SALT LAKE CITY — It's a busy time of year for search and rescue crews all around the state.
South Davis Metro Fire had to perform a hoist rescue from Mueller Park's Elephant Rock on Sunday after a hiker got stuck and couldn't get down on his own. He was OK in the end.
There were several others in the last couple of weeks from Mount Superior to Grand County with successful outcomes, but sadly, it was a tragic outcome Saturday in the Weber River. A teenage boy died in the hospital after being pulled out of the Weber River.
Sgt. Sean Endsley with the Weber County Sheriff's Office spoke to reporters on Monday about the incident.
"This is a horrible tragedy for this young man, his family and his friends, and our hearts go out to his family," Endsley said.
WATCH: Officials encourage water safety measures after Weber River search and rescue ends in tragedy
Four teenage boys were playing with airsoft guns near the Weber River Saturday when two jumped into the water. One didn't resurface. Rescue crews were called in to help and managed to find the young man 90 minutes later. He was flown to Primary Children's Hospital, where he died a few hours later.
Endsley said conditions around the local rivers are dangerous right now.
"It’s still very cold. While we’ve not seen the classic swift water conditions we’ve seen in the last couple years, there are still spots in all the water where there are swift water conditions, there are undercurrents and people need to use extreme caution around these bodies of water," he said.
Meanwhile, the Utah County Sheriff's office got a call for help late Sunday from a group of young men who got lost while hiking up Lone Peak and were stuck in the cold weather with a storm coming in. That 911 call was received just before 7 p.m.
"When the temperatures warm up, people get out on the trails and recreate, and it’s usually a busy season for us," said Sgt. Zac Robinson with the Utah County Sheriff's Office. "Basically they were lost, the storm came in, they got rained on, they were freezing and they just couldn’t get down the mountain — it was too slick."
He shared a video with FOX 13 News of the Utah Department of Public Safety's helicopter lifting the boys to safety. However, he said they had quite a scare when rescuing the first two boys who had called for help and they discovered there were two more somewhere on the mountain.
"We didn’t know where they were, and luckily, one of those boys had a little bit of cellphone power left and called 911," Robinson said.
Robinson said the hikers did the right thing by calling for help, believing that if they hadn't been found, they could have died from the cold overnight.
"The temperatures were dropping, they weren’t dressed for the weather, it was cold," Robinson said. "They did the right thing by calling for help when they got in trouble, and luckily, their cellphones did have some battery life left."
Robinson reminds the public that making sure you have a fully charged cellphone can make all the difference — especially since many now have the ability to call 911 even when out of service. He says you should also always tell someone where you're going and when you plan on returning.
Robinson was one of the rescuers on Sunday and said the boys sure seemed grateful.
"They were just so cold and shaky and they were just so glad to get off the mountain and get a cup of hot chocolate in them," he said.
