'Cliffed out' Glacier National Park climber rescued by Two Bear Air

A woman was airlifted off Mount Reynolds in Glacier National Park on Sunday, Aug. 10 in a dramatic rescue.

The woman, whose name was not released, became “cliffed out” on the peak and used a cell phone to call for help, said park spokeswoman Autumn Sifuentes. 

When a person is “cliffed out” they find themselves in a situation where they can’t go either up or down a mountain cliff. 

“Park staff were able to spot the climber from a distance and saw that they were in an unsafe position, after becoming cliffed out. Two Bear Air was requested to help hoist the climber from their unsafe location. Two Bear Air located the climber and successfully hoisted them out,” Sifuentes said in an email to the Hungry Horse News. There was no report of any injuries.

“We located the solo female clinging to the rock wall. Our rescue specialist was inserted to a ledge directly below her location and was able to help her down to the ledge. We hoisted both into the helicopter and flew her to Logan Pass, where she was turned over to Park Rangers,” Two Bear Air said in a Facebook post, which includes several video views of the rescue. 

Reynolds is the oft-photographed and iconic peak just south of Logan Pass. 

In the month of July alone, Two Bear Air, which is privately funded out of Kalispell by philanthropist Mike Goguen, has made eight hoists to rescue people in distress in the local and regional woods of Northwest Montana, said Two Bear Air rescuer and retired Flathead County Sheriff Chuck Curry. 

Locally, one rescue was in the Bob Marshall Wilderness for a woman who had a leg injury and another in the Jewel Basin that also had a leg injury. 

Curry noted that three of those hoists were from one incident in Ravalli County. 

The rescue helicopter covers a huge swath of territory, including all of Montana, Idaho and eastern Washington and Oregon.