On Saturday, Nov. 25, 2023, at approximately 3:19 PM, Gallatin County 911 received a call from a GPS device monitoring service. A device the company monitors had recently been activated near Grotto Falls in Hyalite Canyon. Gallatin County dispatch later received a 911 phone call from an eyewitness stating an ice climber had fallen and was injured. The patient was identified as 36-year-old Montana resident and avid ice climber, Kyle Allen Rott.
Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue volunteers along with Two Bear Air Rescue and Billings Clinic MedFlight helicopters responded to the Grotto Falls trailhead. Five teams of search and rescue volunteers were deployed to the area where Rott was located. Search and rescue volunteers provided initial medical treatment to Rott who was eventually hoisted from the area by Two Bear Air and taken to Bozeman Health Deaconess Regional Medical Center where he later succumbed to his injuries.
Gallatin County Coroner’s Office coroners responded to the hospital where Rott was determined to have died accidentally, caused by blunt force trauma of the head, sustained during an ice climbing fall.
