An Alaskan hunter had to be rescued after he got stuck trying to recover his Dall sheep kill/NPS file, Bryan Petrtyl
An Alaska man who killed a Dall sheep in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve wound up forfeiting the kill after he needed to be rescued from a precarious perch on a scree cliff.
According to a report from the park, the 47-year-old hunter from Wasilla, Alaska, got stuck last Saturday when he descended a slope near the confluence of the Nabesna River and Totschunda Creek in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve in attempt to recover a sheep that he harvested. He sled down the slope a ways, and became stranded on the cliff, the report said.
The man was uninjured and used an DeLorme inReach device to send an emergency message and report his coordinates to the International Emergency Response Coordination Center.
The National Park Service was notified and requested assistance from the Alaska Rescue Coordination Center (AKRCC) at Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson. AKRCC dispatched an Army helicopter from Ft. Wainwright that arrived on scene at approximately 9 p.m. Saturday. An attempt to hoist the hunter from the slope was unsuccessful.
It was determined that pararescuemen (PJs) from the 212th Rescue Squadron would be needed to rescue the hunter from the slope. A HH-60G Pave Hawk from the 210th Rescue Squadron was dispatched from JBER and successfully extracted the hunter at approximately 6:45 a.m. on Sunday. The hunter was transported to the NPS Ranger Station at Slana where he was united with his family.
The harvested sheep was salvaged and surrendered to the Alaska Wildlife Troopers.
"The hunter could not retain it because he was aided by the use of a helicopter," a park representative said Tuesday.
Under Alaska's hunting regulations, there's a bag limit of one sheep per year per hunter, so this man will have to wait until 2021 to hunt another in the state.
Comments
So, was this one of the first hunts actually within Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve after the Trump Administration turned control over to the state and opened up hunting in those national parks?
I don't think so, Humphrey. Those were targeted at predators...
Sport Hunting has been allowed in Wrangell-St. Elias National Preserve, and subsistence hunting for qualified Alaskans has been allowed in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park since their establishment.
Luckily he is alive. Dall sheep was preserved. Thank goodness!
Did you noitice thge "and Preserve" part of the name? Hunting is allowed in Preserves. In whatever part a Preserve part applies, hunting is allowed there.