Rescuers said the couple’s machine left a marked trail and hit a tree near Togwotee Pass.
ORLANDO, FL — An Orlando man was killed and his wife was seriously injured in a snowmobile crash during a guided outing in northwest Wyoming, according to search-and-rescue officials and the couple’s family. The crash happened Jan. 26 near Togwotee Pass, east of Jackson.
Joshua Escamilla, 31, died after the snowmobile he was riding left a trail and struck a tree, officials said. His wife, Katelyn Escamilla, was airlifted to a hospital in Idaho and remained hospitalized more than a week later, relatives told a Florida television station. The incident drew fresh attention to a string of winter rescues and fatalities in the same region, where local teams have been responding repeatedly to snowmobile crashes.
Search-and-rescue officials said they were notified at 1:13 p.m. Jan. 26 of a crash involving two patients, a man and a woman, who were riding tandem on one snowmobile as part of a small guided group. The crash happened on the L Trail in the Togwotee Pass area, a corridor of groomed routes and backcountry access in the mountains of western Wyoming. The trail runs near the highway for several miles before turning north toward Turpin Meadows, according to the rescue team’s report.
Two Teton County sheriff’s deputies already in the area responded by snowmobile from Togwotee Mountain Lodge, rescuers said, while another deputy set up a landing zone along the highway for aircraft. Deputies reached the crash site around 2 p.m. The man was initially reported as responsive but badly injured, and the woman was reported as unresponsive but breathing, according to the rescue team’s account. As crews were working, the man went into cardiac arrest and could not be revived, officials said.
The woman was evacuated by air to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls, Idaho, rescuers said. The rescue team said it used a helicopter and ground teams and requested additional support, including ambulances and another helicopter. The response ended with the woman transferred to an air medical crew at the landing zone and flown out for treatment.
In Orlando, family members said the trip to Wyoming was meant to be another stop in a life built around travel and shared plans. Katelyn Escamilla’s cousin, Jaclyn DiMatteo, said the couple met at the University of Central Florida and married in 2019, then settled in Orlando with their dog, Ollie. She said both later worked at Lockheed Martin. “They’re travelers, they love traveling the world together. They love traveling the globe,” DiMatteo said in an interview.
DiMatteo said Katelyn Escamilla was still in the hospital more than a week after the crash and had been sedated. Doctors were watching for signs she could wake up, and relatives hoped to move her to a facility closer to home that could treat her injuries, DiMatteo said. “She’s pretty stable right now,” she said. She added that the immediate focus was getting Katelyn Escamilla through the most critical stage, followed by what family members expect will be a difficult period as she learns of her husband’s death.
The crash site sits in a popular winter recreation area between Jackson and Dubois that draws tourists for snowmobile tours and access to high-elevation terrain. Local responders have said the region can be unforgiving, especially when riders carry speed on packed trails or push into thinner coverage off trail. Teton County Search and Rescue has described this winter as demanding for volunteers and first responders who cover a large area of steep mountains and remote drainages.
In a statement after separate snowmobile deaths in late January, the rescue team’s communications director, Matt Hansen, said repeated tragedies had weighed on the community. “This has been a challenging winter so far for our mountain community,” Hansen said in comments reported by a Wyoming news outlet. He said the message was not meant to shame riders but to remind people that the priority in backcountry recreation is to return safely.
The Orlando couple’s crash came during a stretch of incidents that included another fatal tree collision in the same broader area. In that case, a 32-year-old woman, Edith Linares Pike of Stamford, Connecticut, died Jan. 23 after crashing into a tree near Granite Creek Road, according to local reports and the county coroner. That same day, rescuers were initially responding to a different snowmobile crash involving a serious leg injury when the call about Pike came in, turning the operation into a “double rescue,” a local public radio station reported.
Authorities have emphasized that not every winter tragedy is tied to avalanches. Rescue officials said the fatalities they responded to in late January were not reported as avalanche-related. The county coroner, Dr. Brent Blue, said low snow conditions can change how and where people ride, and can lead to higher speeds on certain surfaces, according to comments reported by regional outlets. Blue has said determinations on cause and manner of death can take time and may remain pending while records and medical information are reviewed.
As of late January, Blue had not publicly finalized the cause of death for Joshua Escamilla, according to a Wyoming report that identified him as the man who died in the Jan. 26 crash. Search-and-rescue officials did not release the name of the injured woman in their initial report, though family members later identified her in Florida as Katelyn Escamilla. It was not clear from public reports which tour operator led the guided group, and a local outlet reported that Togwotee Mountain Lodge did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In Orlando, relatives said they set up online fundraising to help cover medical and recovery costs for Katelyn Escamilla and funeral expenses for her husband. DiMatteo said family members were traveling to be with her at the hospital and were bracing for a long recovery. “These kind of things are shocking,” she said, describing the phone calls that followed the crash. “I couldn’t wrap my brain around it.”
Rescue reports described a fast-moving response that relied on deputies already near the trail system, aircraft support staged off the highway, and a short-haul evacuation technique used in steep terrain. Those details, while routine to mountain rescue teams, underscored how quickly a recreational outing can become a medical emergency in remote conditions, especially when a crash involves head injuries or internal trauma.
In the weeks ahead, officials are expected to complete remaining investigative steps, including the coroner’s final findings for the Jan. 26 death and any additional review by law enforcement of the crash circumstances. The injured woman’s medical course will likely shape what comes next for the family, including when she can be transported closer to Florida and what rehabilitation may be needed, relatives said.
For now, search-and-rescue officials say the winter season remains active in the Tetons, with riders continuing to use the Togwotee area trails and backcountry terrain. The Escamilla family said Katelyn Escamilla remained hospitalized as of Feb. 6, with relatives at her side, while they prepared for the next stage of her care and memorial plans for Joshua Escamilla.
Author note: Last updated February 8, 2026.