Alaska Winter Mountain Goat Hunt! Just gonna send it!!!!!

[Caseyd]

First chapter worked, I’m cold just reading it 

[Ghost Hunter]

And so it begins.      Drying wood on the stove right of out the gate.   

[PlateauNDN]

  finally. Now just have to wait for chapter 2 tomorrow.

[Karl Blanchard]

In Alaska you can't hunt on the same day as you fly, but you can sure as heck look!  We climbed up to the rim of the first basin above us to take a look at what we would be dealing with and holy snow!!!!  Not only deep but drifted.  We made the decision almost immediately that it wasn't safe, nor wise to try and navigate that country in the dark so we had a hard line on turn back time so we could be back at camp by dark.  It's not like we were looking for bucks and bulls moving at first and last light.  Goats don't roll that way so that switching hour wasn't an important thing to be around for.

On our way down we stopped to glass a big face and immediately picked up goats! It was a nanny and kid group! As we continued to glass we found a lone goat way down the mtn from them all by itself. Long ways off but looked to be a billy! Talk about excitement! I cannot accurately describe the feeling of spotting goats when you actually have a goat tag in your pocket!!!!  Gameplan was set for Sunday! Now we just needed them to stay put....

[Magnum_Willys]

After first Chapter I knew I wouldnt be too envious.    Brrrrr

[Karl Blanchard]

By the time we got back to camp, we were pretty much soaked head to toe.  The rain was really pounding away and the wind was intensifying. To compound everything the temps plummeted once the sun went down.  Drying clothes was gonna be vital and the only way to do that was with body heat in the sleeping bags. 

First thing was to pull insoles and wet socks.  Those went in the sleeping bag.  Then new socks and boots back on.  The new socks soaked up excess water.  Once we were ready to climb in the bag, those socks went in as well.  If you have never climbed into a sleeping bag full of wet gloves, socks, an insoles, wearing  wet clothes...when its 28° out, you are missing out on one of the more unpleasant things in life   

Condensation was a big issue that first night and bags got a good soaking from inside and out but those kifaru slik bags were so impressive!  Bears hadn't been a thought that crossed my mind so far but when the lights got turned out and we were zipped up in our bags, every noise was a potential monster brown bear.  Luckily the wind and rain lulled us to sleep.

It was dark by 6:30pm and the sun didn't peak out again until 8:00 a.m.  Though everything in the tent was wet and frozen, including the outside of our bags, inside everything was warm and dry.  It was still raining hard but being down that long had us eager to get after it!  We flew out of the tent only to be greeted by a 500ft ceiling     the thought of being stuck in the tent was more than we could bear. We knew that we had big weather coming and high winds thanks to Chris's daily weather reports so we made busy hauling large rocks from the beach to anchor tent Stakes. With the high winds I was very concerned about my big teepee. The design has limitations and the ground wasn't the best for staking so I wanted to get it good and anchored.

Around mid day the wind started to intensify and the cloud cover blew out enough that we decided to make a run at that potential Billy.  One of the things that I very much underestimated how much time it would take to get anywhere due to the Alders and Terrain. It was incredibly labor-intensive to get above the brush.  We finally made it to the area he had been but we took a bad route and got cliffed out.  It was pure nail biting navigation trying to get off those ice covered rocks and back on solid terrain.  We finally got circled and as we made our final approach our weather hit! Blinding snow blacked out everything.  Within a matter of minutes we had over an inch covering everything including us.  Now the game plan was get off the steep while we still could.  We fought our way back to camp and repeated our de-robing process.   The wind was screaming at this point and it was raining so hard that it sounded like someone had a pressure washer and they were trying to wash the tent. 

At some point in the night it turned to snow and boy did it snow!!!! Flakes that were no guff the diameter of a pop can! Every 30 min we would have to go beat snow off the tents for fear of collapse.  Needless to say not much picture taking took place.  It was just survival.  Keep shelters functional and stay warm.  That's all that mattered.

[Karl Blanchard]

At some point that morning the temp warmed up enough and the snow turned to rain (thank god). With it came with even more ferocious winds.  It sounded like a jet out on the lake and when those gusts came through they would hit the mountain and literally make a "boom" sound! Luckily our little creek bed was just low enough that we were out of the full force of the wind.  At one point I took my little wind meter out with me to take a leak and clocked 58mph.  Not sure what the gusts were or how hard it was 10 yards above us on the flat but it was concerning to say the least.

My tipi is a JonathanS work of art.  That thing got absolutely pounded but it held strong.  A true testament to the quality of his workmanship.  36hrs we spent hunkered in our bags just listening to mother nature unleash her fury.  The whole while all we could think about is where is this gonna move the goats too?

[Karl Blanchard]

Early Tuesday morning mother nature stopped throwing her fit and the skies cleared.  With that the temp dropped hard.  When the sun finally cracked the horizon it was blue skies and 22° out.  Everything was frozen including the muskeg (thank god ). We dawned puffy layers and blew out of the tent like two kids on Christmas morning! It felt glorious to be out of that tent and upright.  Immediately we glass up goats and they are on the peak right south of camp! We figured it was about 2 miles to get to them.  First we needed to get frozen rifles functional and get everything squared away in the packs.  We were gonna run light and fast.

A bit more coffee and some burn time to thaw the boots and we were beating feat to wrestle our way through the alders.

[Karl Blanchard]

Goats just above my pointer finger!!!!!

[pianoman9701]

Boy, what an adventure. 

[Karl Blanchard]

A nice picture Michael took on our ascent up to the goats

[elkrack]

The thought of climbing into a sleeping bag full of wet clothes sounds miserable! But 36 hours in a teepee tops the wet bag. I think. What an adventure. The pictures of the landscape are awesome! now let’s see some dead goats

[PlateauNDN]

  what a story so far. 

[Karl Blanchard]

The thought of climbing into a sleeping bag full of wet clothes sounds miserable! But 36 hours in a teepee tops the wet bag. I think. What an adventure. The pictures of the landscape are awesome! now let’s see some dead goats

extremely unpleasant.  We slept in the Hilleberg.  We just used the teepee for gear storage.  It allowed us to keep our sleeping quarters less cluttered and a bit of air flow around the rain gear at night.  We also kept all the food in it.  Trees were a long walk so figured if a bear came around he'd mess with that and not us and give us a fighting chance to get on our feet and in an offensive position.  We figured out really quickly that they probably wouldnt be an issue.  On the salt I could a few scraping out a living but inland where we were there was nothing to eat.  We never saw any sign of big brown thank goodness.

Nightly sleeping bag gear bomb 

[Karl Blanchard]

Michael trying to get his rifle unfrozen.  Luckily firing pins were good and a bit of blunt force and everything was cycling as it should. We dubbed his 300wm "night rider" as she is all black 😍