Rebecca Anderson, Tyler Strandberg, and Catherine Nix, set out from Jackson for the summit of Teewinot on smoky Saturday morning. They were going up East Face. By 11:15, Anderson realized something was wrong. Her climbing partners were nowhere to be seen.
Presumably, they had fallen. Stuck on a small ledge at 11500 feet with no view of what lay below, Anderson yelled for her companions, but heard no reply. That’s when Anderson dialed 911 on her cellphone and was routed to the Teton Interagency Dispatch Center.
Rangers crafted a plan to reach the party. They would use a helicopter and insert themselves via the ‘short-haul’ technique. Suspended from below the copter, three rangers were lowered to the site where Strandberg and Nix were located, a small ledge just above the “Worshipper Tower” and well off the East Face route in much more difficult technical terrain. The crew, while in radio consultations with Park Medical Director, Dr. Will Smith, pronounced Strandberg and Nix dead at the scene.
It took rangers another hour of steep and technical climbing to reach Anderson. She was moved by helicopter to Lupine Meadows by about 4:15 PM.
The climbing trio was not using ropes at the time of the accident and was apparently trying to regain the normal route.
The climbing party all resided in Jackson.
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