Sugarloaf Snowmobile Incident Proves Importance of Not Recreating Alone, Sheriff Burnett Says

A 39-year-old man from Woodland was airlifted to Central Washington Hospital Friday afternoon after breaking his leg while snowmobiling near Sugarloaf Lookout, about 12 miles northeast of Leavenworth.

Just before 1 p.m. Friday, a Chelan County Sheriff’s Deputy and Forest Service officer were on routine snowmobile patrol near Sugarloaf when they saw a snowmobiler who appeared stuck at the bottom of a steep slope on the east side of the lookout. They made their way down and found Benjamin Hayden, who had suffered a fractured lower leg while attempting to free his snowmobile after it became stuck in the deep snow. Hayden was by himself and had been trying to free his snowmobile for nearly two hours before the officers arrived.

While the officers were stabilizing Hayden’s leg, he went unconscious and became unresponsive. Due to the remote location, a Life Flight Helicopter was requested and at 2:30, Hayden was transported from the scene by Life Flight to Central Washington Hospital in Wenatchee.

The Chelan County Sheriff Brian Burnett would like to remind snowmobilers that they should never ride alone. He said in this case if the officers would not have been in the area, Hayden may not have been discovered until he was reported overdue.