I was startled awake out of a deep sleep. With my head laying directly on the ice, the 'crunch- crunch- crunch' of footsteps echoed like a megaphone. A man was 100 feet away, walking toward me on this small ice field. I glanced at my watch. After the grueling ordeal of getting my pack and Dall sheep off the mountain, I had been asleep for 6 hours! When I sat up, I also startled him. He hadn't seen...  Read More

Though all I was wearing was a light t-shirt, the sweat was pouring off me. By watching for exactly the right places I was able to navigate my way  with close to a 200 pound backpack down, down, down to the valley floor. All the way down I was looking for my hunting partners, Tim and Larry Hand, but did not see them. My patch of last year's snow was mostly ice. I had finally arrived but I wasn't f...  Read More

My pack, with my entire camp AND a whole Dall sheep, was so heavy and the mountain so steep that I continuously had an image in my mind of my knee joints bursting like you pop the knuckle on a chicken bone. Soon my quad muscles were quivering like jelly. For a long time it seemed like my goal- a tiny patch of snow on the valley floor- was not getting any closer. My exhaustion seemed to increase th...  Read More

I had never mounted an animal and had no idea how to cape out a Dall sheep. I had skinned a lot of furbearers and knew how to dress out a deer, but this was different.I kept looking for my partners, but no luck. By taking my time, I was able to get the cape off and bone out all of the meat while keeping it clean. The old arctic winter army packs have enormous volume. They also have long straps so ...  Read More

I left my ram where he lay and started on the sheep trail to get my pack. I had no lightweight or quality gear of any kind, and I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that my pack probably weighed 70 pounds. Because I was so high on the mountain this was only a 10 minute traverse. It was definitely sketchy, but I had confidence because I'd walked it once before. As I rounded the end of the moun...  Read More

The place where my ram died was far too steep for me to cape it and bone it out. At the very least I needed a flat spot where I could lay a small tarp down to set my meat on to keep it clean. There was a sheep trail a short distance beneath me, so I dragged the ram down to a better spot. I didn't have a camera, and Tim and Larry Hand had the heavy video camera we had packed in. I still had no idea...  Read More

When I squeezed the trigger, the ram simply rolled over. I couldn't believe I had my first Dall sheep. Thanks to my partner Tim Hand, the day before I had learned how to descend a shale slide. This was fortunate because there was NO other way to reach my ram. If I had not already done this once, it would never have occurred to me to try. The mountain was so steep that it looked like I was stepping...  Read More

When you are looking straight down at a Dall sheep, the curl of the horn actually looks smaller than it really is. Even so I was certain that both rams were legal, but I couldn't tell which one was bigger. They battled for several minutes before one retreated and the dominant ram bedded down. At this point, the ridgeline was so narrow that I actually lay down on the back side of the ridge and used...  Read More

In places the ridgeline was razor thin- perhaps a foot or less wide- but it was also a sheep trail. As I looked down into the first 'bowl' up the valley, I didn't see my partners but I DID see our band of rams 300 yards beneath me. Another ram had joined them, so instead of seven there were eight. Not only that, but the eighth ram was also legal, and the two mature rams were battling it out for do...  Read More

I had no idea where my partners were. I reached the top of the mountain ridgeline right at sunrise. I had hoped to see Tim and Larry's camp from here, but no luck. I had a general idea of where they would be camping, but with the Dall sheep gone I figured that they would be looking for me. Our plan had been to meet up just below me where that other hunter had screwed us up. This was my first sheep...  Read More

I had no desire to speak to this hunter who had ruined my morning, so even though we were just a few feet apart I simply turned my back to him and began climbing a short distance to a sheep trail. When scouting the week before, this was the first sheep trail I had ever walked on. I knew that it wrapped around the face of this mountain and continued for several miles up the next valley. I also reme...  Read More

The sun and I seemed to be climbing at about the same pace. As I reached my destination above the Dall sheep it was just getting light enough to see. The sky was clear, but a low fog was whisping in and out at my elevation. I wondered where my partners were. I hadn't heard a shot yet. As I crested a final small knob, I saw one of them standing in the fog 50 feet from me. He was facing away from me...  Read More