Thanks guys. I moved up here in 2007, and I'll be back down there before too long. I wanted to get a good sheep in the process and it's happened.
Here's a real brief timeline:
8/6 flew into airstrip on glacier. Hiked to top of main glacier (easy walking on rotted ice and hard moraine rock) and saw only goats.
8/7 hiked down to intersection of main and big branch glacier. Things get rougher as you get lower with crevasses and a lot more surface rock, causing weird melting patterns, big hills, and big holes.
8/8 hiked halfway up branch glacier to nice camp on lateral moraine above glacier. Spotted eight rams a few more miles up, one of which had some mass.
8/9 hiked past rams up glacier, only because there was a hard-flowing river in the middle of the ice that oxbowed everywhere and left really sheer sides and slick bottom to the flow surface. Took and extra couple miles to get high enough to get above the bad oxbows and cross. Made camp on lateral moraine below ridge with rams
8/10 start hike up ridge - stupid rams are all bedded right above me and bust me barely out of my tent. They hadn't been that far over on the ridge either of the two previous days. Only two of the young ones see me and spook - the rest follow to a high castle area. Wind is favorable, weather is crap, and they can't see me, so I pursue. I hang back a bit and wait, and they start to filter back down the hill to feed, on a finger ~100 yards out. I get caught standing on the next finger but thankfully next to a tall man-shaped rock, so my skyline isn't too out of place. But, I'll be busted if I move or sit down. I wait for 3 hours bone still on the hillside in the spitting sleet, held in place by the gaze of one or more rams the whole time. Finally big guy shows, and I binoc him to make sure, sit down slow, bring up rifle, and shoot. First load of sheep down to camp that night - it's too late to bone everything and I don't want to cross a bad slide area with too much weight.
8/11 return to carcass for remainder, and flesh/salt the cape.
8/12 make 3 hour push down the stub glacier with meat. Make it about halfway to main glacier, rest, then return to camp. Leapfrog camp, cape, and horns a few miles past meat. Miserable work, starting at 7:00 am and finally laying pack down at 9:00.
8/13 Head up for meat and get it back to camp. Lunch, then push meat down to intersection of main and stub glaciers. Get back to camp right at twilight. 8:00 am to 9:30 pm, near solid work with a bit of rest and food.
8/14 Get camp past meat onto white ice strip on main glacier. Return and get meat to same place, then load up everything (130+ lbs?) and head down a nice 3 mile strip of ice before it peters out into giant rubble piles. Keep one-trip load on and head over to edge of main glacier, and hold up about five miles above takeout airstrip. Again, 8:00 - 9:30 full day, second half of which is beating sun and near-80-degree temps.
8/15 One-trip the remainder to the airstrip in five hours, staggering in like a dead man. Again, 80-degrees, sun, no wind. I'm half a day early. An hour later, air taxi flies over to look for me cause he's in the neighborhood for another dropoff. Bam, I'm back to civilization another hour later. Drive home.
I've had hard days, but never three and a half of them in a row!
