+1 FLAGS!!! I'm 66 and helped backpack out 2 bulls and 2 cows in Wyoming last month, along with a few deer and antelope, and I also have a ruptured disk in my lower back that happened back in 1986. If you want to hunt elk, you can get it done. Granted, a few helpers shortens the task after one is down, but you carry out what you can and make as many trips as necessary. I can't carry more than about 40# out at a time so the rest gets hung up in the shade like you mentioned and eventually all is at the truck in coolers and ready to haul home or to a processor.