Three friends set out for a crisp morning of ice climbing earlier this month — but their adventure came to a screeching halt when they noticed something huge swinging awkwardly from a rope on a frozen slope.
It wasn’t gear.
It wasn’t another climber.
It was a 700-pound young elk, his antlers completely knotted in a climbing rope, dangling helplessly on the icy mountainside.
The more he struggled, the worse it got. Every frantic toss of his head only tightened the snare, and stuck on a steep, slick incline, he had no chance of freeing himself.
Judging by the frost on his coat, the climbers realized he had likely been trapped all night long — and time was running out.
They immediately called for help.
By 9 a.m., a Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) rescue team — Lucas Martin, Alyssa Meier, Paul Rivera and Anna Markey — arrived to find the exhausted elk trembling on the slope.
After carefully assessing the situation, they estimated he was just over 2 years old but already massive. With his size and skyrocketing stress level, the team decided the safest option was to tranquilize him.
Once sedated, CPW officers worked fast, cutting through the ropes snarled around his antlers. But there was one big problem left: even free of the rope, the elk was still perched on a dangerous icy incline.
That’s when the climbers stepped in again.
Using their expertise — ropes, anchors, pulley systems and every bit of knowledge they had — they teamed up with CPW to slowly and safely lower the elk down the frozen slope.
“What’s cool is that the ice climbers used their knowledge … to help our team,” John Livingston, CPW’s Southwest Region public information officer, told The Dodo. Their patience and compassion made all the difference.
The climbers first spotted the elk around 7 a.m.
He wasn’t fully free until 11.
“They really derailed their climbing day to help us out,” Livingston said. “We’re incredibly thankful they cared so much about this animal.”
Four tense hours after the climbers first saw him, the elk was finally safe. When CPW reversed the tranquilizer, he blinked awake, got his bearings — and then bolted straight back into the wilderness.
To support more rescues like this one, consider donating to Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
