Saturday night, the Gallatin Sheriff’s Office received an alert near Grotto Falls, where a climber’s GPS had alerted them of a fall.
The climber was identified as 36-year-old Kyle Allen Rott, an avid member of the Bozeman climbing community. Jason Revisky with Gallatin County Sheriff Search and Rescue describes the rescue.
"Just by chance there was a group of three SAR members who were ice climbing at the time in the Grotto Falls area and were able to deploy much quicker, given their location to the accident."
Revisky says that the report came from a hiker who witnessed the fall from a trailhead below. He says the hiker:
"Was able to access the patient and use his SPOT beacon to send a notification signal with the coordinates."
After signaling officials, the hiker called the Sheriff's Office from the base of Hyalite Canyon to provide further details of the accident.
"During that time, the rest of the organization was deploying teams with equipment to the area, given that this was going to require technical extrication and a significant amount of medical equipment to provide a higher level of care to that patient," says Revisky.
Rott was transported by rescuers to Bozeman Health Deaconess Regional Medical Center, where he later succumbed to blunt-force trauma injuries.
Revisky says that climbers take many precautions to ensure their safety, but the inherent risk of such an extreme sport can cause any accident to be severe.
"I think our community should be very proud of their Search and Rescue volunteers who work tirelessly to provide rescue services," says Revisky.
