elk and Sept. snow, thought?

Will try to keep this brief and to the point. Our 4th try archery elk in northern CO. Have been learning the area and elk habits more each year. I took a cow elk the opening week of the season, and saw and heard several bulls. A friend was there and had great activity Sept. 12 just 2 miles from us, and at same altitude. We were confident to say the least. We get there Sept. 15th and wait at TH for 3+ hours for rain to stop. Head out to spike camp and more rain comes in. 3 hours later we get a 15 minute break in rain and get tent set up. Rain all night, and in AM it changes to snow. 2-3" of snow on ground by 10 am. Long story shorter we hunted (I called, buddy had archery tag) the next 3.5 days and never heard or saw a single elk. We found 3-4 sets of tracks total in the snow after MANY miles of hiking and locate bugling. They simply were not there. So, my question, do you think the snow pushed them off the tops where we were ? (10,000- 10,900' ) A few weeks ago they were feeding on the grasses in this area heavily. Maybe the cows went down the mountain for food in the creek bottoms and the bulls followed? The only other explanation I can come up with is that the hunting pressure got too high between the times I was there? But our friends had great activity just a couple days prior to our arrival. Just trying to Monday morning quarterback and learn from our trip what may have happened and what the elk do.
Thanks for any advice!

I doubt 2-3" of early snow accounted for much, if any, of the reason for the lack of elk. I would say hunting pressure would be my number one reason. If I was a betting man, those elk have a nice timber patch nearby to those open grassy areas you had been seeing them in that they go to during the day. I bet someone spent some time hunting in that timber and blew them out of that area. But in all honesty it could have been many things. Public land, heavily hunted elk like in much of CO can be hard creatures to sort out. I will say that they were not far from where you had been seeing them earlier and it wont be long before they are back to where you were seeing them. The elk are where they find you. My thought anyway.