Inside the Grand Teton Kill Zone: Eradicating Goats in No Man's Land | Braxton Hamilton and Storie Ratcliff

Ryan Uffens sits down with Braxton Hamilton and Storie Ratcliff to unpack one of the most surreal and extreme hunts imaginable... a sanctioned mountain goat eradication in Grand Teton National Park. What started as a controversial government program turned into the chance of a lifetime: hunting within the park boundaries, in winter conditions, with minimal backup, in terrain that tested every ounce of grit they had.

From hiking 9 miles through two feet of snow just to get to camp, to climbing sheer cliffs in negative 26-degree temps, this story is a full-throttle blend of backcountry hardship, government red tape, and raw mountain adventure.

You'll hear about failed motors, sketchy cliffs, ranger warnings, and near-death climbs. all ending in the memory of a hunt so wild, no amount of money could ever buy it.

🔥 5 Key Takeaways:

Once-in-a-Lifetime Hunt Inside a National Park - Through a rare Park Service program, Braxton, Storie, and Josh got to hunt mountain goats inside Grand Teton National Park something few hunters will ever experience.

Brutal Conditions, Real Consequences - Negative 26°F temperatures, deep snow, and rugged terrain turned this hunt into an extreme survival challenge. The rangers made it clear: rescue could take 48–72 hours, if at all.

Not a Slaughter But a Hard-Earned Hunt - Despite the goal of mass removal, this wasn’t easy. They earned every opportunity through brutal climbs and calculated decision-making in some of the most remote terrain imaginable.

Government Red Tape Meets Mountain Men Tenacity - They had to fight just to be allowed to camp in the park proving their qualifications, their gear, and their grit to skeptical rangers.

Memories Etched in Snow and Stone - From high-elevation goat kills to beaching a dead boat on Jackson Lake, their stories are the kind that stick forever and they got invited back the next year to do it again.

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Transcript

Ryan Uffens (00:20)
so tell me about this RAM you guys were talking about.

Braxton Storie (00:24)
Also the mountain goat hunt. There was a whole lot of suck. Yeah, so the backstory on this was Grand Teton National Park, the park service has mountain goats that they originally planted mountain goats in the palisades near Alpine, Wyoming. And over time, and they came from Idaho, they brought them in. Over time, the mountain goats

Ryan Uffens (00:26)
Yeah.

Braxton Storie (00:53)
started moving into the park and I don't want to butcher too many of the specifics but I guess the park was worried that the mountain goats were going to give the local bighorn sheep movi which is pneumonia and possibly other pathogens so they wanted to eradicate the mountain goat out of the park and

If you know, mean, you can't really hunt parks. There are some like cow hunts and some other things, but this was like they started out with helicopters gunning them down. Governor Gordon said, Nope, that's not what we do in Wyoming. Find and find another plan. A of public outcry. Yeah. It was kind of a big deal at the time. And this was 22. Yeah. 22, 21, 22. Anyhow. So

Ryan Uffens (01:48)
Yes.

Braxton Storie (01:50)
The Park Service came up with the plan that they're going to get qualified volunteers,

hunters, so you could apply online through the Park Service and they ran a background check on you and everything else. And one day we're in the mountains scouting and I found out that I drew the qualified volunteer thing and it said you could bring two friends. So me, Storie, and another friend, Josh, we show up.

And we have to go through a day training. They teach you about what's going on with the bighorn sheep and their safety and yeah, it was a lot, but it was cool, man. Like we went and shot our guns. Yeah, we had to shoot our guns in front of them too. Yeah, we had to prove that we were pretty much pretty much. And so here we are.

Ryan Uffens (02:32)
Typical government stuff.

It's like a hunter safety all over again.

Braxton Storie (02:43)
It was October 16th, I think. Yeah. And in the Tetons, that's basically winter. So it dumped. was such a cool opportunity to be able to walk into the park with rifles and hunt a species that none of us, nobody I know. mean, yeah, once in a lifetime and to do it in Grand Teton National Park and some of most beautiful. mean, you've seen the pictures. Dude.

Ryan Uffens (02:50)
Yeah.

That's like back like, that's like mountain man dreams, right?

Like, like back like 1800s, like you go in there and there's, you got it pretty much to yourself.

Braxton Storie (03:17)
⁓

man it was that's how what dude there's big bulls around us there's big bears around us and like Nobody was there but I'll say like it was insane. It was unreal So they drew like so they cut the park into a grid section kind of and call them like units

and we were assigned to a unit. like, they made it very clear. Like our goal is to kill everything. Like as many ghosts as possible. And if you see one and don't try and attempt to kill it, like you're not doing your job. Yeah. He was like the qualified shooter, but his two friends also got to be shooters. So like there's literally three of us ready to go. Right. So with

Ryan Uffens (03:49)
Okay.

Was there did they have like a limit for you guys or is it like have aether?

Braxton Storie (04:00)
No, it was killing

and and which that aspect was definitely kind of weird as a hunter but The opportunity I mean we were hunting them. It wasn't easy. That's for sure So the opportunity to hunt these goats was pretty spectacular and we just kind of took it as like hey They're gonna do this anyways How cool is it that we get to be? I mean it was a hunt. It was not a slaughter by no means So we drew of course

Ryan Uffens (04:14)
Yeah.

Yeah. How long were you guys out there?

Braxton Storie (04:31)
Five days, four days? Yeah, I think it was four or five days. I think it was four days, five nights or something like that. Yeah, and so.

Ryan Uffens (04:35)
Okay. Yeah. So like you said, you're You're

hunting them. It's not fish in a barrel.

Braxton Storie (04:41)
no. Where they live too. my god. We're at the shooting range with the ranger and it's dumping snow. It was like 15 degrees and it was projected to get down into the negative teens the next day.

Ryan Uffens (04:42)
Yeah.

Braxton Storie (04:59)
You know, some of the other guys that drew tags, they're from like Kentucky and just like other places around the nation. And, we drew like the, the unit that we had was like the hardest unit, the deepest unit, the farthest, no access. Yeah. Just insane. We couldn't just like drive up to a trailhead and walk in. We, we ended up having to hike through, I think it was two different units just to get to our unit. So we have one full day of travel basically.

Ryan Uffens (05:28)
Hmm.

Braxton Storie (05:29)
It was cutthroat. And so we're at the shooting range and they're like, well, we're not going to let you guys camp.

because it'll be too cold and for me to put our people in a situation where we have to rescue you guys, like that's not the goal of this operation. And we like had to beg with them. We're like, listen, like we're pretty qualified. Like we've done this stuff before. We've got a night, like we had to show them our gear. Like we're opening the truck. Like, look, man, we got a hot tent. Like we can, we'll be fine. Like let us out there. And he made some calls to them.

Ryan Uffens (06:01)
Like old Ron

Burgundy, I'm kind of a big deal. Like you guys should let us go.

Braxton Storie (06:04)
Yeah,

you might not know, but yeah, so he called the head guy and eventually they're like, all right, you guys can do it. And they sent us with sat phones and everything. had to check in every morning, every night. so. Oh, yeah, it was something else. Yeah, it was wild. Like they took it super serious, which they should have, but.

Ryan Uffens (06:20)
Worse than having to check in with the wife.

Braxton Storie (06:29)
I just remember one conversation with the lead Ranger. He was just like, if you guys get in a situation like we're not going to be able to come and help you for anywhere between 24 to 48, if not 72 hours, like all of our boats are winterized. Like we can't just jump across the pond and come pick you up. And we're like, all right. Like, yeah, like the way he said it, seemed like he was like not fear mongering, but he was like trying to really tell me that the picture. And I'm like, dude, like this is what we do. Like we're fine.

Ryan Uffens (06:30)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Braxton Storie (06:59)
So to get to our union.

Ryan Uffens (07:01)
Yeah. Well, I mean, it's good for them for giving you like a realistic like, hey, like, it could get real. Like you guys really capable of doing this.

Braxton Storie (07:07)
I mean,

it got real, too. For sure. Yeah. No, concerns were validated for sure. We had to hike in, I think it was nine miles. Yeah, just to camp. And it was pretty, I mean, it's pretty flatland, just like below the peaks getting in. it snowed, it snowed almost two feet. So nine miles and two feet of snow. We're talking zero degree weather hiking in.

Ryan Uffens (07:12)
Yeah.

Braxton Storie (07:35)
We set up our tent the next morning. We found goats on our way into camp, just glassing way up there. And we're like, holy cow, dude, like, how are we going to get up there? And set our tent up. And later on when we got home, we found this out. But that night it got down to negative 26. And we're struggling to find stuff to burn and just.

you know, boiling the water and putting it in our Nalgene, throwing it in our sleeping bag. And then we had to keep like all of our batteries and the DNA samples or the kits that they want us to take DNA. Like all three of us were sleeping with like 10 pounds of gear in our sleeping bags and there's no room for it. But it was.

Ryan Uffens (08:21)
So you're not

really sleeping anyway.

Braxton Storie (08:23)
No, nobody slept, especially with me, I snored, so I kept them all awake anyways. Yeah, it was fine. So that next morning we relocated the goats and we actually found quite a few, but we chose to go after the ones that were like, all right, we can kill these ones, we can get to these ones. And yeah, the other ones were on cliffs, you know, and again, two feet of snow.

Ryan Uffens (08:30)
Hahaha.

Braxton Storie (08:48)
If any of your listeners look up the Tetons or know what the Tetons look like, mean, when you're real close, it's bigger. We were hunting the eagle, eagle rest. Eagles, eagle's rest. Look it up. It's insane. So we, we figured like, oh, okay, we can skip across this flat land, start heading up, get above these cliffs, walk this cliff band and they're, they're dead and we can do this. That took all day long.

And

Ryan Uffens (09:18)
Hmm.

Braxton Storie (09:19)
that country is so weird because it looks close and I think it just has to do with how steep the rock is. But just to get across the so-called flatland was just hours upon hours upon hours. And I think it was just before dark, 4 or 5 p.m. we finally got within shooting range and we took a nanny and a kid.

and we got our pictures and then the sun went down and made it back to camp and the rest of the trip which was super cool I guess I should back up a little bit never hunted mountain goats like one of the coolest experiences to it's like mule deer hunting but on steroids yeah in the same country yeah just the country makes it different

It was awesome. It's a really cool memory to look back on. Got some really cool photos. They don't let us, they wouldn't let us take cape or horns. We could take the meat, but everything else we had to leave on the mountain. And I think their fear there was that guys would start trophy hunting and go after the big billies instead of trying to eradicate the animals.

Ryan Uffens (10:36)
Hmm

Braxton Storie (10:38)
Yeah, and then there was like one moment we went up a super steep shelf and Josh and I are both definitely heavier than Braxton at the time and dude, he was just getting it and he was just trucking along.

busting trail and like I was looking down and like there's two, three, 400 feet before I would be able to slow down if I fall. And I'm stepping in his steps and I'm like every step I step in his, it would give away like six inches and we're like in two feet of snow on this like sheer face. And it came to a point where I was like, dude, like I talked to Josh first. I was like, dude, I can't go any further. Like I'm, I'm not going to die, but

If I do die, I'm not gonna go down there. So like I'm done. And Josh was like, okay, cool. I'm glad you said something. Cause I was super scared. And it's like 20 yards ahead of us already. And I'm like, dude, we're not going any further. And he's getting all pissed off. was pretty frustrated to be honest. Cause we're close. Like we're within 400 yards of of a billion. I was like, dude, like I can't go another step. Like this is it for me. I'm done. Like if you want to keep going, go, but I'm not a bunch of sissies.

Ryan Uffens (11:29)
Okay.

Braxton Storie (11:51)
So then we have a little powwow, we sit down, we start eating lunch and lo and behold, I look over into the next canyon and that billy was right there at 200 yards. then thankfully Josh was like, he was shooter on that one and he freaking laid the smack down and still had to go 200 yards further than I wanted to, but made it. But I don't know, the schedule.

Ryan Uffens (12:00)
.

At least you know

what you were going to.

Braxton Storie (12:19)
Dude, by far the sketchiest place I've ever hiked. Yeah, if you could call it climbing, really. Yeah, we were mountaineering like, yo, we should have used ropes where we were. Yeah. And some of the other groups that we heard about later, they definitely had to repel into some of their stuff and just wild stuff. Yeah, we took some of the meat out and just getting out of there.

Ryan Uffens (12:42)
Well...

Braxton Storie (12:48)
The whole trip was just such an experience. Packs as heavy as can be and yeah, it was cool. uh, Oh, yeah.

Ryan Uffens (12:56)
Yeah, like I say, I mean, it sounds like it was like a once in a lifetime. I mean, for them to open up the park like that, like that's an experience that

like other people like no amount of money is going to be able to buy something like that to go into a park like that.

Braxton Storie (13:08)
No,

Yeah, you know, honestly, like, I'm sure there's going to be history books written about what they did in the park there. And just to be a part of that and part of history, whether you like or whether you hate what they did or like it or not, you know, we knew it was going to happen. And just to be a part of that was pretty cool. The coolest part was they didn't kill them all the first year.

Ryan Uffens (13:18)
Braxton Josh and story you guys are gonna be in the Wikipedia there

Yeah, yeah, that's what.

Braxton Storie (13:38)
So I get this email, you know, a year later that's like, Hey, come back. They invited us back. So.

Ryan Uffens (13:46)
So

it wasn't a once in a lifetime. But because you got in on the first level...

Braxton Storie (13:48)
It wasn't.

Right? Yeah.

Ryan Uffens (13:57)
And you

got two friends.

Braxton Storie (14:00)
Yeah, and I don't know for sure, but I think what they did was they contacted the groups that were successful. So do you remember? Right. I don't remember the numbers, how many they killed the first year. ⁓ I don't either. It's been a while, but there was a significant last amount of goats left the second year and they're like, hey, we're going to try this one more time. And so we came in the next year.

Ryan Uffens (14:07)
Yeah, these boys know how to get it done. Yeah.

Braxton Storie (14:28)
And this time it even worse. We're like, sweet man, the lake's not frozen. We're going to bring a boat and we're going to go across Jackson Lake. That'll cut off so much hiking. It's going to be awesome. Boat motor wouldn't start. So we had a trolling motor that took us maybe a mile. Yeah. We went a mile with a little electric trolling motor. Then the wind picked up. like, dude, we're going to die on Jackson Lake.

So we ditched the boat and we had to walk the shoreline with cobblestone. It's big as your head for miles, dude. It was miserable. We beached the boat and we took all the batteries and we had to flip the boat over just to protect the batteries. we're like, I don't know if it's going to be here when we come back. But yeah, it was not fun. Kind of the same deal. Same story. There wasn't as much snow, that's for sure. But yeah, to get to go and do it again and kill the goat on that trip, we got one and.

Yeah, it was quite the experience. It was fun. I'd definitely do it again. Yeah, like I'll never forget it. Like I was up there and like there's pictures on our Instagrams and stuff like that. But like, dude, like we're we're like two feet of snow on that second year again. And we're standing, I don't know, we're probably like nine thousand ten thousand feet up and we're knee deep in snow. But then like you look down at Jackson Lake, dude, it looked like a freaking tropical island. Like the beaches were all melted off and

Ryan Uffens (15:28)
That's awesome. That's awesome.

Braxton Storie (15:53)
Like, I I don't think a lot of people get to experience that or see that. And that's definitely an image that will forever be stuck in my brain. Like it was, I don't know, surreal. Yeah, pretty neat.

Ryan Uffens (16:05)
That's awesome.

Well, hey, I appreciate you guys sharing those stories and it sounds like you guys have a lot of fun together. And you also push each other's buttons and maybe limits out there. And I think that's good to be able to do that, to have some fun and experience things that other people aren't going to be able to experience.