The Fine Line

In this gripping season finale of Season 9 from The Fine Line, we hear from Jason Dunlop, a Jackson Hole local who’s been going on solo snowmobile missions deep into the Wyoming backcountry for more than 15 years. In March 2025, his string of successful adventures came to a crashing halt, leading to a complicated rescue that revealed many difficult lessons. The episode covers several topics, such...

If a hunter falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, do they make a sound? Of course they do. They call for help and people come running. On this episode of The Fine Line, we look at at how a hunter happened to trip and fall in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the thickest of timber you can imagine, just as the sun was going down. The response led to an all-night mission from Te...

Resilience is like a whitebark pine tree: When life tries to beat you down, you stand up strong in the face of adversity.  So what does that mean for those of us who like to go into the mountains? In this episode of The Fine Line, we step aside from our stories of rescues to have a conversation about resilience and the importance of mental health as a backcountry safety issue. Our guests for this...

The most famous North Face in the United States... a terrible accident... a daring helicopter rescue... and some important lessons learned about risk and what it means to move on from chasing your dream. In this next episode of The Fine Line, climber Jim Dahle explains how a fall on the North Face of the Grand Teton left him unconscious, with severe head, neck, and facial trauma. His partner, Chri...

When climber Dave Black got a new lease on life after receiving a revolutionary treatment for Parkinson’s, he wanted to once again stand on the summit of the Grand Teton. A lifelong climber with 15-20 ascents on the Grand, he invited two younger climbers to join him for a push up the Exum Ridge on July 16, 2024. The events that occurred that day revealed several complex layers of high consequence...

Season 9 of The Fine Line begins. In this premiere episode, we go deep into a backcountry skiing accident that occurred on May 18, 2024.
Mark Fellermann and Tanner Flanagan recount how a picture-perfect spring day turned into a near-death experience after an accident in the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort backcountry.
Meanwhile, Teton County Search & Rescue volunteer Brook Yeomans explains how this r...

A new season of The Fine Line drops on May 29. Join Teton County Search & Rescue Foundation and Backcountry Zero as we bring you honest conversations about how accidents happen in the backcountry, and how first responders solve complex problems to get people home safely. In the first of six episodes, Season 9 begins with a story about a backcountry ski accident outside the boundary of Jackson Hole...

Season 8 of The Fine Line concludes with a wild story that demonstrates how there will always be people who go right up to the edge in the Tetons, and venture beyond it despite the risks. The story includes the keen perspectives of Teton County Search & Rescue volunteer Anthony Stevens and TCSAR Chief Pilot Steve Wilson, and how they rescued local snowboarder Sasha Motivala after a traumatic accid...

Mount Glory is well known among backcountry skiers and snowboarders. But as a summer hiking trail? Not quite the same draw. And yet, for Lou and Kathy Fatkin, it made for the ideal location when they set out for a hike up the steep, dusty trail on July 16, 2023. Their story about the consequences of that day, despite the hardship, lends inspiration for experiencing some of our country's most treas...

There are a million and one ways for people to get into trouble in the backcountry. And it is unfair to assume that everyone is being reckless. Sometimes, they just get their foot stuck. In this episode of The Fine Line, Teton County Search & Rescue volunteer Doug Van Houten takes us back to an incident from 2018 when the SAR team had to pull out all the stops in order to help a Nordic skier get o...

Season 8 of The Fine Line rolls onward with a story about a mountain bike crash with potentially serious consequences on a trail near Teton Pass, Wyoming. The episode dives into the effectiveness of the BackcountrySOS app, and how Teton County Search & Rescue volunteers responded with delicate treatment of potentially life-altering injuries. Thanks to Rick Gordon and Dr. Tobin Dennis for sharing t...

Teton County Search & Rescue volunteer Carol Viau, one of the longest tenured members on the team, shares this memorable story from her very first rescue. It was October 26, 2000, a time before cell phones were ubiquitous, and when most callouts for TCSAR required good old-fashioned boots on the ground. "A Whistle in the Dark" reveals how and why someone is drawn to be a first responder, how intui...

Two bikepackers embark on the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, a 2,700-mile journey that traverses the Rockies from the Mexico border all the way to Canada. During their trip, a seemingly little decision comes back to haunt them in a big way, right as their route enters one of the most remote parts of Teton County, Wyoming. This episode not only reveals the challenges of preparing for such an und...

Season 8 of The Fine Line begins with a story from one of the most recognizable features of the southern Teton range, and a ski line that makes even the bravest skiers buckle their boots a little bit tighter: Cody Peak’s Central Couloir. On Saturday March 18, 2023, skiers Will Brown and Jacqueline Dickey dropped into Central after hiking out to the top of Cody from the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort...

There aren’t many mountain bike trails in Jackson Hole as classic as the one called Ferrin’s. Built in 2005, the trail is one of the most popular in Jackson due to its challenging terrain, proximity to town, and linkage to other trails. But like any classic trail, it has inherent dangers that can take down even the best riders. In this episode of The Fine Line, we close out Season 7 with a wild st...

On March 29, 2023, skier Dave Brown felt a sudden onset of extreme fatigue that was entirely new to him, and terribly serious. At 67 years old, the former ski patroller had never had any previous medical issues. But during a backcountry ski tour near Teton Pass, he knew he needed to get help—and get it fast. In this episode of The Fine Line, we’ll hear how Brown and his ski partner made a critical...

How far back is far enough from the edge of a cornice? 10 feet, 20 feet, 30? On March 5, 2023, Jordan Bluse found out the hard way. He was riding his snowmobile with a group of friends in the Salt River Mountain Range outside of Afton, Wyoming, when a large cornice sheared off below him. He and his snowmobile fell through the cornice and tumbled down 1,200 vertical feet over multiple cliff bands....

On July 13, 2022, three friends went out for a mountain bike ride on a trail they'd done too many times to count: the classic Ferrins-West Game-Cache Creek loop just outside of Jackson, Wyo. But the ride gets cut short when one of the riders has a violent crash, leaving him with severe injuries and a complicated rescue. In this episode of The Fine Line, the incident demonstrates how even the most...

When skier Benton Hodges heard trees snapping and saw a huge powder cloud below him from an avalanche on Albright Peak in Grand Teton National Park, he thought he’d be in a life-or-death struggle to recover his buried friend. Instead, friend Charlie Pirc was saved when he struck a tree, preventing him from being buried in the 2,000-foot-long avalanche but leaving him with severe injuries high on t...

On June 25, 2022, Terri Evenson and Brit West drove a truck and horse trailer way out into a little known corner of the Tetons. The Coyote Meadows trailhead is in Teton County, Wyoming, but it's at least a two-hour drive from Jackson. With three horses and a couple of dogs, they were aiming for a hidden valley deep inside the Jedediah Smith Wilderness, a vast landscape of snow-covered mountains an...

When climbers Lars Schou and Sahir Enriquez joined up to climb the Open Book in Grand Teton National Park on July 25, 2021, they were confident it would be a beautiful “Sunday cruise” in the mountains. On the third pitch, however, Schou took a bad fall and sustained major injuries to both of his legs. In this episode, Schou and Enriquez discuss the ordeal, while Jenny Lake Climbing Ranger Philip E...

When the emergency call came in to TCSAR on February 6, 2022, the report said that the patient had crashed on his snowmobile and could not feel his arms or legs. In this episode, TCSAR volunteers Dr. AJ Wheeler and Ryan Combs explain how the team responds to such severe injuries in a remote location. And we hear directly from the snowmobiler about how the crash happened—and how he's doing now. Tha...

Just one ridge to the south from the top of Teton Pass, Wyo., Chivers Ridge is known as a popular backcountry ski run for its ease of access. But it also features steep drop-offs on either side, as well as manmade infrastructure such as power lines and cables that you may not always expect to find on a backcountry run. On January 23, 2022, Matt Bambach, a 29-year-old skier, found this out the hard...

While many Jackson Hole locals flocked to the Tetons for a day of powder skiing on February 15, 2020, Teton County Search & Rescue volunteers loaded up their heavy packs for routine training on Snow King Mountain. But the training session quickly turned into a life-or-death emergency when longtime TCSAR volunteer Robb Sgroi came down with a rare and severe form of anaphylaxis. Most people associat...

The consequences of not communicating in the mountains became abundantly clear on January 22, 2022, when skiers Collin Binko and Michael Martin encountered a lone snowboarder at the base of the Sliver Couloir in Grand Teton National Park. All three had eyes on the same prize, but neither party talked to the other. What happened next has been a frequent topic of conversation in the backcountry comm...