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Mountain goat climbs with 8-year-old, creates dangerous but memorable adventure

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - 8-year-old Sam Baker is on the go in Colorado Springs and impressing the community as he reaches new heights.

We've done stories on him in the past, after he became one of the youngest climbers to summit an impressive rock in Yosemite National Park.

The duo always come home with pictures and stories. And their most recent climb is quite the tale as an unwelcome visitor joined their adventure.

Sam and his dad, Joe recently climbed a very technical rock called Petit Grepon Spire in Rocky Mountain National Park. As they went vertical a mountain goat joined them.

"This was very difficult rock that most people couldn't even climb and the goat just walked right up with us," says Joe Baker.

For a while the goat followed Sam and seemed to enjoy the company, but then got tangled in the climbing rope.

"The goat tried to take me off the wall two times," said Sam Baker.

"The goat was there for a while and very friendly, but then suddenly it became very dangerous and I thought Sam was going to get ripped off the wall."

Thankfully another climber near Sam pushed him to the ground and put his weight on him which gave the rope enough tension to keep them from being pulled off the wall. Nobody was hurt, but Joe said the encounter was unnerving.

"The situation with the goat was by far the most dangerous and scary situation we've been in because we are very cautious with Sam and that was one of those things you never saw or could imagine a goat being tangled in our ropes."

A new situation Joe will take into consideration every time they climb moving forward, and a new story for the father-son duo to add to their book of memories.

And as it turns out, that goat is actually not indigenous to that area. Joe and the other climbers did report the location of the goat to rangers in hopes that they will be able to move him to an area where he belongs.

Sam and Joe are still on track to climb El Capitan next summer, which is one of the hardest climbs in the world. The goal is for Sam to be the youngest person to ever reach the summit.

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Brynn Carman

Brynn is an anchor on Good Morning Colorado. Learn more about Brynn here.

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