Even though our excitement levels were off the charts, this
sheep hunt started out not all that different from my others. We had a pretty
long hike on Day 1 (maybe 10 miles), gained a few thousand feet of elevation and
had 30 or so river crossings under our belt. All in all, we had beautiful
weather and a great day. Day 2 of
the hunt wasn’t all that different from the first (another 10 miles hiked, more
elevation gained, and another 30 river crossings). Luckily, Day 2 finally ended
at our base camp location with just enough daylight to scout for tomorrow’s
opening day.
Scouting went well this afternoon, as the rams were
plentiful. The country was
enormous, indescribable really… It makes you feel so alive to climb to the top,
but once there, you truly realize just how insignificant you are.
A little to Lance’s chagrin, he found we weren’t just
looking for a legal ram, but rather a very mature, heavy horned hammer of a
ram. Luckily we found him in the very last drainage that we looked. This is
also where the hunt took a serious turn for the worse and made us thank our
lucky stars we had the right gear!
While glassing our ram, Lance looked to the North and said sharply “We
have to go!” The wall of
wind and snow hit just minutes after Lance’s statement…our dangerous, difficult
hunt just got that much more challenging.
The next 60 hours were spent in lockdown… no book, no
magazines… nothing but William and I forced to talk to each other. Over the next 2 ½ days we only left the
tent 4 times to eat and to occasionally clear the snow off as to avoid a
collapsed tent…brutal!
Finally we were able to emerge. Our first day of actual hunting was greeted with deep snow,
cold winds, slippery rocks and the task of finding white sheep in snow-covered
mountains. Every day started with
a 1200ft climb to the mountaintop where we’d glass for hours, locate our ram,
and watch him all day to see if we could make a play. While this may sound easy enough, people don’t realize that
it’s a gear nightmare! Lightweight,
fast drying garments for hyper aerobic climbs, insulation for life saving core
warmth and, of course, wind and rain protection are necessities, all while
minimizing as much weight as possible. This is no joke, truly life and death. You must have
the right system, which is why we only hunt with Sitka.
Everyday we’d locate the ram (that was the easy part). Getting
him in position to stalk was starting to seem impossible. A few times we’d get to the 150-yard
mark, but, this is archery and that’s just not going to cut it… Lance wanted to
throw my bow from the highest peak!
Finally, the band of rams made a mistake by bedding down at
the base of a steep hill. I knew
this stalk was going to be nerve-wracking at best… hiking in the deep snow, my
cameraman and guide in tow, and with all certainty, a long shot at the
end. No biggie, I’ll just nock an
arrow, clip my release on and execute a textbook shot... Or, I could quietly freak out while
nocking an arrow, fumble with my release, all the while Lance and William
whisper/yell that the ram is ONLY 72 yards away, down a steep slope and
broadside!!
Needless to say, the arrow found its mark and we had a sheep
down! Now, I could tell you about
the 2 wolverines, and I could make mention of the grizzly bear, or the fact the
weather deteriorated so badly that there were serious concerns about frostbite
during our photo shoot, or that we hiked an honest 30miles in one day (so far
that some of my toenails turned black and fell off), but I’d rather you just
wait for season one of The Short Season, Jeff Simpson’s and my new project, so
stay tuned and check us out at TheShortSeason.com!
-Donnie Vincent