Elk on a shelf: Colorado wildlife officials rescue elk tangled in rope on ice climbing route

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

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

That’s when the ice climbers who reported the stranded elk came to the rescue by helping state wildlife officers rig a system to lower it to the base of the route. Once the elk was on more level ground, the CPW team reversed the effects of the tranquilizer, and about 12 minutes later the elk awoke and ran off down the snowy canyon.

Elk sometimes get their unwieldy antlers entangled in man-made hazards such as clothes lines, fencing and hammocks.