The annual antler rush started off with tragedy and mishap early Friday morning when the cold, fast and full Gros Ventre River drowned a horse and swept boats and people downstream.
The incidents occurred at the location on the Bridger-Teton National Forest where people typically cross the Gros Ventre annually at midnight April 30, when winter closure restrictions are lifted on public land and the antler-hunting season kicks off.
This year the early melt has the river near Kelly running at nearly 1,000 cubic feet per second, according to a U.S. Geological Survey monitor. That’s about double the average for May 1.
“I think a lot of the people that are partaking in antler collecting … they’re not really river people,” said David Bonham, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service law enforcement officer who helped patrol this year’s antler rush. “That was probably the biggest issue.”
Details were few about the horse that drowned. It was not being ridden but was being used as a pack animal, Bonham said.
Grand Teton National Park rangers are looking for its body so it doesn’t attract bears, a National Elk Refuge statement said. As of mid-afternoon Friday it had not been recovered.
The antler hunters who needed rescuing had tried to cross the Gros Ventre with five people in a hard-sided john-style boat, Bonham said.
“They attempted to get across and started taking on water, and the boat capsized,” he said.
Three of the boatmen made it ashore on the south side of the Gros Ventre, clinging to their vessel, but two were swept downstream. One man found dry ground in the near-vertical cliff at the jumping rocks.
“One of them climbed up about 5 feet and was stuck on the cliffs, and he couldn’t climb any higher,” Bonham said.
The other person rescued wound up on a gravel bar, he said.
Two Grand Teton National Park rangers trained in search and rescue recovered the wet, cold but mostly uninjured horn hunters in a raft. An ambulance was on standby, but victims declined transport, the refuge release said.
The other three who made it ashore attempted to return to the north side of the Gros Ventre. Their retreat failed.
“During their return, the boat again capsized,” the refuge statement said. “They were able to self-rescue without injuries.”
Also early Friday, three other boats became lost downstream in the Gros Ventre River, Bonham said. The vessels’ occupants were OK, he said, but details of the incidents were scant.
Boating is always prohibited on the Gros Ventre west of the Bridger-Teton National Forest, where the river forms the boundary between Grand Teton park and the refuge.
Bonham was thankful there were no serious injuries or worse.
“I’m glad everyone was safe,” he said. “Unfortunately we lost the horse, but I’m glad the two guys made it to dry land and we were able to get the
