Goat recovery on a rope...

[kansasdad]

A public land canyon in Wyoming‘s Bighorns is calling you alls names for really big elk down in the creek bottoms below. The descent might be a “touch more sketchy“ than yours here perhaps. The landowners of the private property at the mouth of the canyon would be certain that you had trespassed to get back there where the elk flourish.

Thanks for sharing your story with us

 

[GrantK]

I think something lots of people don’t realize is how trashy the rock is in some ranges. Like you can’t just waltz around and know a decent anchor will exist. You guys made it happen!

I'm lucky that the San Juan's are my home range, lots of time with the choss...

 

[HSi-ESi]

That was really cool - thanks for sharing. I've often thought that taking some basic course in climbing work would be extremely useful. This definitely puts it back on my list of things to - and I've got a couple friends who climb regularly.

Awesome work.

 

[GrantK]

Static line? 70m 9.5?

Would you bring jumars or do you think you could make it work with prusiks and/or a light weight ascender.

I'm thinking if I get the opportunity to do another goat hunt and/or something with potential for a sketchy recovery do I just put a bunch of gear in my car and then if necessary hike out, or could I reasonably pack in sufficient gear. Definition of reasonable being 20-25lbs, not including harness or helmet. We where a good 8+hours one way in on my goat hunt so packing in gear would definitely have been my preference.

Also, badass extraction and awesome post.

In this case it was a 9mm canyoneering static line, I've put a lot of thought into it as I'll probably draw that goat tag again and there's lots of potential for the need of a rope, if I was going to take a packable setup for just in case I'd probably make my first plan of attack to get above the goat, then rappel to it and continue rappelling with it, I think in most cases that would be far easier than going up? for that situation I'd bring a 60M tagline, a Petzl PUR or similar, like 6.8mm I think? plus a pretty good handful of supertape webbing for anchors, maybe a single set of cheap stoppers to leave, a Blue ice harness, Micro Jul belay/rappel device, and for ascending/hauling a Petzl nanotraxion and a VT prussic, total weight would be probably less than 10 lbs? you would have to find a good anchor every 30M but in the scheme of goat hunting I think it mostly is going to be less than 100' drops to ledges?

 

[Jape]

Insane! I thought scree chutes in Alaska were scary….. Well done on the assist.

 

[AvidIndoorsman]

In this case it was a 9mm canyoneering static line, I've put a lot of thought into it as I'll probably draw that goat tag again and there's lots of potential for the need of a rope, if I was going to take a packable setup for just in case I'd probably make my first plan of attack to get above the goat, then rappel to it and continue rappelling with it, I think in most cases that would be far easier than going up? for that situation I'd bring a 60M tagline, a Petzl PUR or similar, like 6.8mm I think? plus a pretty good handful of supertape webbing for anchors, maybe a single set of cheap stoppers to leave, a Blue ice harness, Micro Jul belay/rappel device, and for ascending/hauling a Petzl nanotraxion and a VT prussic, total weight would be probably less than 10 lbs? you would have to find a good anchor every 30M but in the scheme of goat hunting I think it mostly is going to be less than 100' drops to ledges?

Agreed... going up is really awful, though sometimes the only option.

Hard to say on the drops, kinda depends on where you shoot them. I think you might be able to limit yourself to only a 100' fall if you are judicious with your shot.

That being said I've sent some animals on grassy slopes, snow, loose rock that were easy scrambles (deer, elk, bear). With a bad hit they tend to run and fall... I think if goats are in cliffs you have a decent chance they will go a long way.


I like that list, definitely wish I had that in my pack this year.

 

[MNElkNut]

Kind of interesting thought when you marry this post with Matt Rinella's recent article. Without social media (Hunt Talk in this case), we wouldn't know about this epic adventure.

Thank you very much for sharing. Although I will never do that, I found the recap extremely interesting.

Ever thought about having your climbing group let it be known they can do this so if it happens to another hunter they can swoop in and recover it? Maybe via MTFWP or something? Just a rogue thought!

 

[GrantK]

Agreed... going up is really awful, though sometimes the only option.

Hard to say on the drops, kinda depends on where you shoot them. I think you might be able to limit yourself to only a 100' fall if you are judicious with your shot.

That being said I've sent some animals on grassy slopes, snow, loose rock that were easy scrambles. With a bad hit they tend to run and fall... I think if goats are in cliffs you have a decent chance they will go a long way.

I like that list, definitely wish I had that in my pack this year.

steep grass can be the most terrifying... my first plan for sure is to avoid all of this if at all possible...I think in general my assumption is that if an animal gets into a situation of a free fall it usually goes all the way, or at least stops on a ledge, or in a tree, something usually puts the brakes on, and that something gives you some leeway to work on things, a totally free hanging pickoff would be unusual? with 2 people and a 60M rope you can go 200' up or down without having to pull the rope and leave anchors, my thought process is that if I can't get something to accessible terrain with that I'm taking a hard look at the whole operation...

 

[AvidIndoorsman]

steep grass can be the most terrifying... my first plan for sure is to avoid all of this if at all possible...I think in general my assumption is that if an animal gets into a situation of a free fall it usually goes all the way, or at least stops on a ledge, or in a tree, something usually puts the brakes on, and that something gives you some leeway to work on things, a totally free hanging pickoff would be unusual? with 2 people and a 60M rope you can go 200' up or down without having to pull the rope and leave anchors, my thought process is that if I can't get something to accessible terrain with that I'm taking a hard look at the whole operation...

Fair points all around. There was a goat this year we decided would have been a real disaster to kill even with a helicopter.

I think your extraction kit would have made our little endeavor a breeze... or a least eliminated the pucker factor.

 

[GrantK]

Kind of interesting thought when you marry this post with Matt Rinella's recent article. Without social media (Hunt Talk in this case), we wouldn't know about this epic adventure.

Thank you very much for sharing. Although I will never do that, I found the recap extremely interesting.

Ever thought about having your climbing group let it be known they can do this so if it happens to another hunter they can swoop in and recover it? Maybe via MTFWP or something? Just a rogue thought!

It is an interesting situation, as for the most part, I am in total agreement with Matt Rinella...on the other side, I am the only contact with hunting that a lot of my climbing world has and I find that I can shape their view of all hunters with my actions and post, ones like this tend to be on the good side as they can see the dedication we have to do all we can to recover game...

I'd be hesitant to offer this as an option to any entities as if anyone was to sanction it I think we would want to go with a full mountain rescue style approach with 10x load ratings and a completely redundant system, it would be a totally different approach to the cowboy style this one was done in...

 

[GrantK]

Fair points all around. There was a goat this year we decided would have been a real disaster to kill even with a helicopter.

I think your extraction kit would have made our little endeavor a breeze... or a least eliminated the pucker factor.

just having a safety line sometimes changes the whole scene, 50' of PURline and a VT prussic would make a lot of stuff feel way safer

 

[gwhunter]

As a midwesterner, reading posts like this leave me in awe and longing for my time to get back to even looking at the mountains that you all call home every day. Nice post and nice recovery!

 

[buffybr]

Great pics and write up. From the size and steepness of the cliff in your first pics, I would not shoot a goat above that cliff. Not just that the recovery would be above my skill level, but also that the goat would fall so far and bounce off so many rocks that I would be afraid that the horns would not survive.

When I shot my goat, the snow was almost crotch deep up where he was. There were several cliffs (WAY smaller than the one on your pics) so just skinned him out (completely), put the head and cape in my pack, then I pushed the body off a cliff, climbed down the side of the cliff and repeated that procedure to the bottom.

 

[FranklinME]

Thanks for posting, awesome story.

That being said I am quite comfortable with never looking at that terrain any closer than my computer screen.

 

[GrantK]

Great pics and write up. From the size and steepness of the cliff in your first pics, I would not shoot a goat above that cliff. Not just that the recovery would be above my skill level, but also that the goat would fall so far and bounce off so many rocks that I would be afraid that the horns would not survive.

When I shot my goat, the snow was almost crotch deep up where he was. There were several cliffs (WAY smaller than the one on your pics) so just skinned him out (completely), put the head and cape in my pack, then I pushed the body off a cliff, climbed down the side of the cliff and repeated that procedure to the bottom.

I was absolutely shocked that he wasn't completely broken up or missing a horn, I'm guessing he may have been alive and climbed down a bit? I've definitely seen both horns broken in a much shorter fall...

 

[LuketheDog]

In this case I would have loved some snow and ice to keep rockfall down, that is why we unroped while cutting, the rope was knocking all sorts of rock loose...
in fairness though I'm more comfortable in crampons than I am in flip-flops...
I'm a little disappointed that we didn't do a better job documenting it now, there were some cool parts that have no photos...
risk tolerance is relative, I'm probably safer at that goat than I am behind the wheel, just time in that environment.

Dude, bravo, I'm going to get your phone number in the case I ever draw a sheep or goat tag!

 

[Bow Bullet]

That was an epic retrieval! I would have enjoyed being part of something like that. What a wild place to have to skin and quarter!

Where were the gratuitous climbing photos taken? Particularly love the first one.

Kudos to the three of you. Fun read and thanks for sharing!

 

[rtraverdavis]

A public land canyon in Wyoming‘s Bighorns is calling you alls names for really big elk down in the creek bottoms below. The descent might be a “touch more sketchy“ than yours here perhaps. The landowners of the private property at the mouth of the canyon would be certain that you had trespassed to get back there where the elk flourish.

Thanks for sharing your story with us

Pretty sure I know the canyon you speak of, have stood at its edge. That would really be something to get an animal out of there.

 

[TrumpkinTheDwarf]

Pretty sure I know the canyon you speak of, have stood at its edge. That would really be something to get an animal out of there.

I would learn to rock climb just to join this adventure.

 

[Nunyacreek]

Your story and write-up are super - I get the feeling from your post that the technical aspects of the extraction were not all that difficult, but the fact that it all came together is astonishing. You sort of glossed over the butchering, but in my experience a full body caping is a miserable experience on flat ground. I can totally see that you migt be willing to go help do the climbing part but I'm most impressed that you also did the totally crappy part with nary a complaint... You're a good person. Thanks for the story!