Colorado wildlife officials rescue elk tangled in rope on ice climbing route – The Denver Post

LAKE CITY, Colo. (AP) — Wildlife officials and several climbers rescued a bull elk by lowering it from a cliff after the animal became tangled in a rope at a popular ice climbing area in southwest Colorado.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials said a group of ice climbers in Lake City encountered the distressed moose Friday and a CPW biologist tranquilized the ungulate. The team cut the rope from the elk’s antlers, but needed a way to get the heavy animal down the climbing wall.

That’s when ice climbers who reported the stranded elk came to the rescue, helping state wildlife officials install a system to lower it to the base of the road. Once the moose was on flatter ground, the CPW team reversed the effects of the tranquilizer and, approximately 12 minutes later, the moose awoke and fled into the snowy canyon .

Elk sometimes have their bulky antlers tangled in man-made hazards such as clotheslines, fences and hammocks.

Originally published: January 7, 2025 at 4:11 p.m. MST