We woke up to beautiful clear skies. This was 4 days of sunshine and perfect weather in a row. Tim kept saying to me, "This isn't sheep hunting." In a lifetime of Dall sheep hunting, I have never again had such perfect weather. This was good news for Larry, because he had spent the night somewhere in the mountains lying on the ground. We had to repack our meat in new ice because the large chunks t...  Read More

Leaving our meat packed beneath snow and ice, we filled our water bottles, shouldered our packs, and they led me up onto small bench where they had camped. By now it was late afternoon. Larry said, "I'm going to walk 7 miles to the head of this drainage to snoop around. Don't worry about me, I'll spend the night up there." Larry had a sleeping bag, but no tent or sleeping pad. He had no cook stove...  Read More

As I laid sleeping on the ice, Tim and Larry had been stalking a ram. They got close enough for a shot and then settled in to wait for me. Tim and I had taken turns packing a large Sony video camera in a waterproof case. Our hope was to get a great hunting video of one of us getting a Dall sheep. When we split up the day before they took the camera because I was by myself. They finally decided tha...  Read More

Tim and Larry Hand also had a great story. When they got up that morning and saw that the 7 rams we intended to stalk were gone, they decided to head up the valley. After I shot my ram, the other 7 headed deeper into the mountains. They didn't hear my shot, couldn't find me anywhere, but eventually came upon those same rams. They were experienced sheep hunters and between them had killed many rams...  Read More

Larry asked, "Where did you go? When we got up in the morning the sheep were gone, so we waited for you but you never came." I said, "I shot one too."He asked, "Where did you find him? There was only one legal ram in that bunch of seven."I said, "Another ram must have joined them overnight. When I found them this morning there were eight in the bunch with two legal rams. After I cut mine up I brou...  Read More

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