Kalispell hunter survives fall after bagging mountain goat
Kalispell resident Johnny Willcut shows off the mountain goat he bagged Nov. 10 in the Absaroke-Beartooth Wilderness. After this photo was taken, Willcut slid and fell of a cliff. His pack, loaded with goat meat and other gear, broke his fall and probably saved his life. (Submitted photo)
Chris Williams and Johnny Willcut, both Kalispell natives and long-time hunting buddies, pose with the mountain goat Willcut killed in the high mountains of the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness Nov. 10. After Willcut fell bringing the animal out, Williams made sure he got off the mountain alive. (John Willcut photo)
Chris Williams hauls a sled loaded with hunting and camping gear into the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness. Williams worked with hunting buddy Johnny Willcut, who bagged a mature billy mountain goat, then helped him get out after a bad fall. (John Willcut photo)
The mushroomed bullet and the case that held it from Johnny Willcut’s successful mountain goat hunt. The case was dented from the fall Willcut took as he worked to pack the goat off the mountain. (John Wilcutt photo)
Johnny Willcut’s first Montana mountain goat was nearly his last.
The 40-year-old Kalispell native grew up in a hunting family and bagged a moose at the young age of 14 in the Fisher River area.
Drawing a special license to hunt one of Montana’s Big Three, moose, goat and bighorn sheep, was a long-time goal for Willcut.
“I always put in for those three,” Willcut said. “I didn’t really appreciate getting a moose tag at 14, but as I got older you know the odds aren’t great.”
Willcut said the chances of drawing a goat tag are about 1 to 1 1/2%. He began applying for a goat tag 11 years ago, so he had 11 bonus points, which increases a hunter’s chances in the drawing. On the day in June when Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks announced the results of the drawing, Willcut had repeatedly checked his phone to see if he had been awarded a license.
“It was very exciting when I saw I had got a tag,” he said.
If Willcut had his way, he would have hunted somewhere in the Swan or Mission mountains, but goat populations there have declined to the point where licenses are extremely limited.
So he applied for Hunting District 323, which is south of Emigrant in Park County. The Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness is part of the district and with numerous 10,000 foot peaks, provides good hunting for goats, bighorn sheep and other big game animals. Thirty-seven licenses were allocated for the district.
Goats that live there were transplanted decades ago from populations in Northwest Montana.
Willcut said he knew little about the area, other than driving past it on the way to Yellowstone National Park.
He began his research by utlitizing Google Earth, maps and talking to other hunters.
He and his hunting buddy, Chris Williams, also a Kalispell native, spent four days in August scouting the area they decided to hunt.
“We hiked into the wilderness area, saw two “billies” five yards from us and thought “this will be a piece of cake,’” Willcut said.
But it didn’t turn out to be such an easy hunt.
Willcut and Williams returned to the area for a week-long hunt in mid-September. Willcut had scheduled the week off from work to bowhunt for elk, but he ended up bowhunting for goats.
The hunters came home empty handed and did so again on a hunt the first week of October.
“A storm had put down about a foot of snow and we didn’t even see a goat track,” Willcut said.
With time running out on the season, it ended Dec. 1, Willcut called a few guides to see if they’d help him get a crack at a goat.
“They said ‘We’re not going back in there at this time of year’ so we decided to give it one more try,” Willcut said.
While the decision resulted in a nice goat, it nearly cost Willcut his life.
He and Williams journeyed back to the wilderness Saturday, Nov. 9. They were equipped with mountaineering equipment, crampons, ice axes and snowshoes, along with their camping and hunting gear.
After a nine-mile hike on a trail, the hunters were in snow up to their knees. They made camp about two miles from where they wanted to hunt.
“We were up at daylight and went up the mountain,” Willcut said. “The trail was completely buried and we nearly turned around three different times thinking it wasn’t worth it.”
But the men kept at it and once they got above the treeline, the snow was hard and much easier to traverse. Wilcutt got through the mountain pass where they hoped to find goats.
“I started glassing and saw four goats. I ran back to Chris, grabbed his rifle, and when I got back there were 13 goats on the hillside,” Willcut said. “He (the billie) was standing in a little bowl about 150 yards away, looking downhill.
“So the setup was perfect,” he said.
Willcut set up for the shot with Williams’s .300 Winchester Magnum. Williams’s dad gave his son the rifle when he was just 12.
“I made the shot, the goat went about 20 yards and went down for good. Another 30 yards and he would have went over the edge and probably would have slid thousands of feet, so that worked out perfectly,” Wilcutt said.
Willcut and Williams made their way to the heavily furred animal. They skinned it and deboned the meat. The meat went in Willcut’s pack and the head and hide went in Miller’s pack.
The rifle also went on the back of Williams’s pack.
As the hunters retraced their steps, the weather turned bad.
“It was blizzarding on and off, but we had made it to about 1 1/2 miles from our camp and we had this 30-yard section on an exposed hillside where it was icy,” Willcut said. “On my third step, my feet went out from under me and I started to slide.”
Willcut said there was nothing to hold on to and “When I reached out I tore my biceps muscles.”
Willcut’s slide ended when he hit a rock feet first, flipped over it, landed on his back and cart-wheeled, landed again and slid to a stop. He said his left arm wouldn’t work, but he managed to get up.
“When I landed I heard a crack, it turned out to be the rifle breaking in half,” Willcut said. “Chris carefully made his way to me and I showed him how to put my shoulder back in place.”
Willcut works as a nurse practioner at Northwest Orthopedics and Sports Medicine, so he had a good knowledge of what to do.
Dark had descended on the mountain, but the duo still had a good distance to go before reaching camp.
“We put our headlamps on and got back to camp,” Willcut said. “We got the backpack stove lit, ate and that was it. I just laid there and I didn’t sleep. I pulled the sleeping bag around me, kept my shoulder in the snow and I think that helped.”
When Willcut slid and fell, he broke his humerus, the long bone in his upper left arm, dislocated his shoulder and tore his rotator cuff and labrum.
When daylight arrived, they made a sling out of a NRS strap.
“It didn’t feel too bad,” Willcut said.
Williams got the pack and snowshoes on Willcut. After a three-mile hike they reached a sled they had stowed to help bring gear out. It turned out to be more than helpful as they hauled out their gear and packs.
“We covered 12 miles that day and we were very thankful to get back to the truck,” Willcut said.
At the truck, the temperature gauge indicated it was about 0 degrees, so they estimated it at minus-10 up on the mountain.
The backpack filled with goat meat and other items likely saved Willcut’s life.
“Everything in my pack was either broke or dented,” he said. “Falling and landing that hard, you can break bones that sever arteries and puncture a lung.
“That night before we got back to the truck, I wondered if I was bleeding internally, but fortunately I wasn’t,” Willcut said. “And I was very thankful Chris was there with me.”
He has a Garmin inReach device that he could have used to send an SOS call, but Willcut said he didn’t want to do it and ultimately, they didn’t need to do it.
After getting back to the truck, Williams and Willcut drove to Emigrant where they ate and had a few beers. They stayed there that night before driving to the Fish, Wildlife & Parks office in Bozeman to have the goat checked.
They drove home, but Willcut still didn’t go to Kalispell Regional Medical Center until the next day, Wednesday, Nov. 13.
“I got the x-rays and MRIs done, so I knew there was going to be a lot of work,” Willcut said.
He already had surgery to have his biceps repaired and he’ll have surgery next week for his left shoulder and arm.
Willcut said Lower Valley Processing turned his goat meat into several pounds of Italian sausage and local taxidermist Carl Parker, of Glacier Fur, is going to build the full mount.
“At first, I was just going to have a head and shoulder mount done, but after the whole experience I decided to have a whole mount made,” Willcut said. “And it has such a beautiful coat and beard. Everyone remarks about the beard.”
The goat’s horns each measured 9 1/2 inches with 5 1/2-inch bases. Willcut has to wait about another month before they can be officially scored.
Willcut and Williams have plans to return to the mountain next summer to bring out the rifle. It was the one thing that didn’t come out with them.
“For Chris, that rifle has quite a bit of sentimental value since his dad gave it to him on his 12th birthday and it has quite a bit of value for me, too,” Willcut said.
Despite his injuries, Willcut said he has no regrets.
“My wife, Brynn, my son Bronson, family and friends have been very supportive,” he said. “I’m very thankful and feel blessed.
“I wasn’t hurt as bad as I could have been, the injuries will heal and these memories will last the rest of my life,” Willcut said.
Reporter Scott Shindledecker may be reached at 758-4441 or sshindledecker@dailyinterlake.com.
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