that once we get there, we get them back down to the trailhead, and they start feeling better. We would so much rather that than the opposite.”