Were it not for his license plate flickering in the headlights of a hunter’s truck, Jeff Moore might still be hanging on the side of a cliff near Leadville – or worse.
Moore escaped from a cartoonlike scene in which a rear wheel of his Jeep was hooked on a small pine tree, leaving him hanging over a 200-foot drop, when three bowhunters found him at dawn Thursday.
“About a foot in either direction, he would have gone off,” said Randy Haugestuen of Parker, who was driving two hunting buddies from Wisconsin on a four-wheel-drive road near Hagerman Pass about 5:45 a.m. Thursday. “He was stuck on a tree about the size of a pop can in diameter. It was just amazing.”
Moore, who had a cut on his head and complained of soreness, had crawled into the back seat of his crumpled vehicle and been teetering there for about four hours when Haugestuen, Terry Monroe and Gary Snell spotted the license plate, the only clue visible in the roadside brush.
Moore told them he had fallen asleep at the wheel and rolled the Jeep.
“We were really concerned that he was going to roll if he moved around. But we didn’t want to tell him that,” Hauges tuen said. “He did not know. He asked us, and we said, ‘No, no, you’re fine. We’re just going to tie up your bumper.”‘
While waiting for a response to a 911 call, one hunter would spend time keeping Moore calm while the others tried to stabilize the Jeep by piling rocks and tools under its wheels.
“If he’d-a rolled down the side, I’m certain that he would have died,” Haugestuen said. “I don’t think anyone would have found him for a very long time.”
Rescuers from Leadville arrived about 6:30 a.m. to secure the Jeep, and a Flight for Life helicopter pilot made a bold landing among cliffs, trees and a power line to retrieve Moore.
He was taken to St. Anthony’s Hospital Central, where he was treated for minor injuries and released.
He could not be reached for comment Thursday evening.
“It wasn’t what we were planning on doing this morning,” Haugestuen said of the aborted elk-hunting trip, which the men vowed to reattempt today. “We feel like if there’s any good karma, we should all get one.”
Staff writer Steve Lipsher can be reached at 970-513-9495 or slipsher@denverpost.com.
