Teton County Search and Rescue helps 16-year-old mountain biker after Teton Pass crash

JACKSON (WNE) — Teton County Search and Rescue rescued a 16-year-old Jackson boy on Friday after he crashed mountain biking on Parallel Trail on Teton Pass.

Parallel is a downhill-only trail that runs alongside Highway 22. The 1.5-mile trail descends 707 feet from the intersection of Jimmy’s Mom and Powerline Jumps to the parking lot on Old Pass Road. The expert-level trail features gap jumps, roots and drops.

Trails on Teton Pass are among the most advanced mountain biking routes in Jackson Hole, said Cody Lockhart, Search and Rescue chief advisor.

“We have a bunch of rescues on those trails every year,” he said.

At 1 p.m. Friday, Search and Rescue received word of the injured rider and volunteers drove a truck to Old Pass Road. Rescuers and Jackson Hole Fire/EMS’ paramedics assessed the rider’s injuries and packed him into a wheeled litter, wheeling him half a mile down the Parallel Trail to an ambulance waiting at the Old Pass Road trailhead.

The rider was seriously injured and had to go to the hospital but will likely be okay, Lockhart said.

Search and Rescue conducts rescues like this one often, Lockhart said. Typically, rescuers begin at a high elevation point on the trail, allowing them to access the patient by descending.

Once the young cyclist was packaged in the litter, rescuers pushed it downhill to the ambulance, Lockhart said.

It was Search and Rescue’s first mountain biker rescue of the summer.

This story was published on May 27, 2025.