Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office search and rescue crews and Life Flight personnel were honored Wednesday for saving four hikers trapped on Mount Olympus in April.

Sheriff Jim Winder recognized more than a dozen rescuers at a 30-minute ceremony Wednesday at the sheriff's office.

He said the plaques awarded to two search and rescue members and three Intermountain Health Care employees were not to recognize individual members, "but the totality of the team."

He also expressed his condolences to the family and friends of 49-year-old Karin Vandenberg, of Olympus Cove, who died on the mountain.

Vandenberg and her 14-year-old son, Cole, as well as her friend Christine Holding, her husband Stephen and their 14-year-old son, Clayton, went on the hiking trip on April 18.

Around noon, Vandenberg lost her footing and fell about 1,000 feet down a snow-covered chute near a ravine on the north side of the mountain and died. The boys tried to help her and also fell. They suffered serious injuries.

A Life Flight crew, which included paramedic Curtis Anderson, nurse Lorie Hutchison and pilot Rex Orgill, were able to hoist search and rescue members Brandon Dodge and Alan Bergstrom onto the mountain to rescue the group and recover Vandenberg's body.

"It was a team effort," Bergstrom said while accepting one of the plaques.

Jason Bergreen