Climber Spends Four Hours in Tree as Bigfoot Shakes It

A solo climber named Isac Redern recounts a harrowing encounter in the Bitterroot Range of Ravalli County, Montana, on September 22nd. While scrambling through a drainage below Sky Pilot Peak, Redern noticed an unnatural silence in the woods and caught a heavy animal musk on the wind. Following the smell, he came upon a freshly killed cow elk that had been opened with unsettling precision—neatly spread ribs rather than the torn mess a bear would make. Standing over the kill was a creature over seven feet tall, covered in dark rust-brown hair, with a heavy brow, broad flat nose, and a wide face lacking a muzzle. Its arms hung too long for its body, and its eyes caught the light with a dull, flat shine. Redern's body reacted before his mind could, sending him scrambling up a nearby lodgepole pine. The creature watched him climb with an unhurried calm, then approached the tree and shook it—first gently, as if testing, then harder. After each shake, it paused and looked up to study Redern's reaction. The most unsettling moment came when the creature tilted its head to the side in a distinctly human gesture of curiosity, as if reading his fear rather than simply trying to dislodge him. Redern spent roughly four hours clinging to the tree before the creature finally moved off with the elk. He came down from the mountain alive but shaken, refusing to