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Patsy and Bob Frasier from Moultonborough, N.H., shot two cow elk on Monday morning at the base of Blacktail Butte in Grand Teton National Park.

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Everett DeWitt pulls binoculars up to his eyes and scans the frosty, early-morning horizon south of Blacktail Butte in Grand Teton National Park.

An experienced hunter, it doesn’t take him long to do the math.

“I see 11,” DeWitt says.

That’s 11 hunters. As for the elk? His count was zero.

Such has been the pattern this season for elk hunters. On this cold Sunday morning, DeWitt and his daughter, Casey, will sit in their traditional hunting spot waiting for elk. After four hours without spotting one, they give up.

Another hunter, Bob Frasier, of New Hampshire, has had a similar experience this season. Frasier has been coming to Jackson with his wife, Patsy, for elk hunting vacations for eight years now. In that time, Frasier has never seen elk this scarce.

“This is probably the worst year I’ve seen since I’ve been hunting,” he said. “This has been a really slow year.”

Hunters have many theories why. Frasier believes the weather, more specifically the lack of a major snowstorm, is keeping elk herds from migrating south onto the National Elk Refuge. Most agree.

“This weather’s tough,” Wyoming Game and Fish spokesman Mark Gocke said. “There’s been some mild conditions here and there hasn’t been enough snow to push them to the lower elevations. That’s what hunters are waiting for. We’re getting a few here and there trickle through.”

Bob and Patsy Frasier, however, were fortunate enough to locate a few of them Monday morning. The couple took two elk off the west side of Blacktail Butte around sunrise. Bob Frasier believes the elk were forced east of the Snake River by wolves.

“We heard the wolves when the sun came up,” Frasier said. “I thought, ‘I think we’re going to see something this morning.’ A number of wolves were after the herd and pushed them from the west side of the Snake [River] to the east side. It was just being in the right place at the right time.”

Hunters still have time for some late-season hunting. Hunting area 80 is open through Nov. 30. Area 74 is open through Dec. 6 while the National Elk Refuge is open through Dec. 13 for antlerless elk. Only antlerless elk may be taken in all areas.

There are no numbers to support hunters claims that this is a slow season. Hunters with a general license aren’t required to report the number of elk they take each season. Jackson Hole Ice and Game, meanwhile, said business is off slightly this season, but not significantly. They won’t calculate their numbers until the season is over.

“The weather effects the harvest,” Gocke said. “The next good snowfall will probably move the elk south.”

Even for hunters who have had less success during this slow hunt season, the experience has been rewarding. DeWitt stood and watching the first orange bursts of sunshine reflect off the snowy peaks of the Tetons Sunday morning.

“That’s really what you come for,” he said as he took the scene in with his daughter.

Frasier had the same philosophy.

“Even if you have a bad year like this without elk, it’s still a good year,” he said. “You’re out here with the person you want to be with, so that’s enough.”