Aftermath - The Gear in Review

Well, it is done. The cape is at the taxidermist, the horns in the garage, gear cleaned and in the basement, and all I can think about is going back. In retrospect, it was easy. As others told me: "It wasn't easy, you were just well-prepared".

Let's have a look at the gear, and see what worked and what didn't. I can be brief about the real weak link in this adventure - the hunter: next time I'll be fitter and stronger! I spent five days on the slopes, one day before the opener and four hunting days. Temperatures ranged from about -25 oC in the morning to I-don't-know-what in the afternoon, and winds were between none-existent-almost-never to knock-you-down-on your-face-in-the-scree kind of strong pretty much the rest of the time.

Starting at the bottom: the Schnee's Hunter Extreme boots worked. Period. In deep snow, through the scree, on hard rock, never did I feel that I made the wrong choice. It was only with the heavy load of sheep head and cape, that I felt I needed a bit more support from the relatively soft rubber-bottomed boot. I didn't suffer from cold feet. I added the Arctic Shield boot covers, except for the one day that I thought I forgotten to bring them, and the feet stayed warm. That one day I put some chemical toe warmers in the boot, when in the afternoon, my feet started to get chilly. At night I needed to take out the felt liner to let it dry, it did absorb quite a bit of moisture.

A big shout-out for the Kahtoola Microspikes slip-on crampons. I only used them once, when coming down heavy, but they provided a lot of grip, and stayed on the boot well. If you go late-season mountain hunting, I'd recommended getting a pair of these or something similar.

For socks I did nothing special, just a liner sock and a smart wool sock over top.

For a baselayer I wore a set of long underwear that COSTCO had on sale, a blend of merino and some stretchy fabric. I won't be buying shirts with zippers anymore, but that was the only thing they had at the time. This worked well, it got wet a bit but not drenched, and didn't itch (I itch easisly, even the so-called no-itchy merinos still bug me).

The advice I got was to at least switch into a dry shirt at the top, and I did once. Good advice! Other times I didn't and it took up to an hour for the cold feeling along the spine to disappear. I tried another time, but it was so cold and windy that I barely had time to got extra layers on before my hand turned cherry-red and stated losing dexterity.

I had a 260 weight long-sleeved merino shirt with me, that I actually wore on the first two days during the climb, and used as an extra layer during sitting on the other two days (the fifth day we didn't have time to sit, as soon as we hit the ridge it was game on!).

I wore gloves with windstopper during the climb, and switched into liner gloves, fleece gloves and mitts once settled in on the ridge. For me, putting on dry gloves was an absolute necessity, the climbing gloves just got too wet.

To be continued...

Day 4 - It was a good day to kill a ram

Chipper. We had named him when we saw him on the mine. We actually thought he was not all that big. But we found him outside the mine this morning. And it felt like a good day to kill a ram. As I was walking up a sheep trail, I was enjoying every step, feeling good that I was here, on a high windy ridge, and thinking "I don't care if this is going to take ten days; I'm ready to take on whatever the mountain throws at us".

And it's almost like the hunting gods were waiting for that revelation. I wasn't going to quit. So they sent a group of rams our way, and Chipper was in it. And it felt like I needed to shoot him. The stalk was easy, the shooting too. He turned out a lot heavier than we had thought, a beautiful, beautiful ram.

As we were admiring our ram, the wind stopped blowing, and the sun came out. Someone was telling us we did good, and granted us gorgeous stable weather to cape and butcher and carry the heavy load down the mountain. It was a good day to kill a ram.

"...because while you think you could maybe face dying, you can't deal with the idea of one day becoming too old and weak to ramble among these summits any longer." Douglas H. Chadwick - The Wolverine Way

Day 3 - it's all about the wind

Did I mention that I got knocked off my feet by wind for the first time, on Day 1? Well, it has become a common occurence as of today.

We were first on the mountain this morning. Come early afternoon however, the winds had picked up so much that merely standing up required a major effort. By the time we made it back onto the trail to go home, it was gusting so hard that both of us got knocked down several times. One big gust bowled us both over, and we looked at each other splayed out prone in the scree, with big smiles. Smiles of a madman... or sheephunter; they are pretty close. I can't count the number of times we just had to hunker down, on hands and feet, on our knees; or the wind just pushed us over ten or twenty feet, with our feet scrambling to stay underneath the centre of gravity. Fun times! Dream tag!

Some well-meant advice: if you have never climbed a mountain before, don't put in for this tag!

Day 2 - Where are the big rams?

Gorgeous day on the mountain today. Kyle arrived during the night and after a healthy two hours of sleep for him we were up again, and off to Cadomin. Though we weren't especially early, we were the first at the trailhead, not counting the husband and wife who are camping on the other side of the mine somewhere.

There has been a large group of sheep hanging out along our access trails, with plenty of rams. Some look really good at first glance, but after a good close look (sometimes no more than 20 feet away!) they don't look exceptionally large. Nobody appears to be seeing the really big rams that Cadomin is famous for.

The plot is thickening as access to one area is still tricky, even with big trucks and tire chains (neither of which I have). Tomorrow will likely see more people congregating in the same area.

All we can do is head out there again, hike up high and wait for things to happen!

Day 1 - Knocked over by the wind

There's a first for everything, they say. In my recollection, I have never been knocked off my feet by wind of any kind. Until today.

We were coming down off a saddle, where I made some impromptu comments during the shooting of a TV scene, and nearly rendered my hands incapable of moving putting on my down jacket.* The wind was horrible, whipping up the snow and grit, hammering the three brave souls that had made it up there. I don't think I will be needing any microdermabration of similar face treatments anytime soon. 

Crossing a small snow chute, I misstepped and was slighty off balance for a sec, when BAM out of the blue a wind gust (gust sounds way too friendly for what it felt like) hit me and pack and the snowshoes on the pack, and knocked me straight into the snow. Hardpacked snow. At an angle, rather steep actually.

Of course I'm blessed with incredible coolheadedness under pressure and cat-like reflexes, so jamming the walking stick into the hardened surface and leaning on it with all my might, to slow down the descent that could only have ended in disaster, was all in a day's work for me. Lesser souls would have....

Just kidding of course, but without the stick the slide could have been a nasty one.

Conditions are tough, the deep snow and high winds making some areas inaccessible for now. But the forecast is looking good (ignoring the foot of snow that has been predicted for the next 24 hours, I'm pretending that won't happen). We might just be huddling together in a small area for a little while, those that have a tag, and their friends.

* On that high saddle I tried to take off my KUIU rain jacket; I found that it had frozen to the fleece jacket underneath it. Two things can be deduced from that. The insulation layer of merino blend/merino/fleece is doing it's job; not enough body heat made it to the outside to prevent the freezing. The 'breathing' capabilities of the raingear leaves something to be desired; enough moisture built up to allow the two layers to freeze together. KUIU claims that their newer raingear breathes better. Well, I have a place where I can test it!

Cadomin - Day 'minus 1'

Tomorrow. Tomorrow, it all begins. I arrived yesterday, so today was for a last look around to determine where to go in the morning, and to recalibrate the thinking about what is a big ram.

Today can be summarized in three words: cold - snow - wind. And the peculiar absence of hunters with a tag for this last day of the middle season (OK, that is a lot more than three words). Did everybody tag out? Give up? I only met one other guy, whose wife has a tag for late season.

I didn't see the gagger, the monster, the one that makes you go "WOW!" I did see a lot of very pretty rams, full curls, a few heavily broomed rams, and one that goes full curl and then some but with an incredibly tight curl. If all the rings I saw are really annuli, he was well over ten years old. Any of these I would shoot in a heartbeat, if this weren't Cadomin. All of them were safely on the mine.

The wind was terrible. Even though the temperature rose throughout the day, so did the wind force. In one location it was impossible to get off the parking spot without snowshoes. As I put my foot on the windblown snow, to my left a miniature avalance occured. The "designated trail" was largely invisible, and packed with 2 1/2 feet of snow. Tough going.

Which photo do you like better?

Last weekend a few friends and I were out in the badlands of Alberta to chase mule deer. Even though it takes 3-4 years to draw a buck tag in this zone, my mind was set on quick success and filling the freezer. The area we hunted produces mule deer bucks that can score 200 inches, but finding one requires patience, dedication and luck. Because of the Cadomin adventure coming up later this month, I was pressed for time. A terrible way to approach a hunt, I know, but after a few fun but fruitless (in terms of acquiring venison) hunts with the bow, it was all about connecting with a buck or a doe expediently at the start of rifle season.

The Red Gods did indeed throw me a bone, and I managed to shoot a buck late in the morning of the first day. A nice buck, for other areas maybe even a decent buck, but for here 'just a buck'. At first, I didn't even want to take the traditional hero shot, and I focused on some alternative angles. The first photo below got mixed responses, including from my dad who said "I didn't like that photo on Facebook very much, son". Others however appreciated the attempt to show the dead animal in a different setting.

The second photo is the traditional 'hunter grinning over dead animal' shot, which I felt was unnecessary, given that on that particular day not a lot of hunting skill was involved. I took it anyway, and a number of people asked for it, after seeing the top photo.

I think hunting photography has been evolving quite rapidly in recent years, with a lot more attention to detail, emotion and artistic expression, beyond the straight-up documentation of landscapes, people, camps and trophies. As a photographer I certainly feel challenged (in a good way) to try and add something special to my images, and I have fun doing it. What do you think? Feel free to share your thoughts below.