Three local hunters returned home safely after being trapped by snow during a storm near Flagstaff last week.

Photo by Jackie Leatherman From left, Colin Piburn and his son-in-law Chris VanderJagt cut the elk meat they hunted while being trapped in a snowstorm near Flagstaff.

“This was just an ordinary snow-in,” said Colin Piburn. “Everyone thinks we were stuck and lost. We were told we had to (leave).”

Piburn left for Mormon Lake — about 29 miles southeast of Flagstaff — Dec. 3 with his son-in-law, Chris VanderJagt, and family friend, Dave Rodriguez, for their annual elk hunt. Both VanderJagt and Rodriguez are full-time firemen with the Desert Hills Fire Department.

The trio checked weather reports day and night up until the day they left and they only read a brief mention of possible freezing rain.

The group had two lined military tents, two wood stoves, and “enough food to last two weeks,” let alone the two elk they had killed.

The trip was going smooth – even up until last Monday, when they woke up.

“It was beautiful and it started to snow,” Piburn said.

They made camp at the same place they have made camp for the past three years — about 100 yards from a rural road that isn’t plowed during snowfall, they said.

The snow continued to fall Monday, and the men continued to hunt, they fell asleep and woke up Tuesday morning and realized they couldn’t move their trucks more than five feet.

So they did what any other hunter would do — they kept hunting.

Piburn said the group declined assistance from the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office Tuesday night; they had plenty of food, water and shelter. The sheriff’s office contacted 50 people and either assisted them or offered assistance while temperatures dropped below freezing. VanderJagt was able to text message his wife the entire time.

Finally last Thursday, Rodriguez received a ride from the sheriff’s office to go get a relative to help the trucks out of the snow. But the sheriff’s office told all of the men they had to leave camp because another snowstorm was expected to hit that night.

The group stayed with relatives Thursday night and returned to camp Friday to find that it had only flurried. After spending several hours getting their trucks unstuck, they were headed home.

“If we had to, we could have stayed the whole winter,” Pilburn said. “(It was a) heck of a camping trip.”