Amphibious
01-05-2012, 10:21 AM
It's winter and I'm going through massive hunting withdrawals as I sit, halfway through my solo four week tour at a remote airfield in Northwest Alberta. 2010 saw me not hunting once as I was working overseas, and 2011 wasn't much better. "life happens" they say, and my work doesn't allow for much play time. not to mention time to train, except for pancake flat dirt roads to jog.
I did manage to draw a goat tag this year. I got in one day of scouting in July as I passed through the area, and 3 days in September to hunt it. when the day came, i was beyond excited. Goat hunting has become somewhat of an obsession for me. I wish I had better pictures, as these ones do not do the rock face justice. I spend a lot of time in the mountains, have a limited background in rockclimbing and will never try to get a goat like this again without ropes and a trained partner.
A long drive from the Okanagan and an hour of frame and trailer hitch scraping brought us fairly close to the head of a large valley that was to be our home for the next few days. we left the truck around noon, slid into our 50lb+ packs and began the hike down the valley on an old deactivated logging trail.
a couple hours in it began to grow very dark and cold, a large weather system was moving in. to our right was a large alpine bowl, surrounded on 3 sides by very steep cliffs. Natalya asked "is this a good place to find goats?" I squinted and pointed. "yup, there's one!" a lone goat was feeding in an sharp, rocky avalanche chute about 1000' above us and a couple kilometers away. against the dark grey of the rock he was clearly outlined. we studied him for a moment, and decided he was all alone, and most likely a Billy, so we set off through an old cutblock and headed into the bowl.
http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/317255_10150844170750051_614545050_21037445_165913 7358_n.jpg
The goat is in the top left of the picture below, just out of view.
http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/305700_10150844191705051_614545050_21037703_213271 9110_n.jpg
We had made it through the cutblock and past the treeline into the open alpine meadow. we were at a poor angle now, and could no longer see the Goat, so we decided to drop all of our camp gear and assault the cliffs with just what we would need to stalk. we slowly made our way up the south side of the bowl, staying inside the trees to cover our climb, and pausing often to glass. the climb was incredibly difficult, some of the harder scrambling I had ever done. As this was Natalya's first time in this kind of terrain, one would think it would be almost overwhelming, but she pushed on and kept pace, and was all smiles when we finally sat down and began to glass the walls. a few hours later we had made our way up over 1000' and were sitting above the crack the animal had been grazing in. the snow had stopped, the sun was trying to peak through, and the view was spectacular.
http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/297547_10150844174095051_614545050_21037489_130781 6243_n.jpg
http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/320754_10150844175515051_614545050_21037508_921483 930_n.jpg
http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/293605_10150844177240051_614545050_21037542_271387 7_n.jpg
we sat and scanned the cliffs for any sign of our quarry, but with out result. the afternoon was wearing on and we decided to head down and set up camp. we'd try again in the morning. about 20mins into our decent I looked up again, and four chutes over, there was our goat! he was laying down on a large flat rock in the sun, on the edge of a cliff, feeding on a small bush. we both got a good look at him and decided he was a billy, but a younger one. Natalya decided she would continue down alone and I would scramble over and try for a shot on him before it got to dark. she wished me luck, and off I went. I flat out ran for 20mins to get into position. Tarzan swinging from stunted spruce and side alder. at last I was at the bottom of the chute one over from the ledge we saw him on. the wall in front of me was near vertical and covered in layers of sharp shale. I scrambled up, finding toe and finger holds, until I reached a small knob of rocks and vegetation, directly across the chute from the Billy. I slowly slid my head up for a peak and there he was, just over 100yrds away and still feeding. another quick peak and I confirmed he was a young billy, and I decided to take him. It was very early in the hunt, but as my hunting time would be very limited this year, and this was Natalya's first goat hunt, the old saying "if you'll take it on the last day, take it on the first" came into effect.
I did manage to draw a goat tag this year. I got in one day of scouting in July as I passed through the area, and 3 days in September to hunt it. when the day came, i was beyond excited. Goat hunting has become somewhat of an obsession for me. I wish I had better pictures, as these ones do not do the rock face justice. I spend a lot of time in the mountains, have a limited background in rockclimbing and will never try to get a goat like this again without ropes and a trained partner.
A long drive from the Okanagan and an hour of frame and trailer hitch scraping brought us fairly close to the head of a large valley that was to be our home for the next few days. we left the truck around noon, slid into our 50lb+ packs and began the hike down the valley on an old deactivated logging trail.
a couple hours in it began to grow very dark and cold, a large weather system was moving in. to our right was a large alpine bowl, surrounded on 3 sides by very steep cliffs. Natalya asked "is this a good place to find goats?" I squinted and pointed. "yup, there's one!" a lone goat was feeding in an sharp, rocky avalanche chute about 1000' above us and a couple kilometers away. against the dark grey of the rock he was clearly outlined. we studied him for a moment, and decided he was all alone, and most likely a Billy, so we set off through an old cutblock and headed into the bowl.
http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/317255_10150844170750051_614545050_21037445_165913 7358_n.jpg
The goat is in the top left of the picture below, just out of view.
http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/305700_10150844191705051_614545050_21037703_213271 9110_n.jpg
We had made it through the cutblock and past the treeline into the open alpine meadow. we were at a poor angle now, and could no longer see the Goat, so we decided to drop all of our camp gear and assault the cliffs with just what we would need to stalk. we slowly made our way up the south side of the bowl, staying inside the trees to cover our climb, and pausing often to glass. the climb was incredibly difficult, some of the harder scrambling I had ever done. As this was Natalya's first time in this kind of terrain, one would think it would be almost overwhelming, but she pushed on and kept pace, and was all smiles when we finally sat down and began to glass the walls. a few hours later we had made our way up over 1000' and were sitting above the crack the animal had been grazing in. the snow had stopped, the sun was trying to peak through, and the view was spectacular.
http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/297547_10150844174095051_614545050_21037489_130781 6243_n.jpg
http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/320754_10150844175515051_614545050_21037508_921483 930_n.jpg
http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/293605_10150844177240051_614545050_21037542_271387 7_n.jpg
we sat and scanned the cliffs for any sign of our quarry, but with out result. the afternoon was wearing on and we decided to head down and set up camp. we'd try again in the morning. about 20mins into our decent I looked up again, and four chutes over, there was our goat! he was laying down on a large flat rock in the sun, on the edge of a cliff, feeding on a small bush. we both got a good look at him and decided he was a billy, but a younger one. Natalya decided she would continue down alone and I would scramble over and try for a shot on him before it got to dark. she wished me luck, and off I went. I flat out ran for 20mins to get into position. Tarzan swinging from stunted spruce and side alder. at last I was at the bottom of the chute one over from the ledge we saw him on. the wall in front of me was near vertical and covered in layers of sharp shale. I scrambled up, finding toe and finger holds, until I reached a small knob of rocks and vegetation, directly across the chute from the Billy. I slowly slid my head up for a peak and there he was, just over 100yrds away and still feeding. another quick peak and I confirmed he was a young billy, and I decided to take him. It was very early in the hunt, but as my hunting time would be very limited this year, and this was Natalya's first goat hunt, the old saying "if you'll take it on the last day, take it on the first" came into effect.