Thanks guys, I deserve all that.....
"15,000 ft of elevation" is travel, not height. If you're camped at 4000ft, head out and up over a ridge 500ft above you and a half-mile away... and down 2-3000ft into an area and hunt drainages upriver for a day you are covering a lot of elevation up and down. I always considered "elevation" to be a lot more work than miles. One of the places we hunted for several years was pretty much exactly that, the crest of the ridge into the drainage was at just over 5200ft, we were camped down below and some days would drop over and down to even as low as 1500 along the river. Humping up river, over 3-4 finger ridges, topping out well above camp because climbing a steep 1200 ft to get to the trail was worth it and coming back in a couple-three trail miles and a couple thousand feet back down the ridgetop and into camp..... it's a whole lot more than 4000ft.
A few times doing this, heading out at 4AM to make a couple thousand feet of elevation by daylite...... hunt all day and drag back in 3-4mi in the dark..... this is when we started packing in and staying in. So we COULD just hunt just a few thousand ft of elevation in a day. I like sidehilling. But a few hrs of sidehill with a moderate up/down can get you 1000-1500ft of elevation too. And you've got to pay it back somewhere.
You'se guys talking about 14000ft of up??? Quoting mountain heights? Sounds like stuff from a book...I guess I don't get that. That's just theory, 1-way. "Elevation", to a hunter is up and back down, or down and back up. I'm lazy, I hate to lose elevation so I try hunt up..... but sometimes elk bail over an edge and all bets are off. You end up 3000ft down. If you're lucky. I've bailed into a 1000ft drop a half hour before dark.....not just once. And if the bugle fades you can be down to 1500ft before you even hear him raking....
And you gotta' come back up to get back to where you started. In and out is 3000ft of elevation. The hill behind my house is over 1000ft, taking a a Sunday afternoon walk up and down it is 2000ft.... might take an hour, strolling..... with the wife and kids..... you guys only hunting 4000 ft in a day aren't really covering much ground.
And anybody who thinks "down" isn't elevation has just never done it. I've had to leave a trip because the "down" had me poppin'..... up sucks ass but it isn't as hard on the body.
We once walked in and set up 11 miles in. 10 of them on trail. I left a couple days early, came out with my "stuff".... left my food for the others, couple 20oz of water because, 2 cricks...... 65lb on in under 4 hrs, made 3.2 miles per hour..... jogged part of the time.... Singing most of the way. (I don't care if any of you get that.... maybe you've never been there?)
Again, 4000ft in a day??? This is The Big Time?? Coming out to go home was 1000ft up and 2000ft down..... in 11 miles....... in 4 hrs..... and I don't really know how much incidental up and down in between..... probably actually made 4000ft that trip LOL
As I said..... either/or..... Longest day I remember was 21 trail miles. Elevation?? .... I'm guessing. Back then our GPS's didn't log elevation, we wore watches with altimeters and carried maps. But seriously, an afternoon with my grandkids hiking Bluff Creek Trail my kid's watch logged over 2200ft of elevation..... 4000ft?? In a DAY??
As far as pack weights.... Again. We hunted with 50lb already in the packs. Some of my buddies still do, one of them mentioned that his pack this year was back up to 52lb. He hunted the Siouxon with a 52lb pack on every day....plus a few pounds of bow and water.... And packing out isn't always 4 guys. And an elk isn't all quarters... and it isn't always boned.... and I've packed bone out because depending on conditions sometimes boning you end up with bloody meat because it's all wadded up, can't drain properly.
And yeahh.... we weighed our packs when we got home. Even claimed they'd dried out and lost weight driving home....
Wow, I almost don't know what to say. But, here goes anyway.
First, you don't count up AND down, it is the net change that gets counted, net is the difference from where you started to where you stopped.
Second, If you think the area around Aspen is not steep, get out a map.
Third, Who the hell hunts with a 50 pound pack? That is ridiculous. A 50 pound pack is enough gear for me to live for a couple weeks. My "camp", sleeping gear, pack, survival gear, and such is 13 pounds. Food is in addition, but I run a calorie deficit when I am in the woods. I don't carry a refrigerator on my back. My entire pack for a 3 or 4 day hunt doesn't start out at 50 pounds, I might have done that once and learned it didn't work.
Fourth, boning out an animal does NOT hurt anything with the meat, by the time you are done, there is not much blood to drain. It does NOT make meat bloody.
Fifth, I think there is a ton of "estimates" in your numbers. Estimates don't add up to anything more than guesses.
I have weighed packs on several occasions, I have seen big barrel chested burly guys struggle with packs that weigh well under 100 pounds. 150 pounds? Been there done that, for short distance. I packed my bull moose by myself in 4 loads, only a half mile. Swore I would not do it again, my hips and knees didn't care for that much.
While I am not in as good of shape as I was in my 30's (could run sub 5 minute miles at 6000' elevation), I can still hold my own. I have never been passed on a trail, I am often the smallest guy in the group and usually have the biggest pack.
So yes, 4000' per day for more than a couple days is BIG TIME. Come try it sometime. My camp used to be at 11,900', the car was at 10,400. No trail, and only about 1.5 miles horizontally.
Here is one I remember, scouting for deer in 2011. Carrying overnight gear and food, and a rifle for coyotes as well as spotting scope and big binoculars. Conundrum hot springs from the trailhead, in late July in mid afternoon. 2 hours 40 minutes. Off the top of my head it is about 8 miles, I don't recall vertical but a guess would be about 2500 to 2800. Find a map, tell me you or you buddies could do it without a pack in less! Conundrum hot springs is south southeast of Aspen a few miles.
Maybe doing 15,000 vertical in a day is possible at low elevation, but most of my hunts start at 9500' and go up from there.
It took near on 6,000 just to walk in and out with the meat... Trail in... hunt some draws.... run the bull......dunno if that hunt was normal for you, or a lot.
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