How would you like this pack out.
Here's the climbers story...
Tough Spot
Friday afternoon (10-06-06)an engineer that I work with called and said: "Ya Todd, I, uh, have a strange request. My good friend has shot a very nice elk, but when it died it tumbled off a cliff and they are not able to get to it." Later that day, Randy Cragoe (the hunter) emailed me pictures of the situation.. I called him back and we made arrangements to ride into the mountains on Sunday and recover the head and antlers. The Cragoe family is known to be full of very avid (if not fanatical) hunters. Sunday morning Dave and I met Randy, his brother, twin sisters, brother-in-law and nephew at the trailhead. We rode to the sight at about 9500'. I fixed my rope to a large mass of rocks at the top of the cliff and Randy and I rapelled down the cliff to see if we could recover the trophy. The elk chose the very best spot on the cliff to tumble... Had it been 40' on either side it probably would have fell the entire distance and shattered its massive antlers. The elk had tumbled and slid about 100' down the 200' cliff and was dangling by its antlers above a large crack in the cliff. The whole body was literally hanging. We secured the head with a separate rope, assessed the potential danger of loose blocks and such, then I began to cut the body away from the head. The rancid smell was almost too much to bear! I cut the hide and flesh all the way around the neck and then took a saw to the neck bone. Very soon the whole body (800-1000 pounds) dropped into the deep crack and was freed. Unfortunetly all of the meat was wasted. I am amazed that the antlers had very little damage... This is the largest elk that Randy has ever shot. I'm glad that we were able to recover the head and antlers.
This bull scored 369. That's all I know about it.
Tough Spot
Friday afternoon (10-06-06)an engineer that I work with called and said: "Ya Todd, I, uh, have a strange request. My good friend has shot a very nice elk, but when it died it tumbled off a cliff and they are not able to get to it." Later that day, Randy Cragoe (the hunter) emailed me pictures of the situation.. I called him back and we made arrangements to ride into the mountains on Sunday and recover the head and antlers. The Cragoe family is known to be full of very avid (if not fanatical) hunters. Sunday morning Dave and I met Randy, his brother, twin sisters, brother-in-law and nephew at the trailhead. We rode to the sight at about 9500'. I fixed my rope to a large mass of rocks at the top of the cliff and Randy and I rapelled down the cliff to see if we could recover the trophy. The elk chose the very best spot on the cliff to tumble... Had it been 40' on either side it probably would have fell the entire distance and shattered its massive antlers. The elk had tumbled and slid about 100' down the 200' cliff and was dangling by its antlers above a large crack in the cliff. The whole body was literally hanging. We secured the head with a separate rope, assessed the potential danger of loose blocks and such, then I began to cut the body away from the head. The rancid smell was almost too much to bear! I cut the hide and flesh all the way around the neck and then took a saw to the neck bone. Very soon the whole body (800-1000 pounds) dropped into the deep crack and was freed. Unfortunetly all of the meat was wasted. I am amazed that the antlers had very little damage... This is the largest elk that Randy has ever shot. I'm glad that we were able to recover the head and antlers.
This bull scored 369. That's all I know about it.
Last edited by Mark on Tue Nov 14, 2006 8:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Hoyt
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Story
Here's all I could find on the location and such.
"Estimate at 350. Taken above old Amoco 4 Bear Field (above Meeteetse, WY) by Randy Cragoe, Wamsutter, and his brother Rob Cragoe. Shot high lung, ran out on tree line by cliff, then dropped and dropped and dropped"
"Estimate at 350. Taken above old Amoco 4 Bear Field (above Meeteetse, WY) by Randy Cragoe, Wamsutter, and his brother Rob Cragoe. Shot high lung, ran out on tree line by cliff, then dropped and dropped and dropped"