2 Michigan Men Illegally Snowmobiling in Wyoming Wilderness Area Rescued Twice in Same Week

SnowBrains |
Credit: Chris Leigh TCSAR.

Teton County Search and Rescue were called out for a rescue on Sunday after two Michigan men illegally rode their snowmobiles into a clearly marked wilderness area and became stranded on the backside of Wyoming’s Angle Mountain. Jackson Hole News and Guide reports that the same search and rescue crews were called back again on Wednesday to rescue the same two men who had become stranded again after being allowed by the Bridger-Teton National Forest to snowshoe in and assist a helicopter they had privately contracted to recover their snowmobiles.

Imagine the look on the Search and Rescue team’s faces when they got to the stranded men only to realize they had just rescued them three days ago.  

Ryan Gibson, 29, and Keegan Pertu, 30, were apparently unable to exit the steep drainage both times, Jackson Hole News and Guide reports. 

“They should’ve never been in there.” Teton County Sheriff Matt Carr told the Jackson Hole Daily on Thursday.

Both of the Michigan men, who may not have understood the wilderness rules according to Carr, were issued citations for illegally trespassing on protected lands. 





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11 thoughts on “2 Michigan Men Illegally Snowmobiling in Wyoming Wilderness Area Rescued Twice in Same Week

  1. What can I say but that Michiganders can’t drive well, in any weather conditions, much less operate a snowmobile with any common sense. Lived in that State for 4 years and the collective IQ of the entire State is less than 40.

  2. Am party to the “privately contracted helicopter” these two had to hire to extract their sleds. Interesting place to need a ‘rescue’. Twice. Per standard, we had offered to ski/skin in to rig up the sleds for the pick, but the forest declined, making these guys go back in to the original short-haul site with snow shoes. Guess the improved footwear didn’t help them much – and shame they couldn’t interpret the boundary lines! Fortunately both sleds are out, expensive week for those two boys.

  3. 2 guys that are clearly idiots being idiots. Super democratic and non prejudice to take 2 idiots and slander ten of thousands of ppl.

    I’m sure they’re going to face heavy fines and be required to pay to helicopter their sleds outs. They won’t rot out there for eternity you fear mongering psychopath.

    Wilderness areas are artificial boundaries created mostly liberal tree hugging men (excuse my traditional pronoun). Many of these artificial boundaries didn’t exist a generation ago. Congratulations on making massive swaths of land completely unusable except for a bunch of tree hugging back packers and people riding horses with their selfie sticks. I’m sure in a generation they will be overgrown with dead timber and will go up in a nice monster wild fire because you made harvesting the timber and using mechanical means of cleaning up the forest illegal.

    No mtn bikes. No wheelchairs. No strollers. Just tree huggers and horses riders with selfie sticks.

    Open minded Geniuses….

  4. Am party to the “privately contracted helicopter” these two had to hire to retrieve thier snowmobiles. At just 1/3rd of a mile from a plowed road (granted down a drainage), a very unique call for help. Twice. We offered to ski/skin in to rig the sleds for the pick ourselves, but the forest didn’t like that idea, putting these two boys back into the terrain they were originally short-hauled out of. Apparently the rented snowshoes didn’t help them the second time around. Both sleds are out of the wilderness now, easy work for the helicopter. Expensive week for these boys though, shame they couldn’t interpret the boundary lines.

  5. Poor colin. Did you get your feelings hurt cause that is the only thing that is hurting from this.

  6. It’s mind boggling on what Snowbrains censors and what they don’t? Some comments are left up and others are deleted or changed to fit the agenda of the post. Almost like the mods themselves are posting comments? It really shows just how much you can swing the pendulum, when you run a website. When the author doesn’t like what was posted in the comments, they delete it. Or they post pats on the back and praise for themselves under a fake name, making their story seem like a stellar post. Comment sections can be messy, but they give the reader a chance to participate and either praise, give feedback or distain for the article. It’s such a minor part of the website that you have to work just a little to find. Leave the comment section alone and let it run it’s course.

    1. Hey Edward, appreciate your comment. On the whole, we do let the comment section run its course. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and we don’t censor based on our own views. However, we will delete comments that are rude and/or offensive, or contain obscenities. Hope this clears things up for you. Steven Agar, editor-in-chief.

  7. Waiting for another article helping some moron get insta-likes of his “dude, watch me trigger this avalanche and go for a ride ” video

  8. Can’t wait for the tough guys in CA to repeat that it is the environmentalists that are hurting the snowmobilers. Meanwhile yet another group of sledders who disregard clearly drawn lines because their equipment ability matches their distain for rules. It hurts their feelings that the lines are drawn on the maps by a government employee. Article doesn’t mention if these two idiots had to leave their snowmobiles to rot in the woods.

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