The Fine Line

In this episode, two Jackson Hole boaters recall an epic spring when big water lured them to the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho. With the traditional boat launch closed, they put in at Marsh Creek, a tributary running fast, cold and choked with woody debris.

An ideal ski day on March 3, 2017, turns into an epic rescue and stunning revival on Maverick Peak in Grand Teton National Park.

Rene Etter-Garrette had been living in Jackson Hole for six winters. He'd found mentors willing to share their backcountry knowledge and skied challenging lines in Grand Teton National Park.

On Feb. 4, 2016, Rene and two friends decided to ski the Spoon Couloir on Disappointment Peak. Rene had started to question the risks of backcountry skiing after a close friend had died in avalanche just a few weeks earlier. But on this day, avalanche danger had been rated moderate, and Rene had skied the same line several times before without trouble.

Backcountry skiers call the Mosquito Creek Drainage, "The Black Hole." It's a place where the terrain looks disarmingly similar, luring skiers downslope, away from Teton Pass, until it's too late and you're at the bottom. It's an easy mistake to make but can have life-threatening consequences as Craig Benjamin and Zach Jakub discovered during a backcountry tour on January 20, 2002, when a storm blew in.

It's a parent's worst fear. Your children, all three of them, vanish in the wilderness. In 2015, three sisters, Megan, Erin and Kelsi Andrews-Sharer, embarked on what started out as a dream backpacking trip into the Gros Ventre Wilderness.

This is Part 2 of our story. Listen to Part 1 to hear how the sisters lose their way in the face of disappearing trails, endless river crossings, avalanche debris and dwindling food supplies.

In this episode, we talk with the sisters, their parents and a Search and Rescue volunteer about how the Jackson Hole community mobilizes to find them. The sisters have no way to call for help and have left few clues to pinpoint their location.

It's a parent's worst fear. Your children, all three of them, vanish in the wilderness. In this episode, we talk with three sisters, Megan, Erin and Kelsi Andrews-Sharer, about what started as a five-day backpacking trip in the Gros Ventre Wilderness in the summer of 2015. This story has so many twists and turns, we split it into two parts. In Part One, we find out how even when you know where you are, you can become trapped by the unexpected.

A sudden, prolonged snowstorm on Sept. 11, 1985, stranded two parties on the Grand Teton. One party included Greg Findley, Nils Green and John Atthowe, all in their early 20s. Findley and Atthowe met at a National Outdoor Leadership School course in Lander, Wyo., in l98l and met Green, who was about to be married, that summer in Jackson Hole. The other party, Paul Johnson, 40, and his climbing partner of 15 years, Ken Webb, 37, had driven down from Seattle to climb the peak. Grand Teton National Park climbing rangers Renny Jackson and Jim Woodmencey recall the harrowing rescue that unfolded.

Grand Teton National Park backcountry ranger John Carr and Bear Management Specialist Katherine Wilmot discuss a close encounter with a mother grizzly and two cubs and discusses the behaviors and response that likely saved his life.

In the first episode of The Fine Line, ski mountaineer Jesse Stover describes how a single step on Teewinot Mountain turns the perfect ski day into a fight for survival. We also hear from Teton County Search and Rescue volunteer and medical advisor Dr. AJ Wheeler and Grand Teton National Park rescue ranger Philip Edmunds who were both involved in the harrowing rescue to save Jesse's life and limb.