Four lost hikers safely rescued in Snowy Range by Albany County crews

Albany County deputies and search crews pulled four lost hikers to safety from the Reservoir Lake area in the Snowy Range Mountains after an initial call for two disoriented people came in at about 1:47 p.m. on June 22.

What began as a routine backcountry response widened quickly when dispatchers and rescuers learned there were actually four hikers who needed help, not just two. Albany County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue was activated, and the group was ultimately escorted out without injuries.

The call landed in one of the county’s busiest and most demanding public-safety environments. Albany County covers about 4,500 square miles, and the sheriff’s office relies on a volunteer search-and-rescue team that operates under the sheriff’s authority and provides its services free of charge.

The Snowy Range keeps generating these kinds of rescues because the terrain can change fast for people who know the area only as a day-trip destination. The range sits about 35 miles west of Laramie and is part of the Medicine Bow National Forest, where the U.S. Forest Service says recreation runs year-round from hiking and fishing to snowmobiling, skiing, off-highway vehicle riding, camping and biking. Visit Laramie says hikers should be ready for snow any time of year and notes that the mountains rise from roughly 9,000 feet to 12,000 feet.

This rescue also showed how quickly a search can become more resource-intensive when the size of the lost party changes mid-call. Deputies, search-and-rescue volunteers and communications staff had to adjust as the situation shifted from two missing hikers to four, expanding the scope of the response in a high-country setting where weather, visibility and trail conditions can change in short order.

Wyoming’s Office of Homeland Security says the state averages more than 300 search-and-rescue missions a year, with calls often tied to hiking, hunting, snowmobiling, skiing, snowboarding and vehicle incidents. Albany County Search & Rescue’s archive shows the Snowy Range has produced repeated missions before, including a 2016 call for a missing snowmobile family and a 2016 rescue for an injured skier on Centennial Ridge.