So you want to hunt sheep? Part 9 - Cliffed Out

Kyle Sinclair-Smith

Returning home was bitter sweet for me. I was very happy to see my wife and young son after being gone for three days. Yes it was a short time, but anyone who is a parent knows exactly what I am talking about. Lying in bed the in the days following my return, I was haunted by the memories of being so close to a legal ram but not being able to make it happen. I played all the scenarios though my head trying to see if I could have done something different or something more that would have resulted in a folded tag. Wondering where that ram was, if he was still alive, and if someone else was up hunting him was keeping me up at night. I had to get back up there. It was getting to the point that I was just going to head back in solo. I wasn’t against this idea at all, buy my wife wasn’t going to let that happen. Then it came to me, I will call Chad and see if he wants to go. Chad is a good family friend of ours that I have known for many years and we get along quite well. The reason that I didn’t initially think of Chad is because Chad doesn’t hunt. What Chad does do is remote back country winter camping, search and rescue, extended remote camping and rock climbing; the perfect guy to take on a sheep hunt. Chad has nothing against hunting, he has just never been exposed to it; but he is always up for something new. I gave Chad a call and he was all in right away. I was very open and honest with him that I was fully intending on killing a sheep and that he may need to help pack the meat off the mountain. He was totally ok with that, he just asked that I guide him through the steps on the gutting and skinning and he would help as much as he could.

Over the following days we texted back and forth coming up with a gear plan. It was easy to tell that Chad was excited for this new experience that was about to unfold in front of him. The plan was set and two weeks after leaving the mountain from the first hunt, I would be headed back up for round two. Thursday night I gathered all my gear and organized it in my garage. Friday morning I packed my truck, kissed my wife and son good bye and headed for work. The plan was, I would work until noon, pick Chad up and then we would head west. I got to Chad’s around 12:30 pm, we went over a few last minute details, packed his stuff and started off. We had one stop left to make. When starting out sheep hunting this year, one of the items that I didn’t have was a tent. I looked around at different models, both new and used, and I decided this year I would start off by just sleeping under a tarp. For the first hunt, my friend actually had a two person tent so we both crammed in there. For this hunt, Chad made it very clear right off the start that the only person he shares a tent with was his wife. I felt that was fair. In the two weeks between me getting back and heading out again, a friend of mine got a hold of me. He heard through the grapevine that I was looking for a tent and just happened to win one in a recent charity event. After a few quick messages, I had now secured a Stone Glacier 2P Sky Scraper tent and that was the last stop we had to make prior to going to the trail head. We pulled over on the side of the road, exchanged a few quick details about the trip, grabbed the tent, then Chad and I were headed west with the next stop being the trail head. We pulled up to the trail at 2:00 pm. We made quick work of getting changed and loaded up. With limited time left before sun set, we put it into overdrive once we hit the trail. Our goal was to make it to where we wanted to camp, setup camp, gather wood and water, and then hike up to glass. We made great time and had all of that done by 5:00 pm so we decided to gain some vertical and see if we could find the rams. We got up top with good light left but despite our best efforts, we never did find the rams. Back at camp that night, I was a little deflated but I didn’t want it to show. This was Chads first time out so I wanted to make sure it was upbeat and fun; after all, this is hunting and nothing is guaranteed. I could feel myself getting caught up in killing a ram so this was what I needed to remind myself that the fun is in the experience, not the kill.

The next morning we were up bright and early with the plan of being up top to glass when first light broke. Chad is in better shape than me and set a strong pace. Not wanting to be the weakest link, I pushed myself hard and we were on top well before daylight. Even though it was chilly, I made sure I didn’t layer up right away so I could dry some of the sweat off. By the time I had a snack and some liquids, daylight was starting to break. We packed up and started heading up slowly stopping to glass so we could find the rams. Two hours later, we still hadn’t found the rams. We had searched all the places that I had seen them previously, I was starting to think that they had been blown out. We had a quick sit down to discuss our options. I felt that we needed to start exploring other parts of the mountain to try and turn them up. By now, it was warming up and I figured that they should be out grazing and should be pretty easy to spot. This particular mountain had quite a few little chutes and folds that are ideal for hiding sheep in close proximity. A couple hours later and we still hadn’t found anything. While I was sitting there glassing, I was trying to picture my Google Earth scouting to remember what the mountain all held. Chad was looking as his GPS and it we had the same thought at the exact same time. Chad looked up at me to show me something on his GPS right when I spoke up and said “I know where they are”. Around the shoulder of the mountain, was a tight little bowl that was only accessible by people from the top. Of course, this same bowl was accessible by sheep on all sides. We quickly gathered our things and started heading to check out the bowl. I really didn’t want to go into this bowl from the top, but I was sure this was the only way. As we approached, I noticed a small notch on the side. I felt that this notch would allow us to look into the bowl to see what was in there. We slowly crawled up to the edge of the notch with our glass making sure to move slow and stay low.

Here I am sneaking up to the edge of the bowl to look over

As soon as we broke the plane of view into the bowl, we spotted the rams without even glassing them. They were grazing about 150 yards below the top rim on a series of benches. We got settled in good so we could survey the bowl and come up with a plan. After overlooking the bowl, our only option was to back track, go around and come in from the top. Because of the bench that the sheep were on, we felt that would be out of sight from them and could move in pretty close. We grabbed our gear and covered some ground quickly. I wanted to around and try to make a play on them before they decided they were done with their spot and moved deeper into the chute of the bowl. Once we circled around and approached the top ledge, the wind was perfect as it was coming up the bowl from the rams to us. We slowly crept to the edge step by step making sure we could move unseen. We got right up to the edge, and just as we thought, the small benches had the rams hidden from us. Now came the fun part. The rams were on the fourth bench down into the bowl, we somehow had to make it down to the third bench if a shot was to be possible. It took a bit of exploring, but we eventually made our way onto the first bench. Each ledge was about a 20 foot climb down. It wasn’t too bad, but we still had to play it safe. A fall from 20 feet would clearly blow the rams out, break some gear and potentially some bones; not a situation that I wanted to get myself into. I want to mention that while we were finding routes down each ledge, it was equally important that not only could we get down, but that we could also get back up. If things went well, we would be trying to pack a ram out of this bowl and that would add to the difficulty. Getting down to the second bench took a little longer. The rocks had some moss on them and it made the footing less than ideal. Once I was on the second bench, I was starting to get excited, one more bench and I would be in good shooting distance. At this time, the rams were still out of view, the wind was good, and we were making decent time. As we explored routes down to the third bench, there just didn’t seem to be a way. We went back and forth along the bench trying to find an option. Eventually, we did find one small and tight little chute that showed a possibility. Since Chad had more experience and skill, he was nominated to go first and check it out. It took him a good 15 minutes to get down this little chute and while I was watching him, I knew this was not an option for us. Once he got on the ledge, he looked up at me with a concerned look on his face and he shook his head. At this point, he had got down there but he didn’t know how he was going to get back up. With some whispers, and some hand signals, he told me that there was no way we would get a ram back up that cliff. This was very disheartening for me. Once again I was so close but still so far. Chad has his good Sony camera with him, so I got him to crawl up to the ledge and take some pictures of the rams. I wanted to see them and how they were laying even if it was on a camera screen. While Chad was doing that, I was trying to find any way possible to get down there; I wanted an opportunity. 15 minutes later Chad was back at the bottom of the ledge, pointed to his camera and gave me a thumbs up, he got the pictures.

A picture of the rams that Chad was able to take from the 3rd ledge.

While Chad was taking pictures, I came up with nothing. While all this was happening, the clouds had gotten darker and lower. Chad motioned that he was going to climb up and out, getting off these ledges would be almost impossible if it started raining. Almost an hour later, Chad got himself back up and onto the second ledge. We sat down and had a discussion over the situation and the rams. Looking at his camera, the legal ram was bedded facing away from him, broadside, and no farther than 25 yards. I wanted so badly to get down there. Chad strongly advised against it, not wanting to be rude, he told me as kindly as possible that it was “a very bad idea for me to get down there because I won’t be coming back up the same way”. This was heart breaking. By now, the wind was picking up and it was starting to spit. We knew we had to get the heck off those ledges and in a hurry. We only had to go up two benches, coming down took us about 30 minutes but going back up took all of an hour and a half. The climb was steep, the rocks were loose, and it was getting damp out; I wanted out of there. I was quite relieved to get out of there safely. We put on some rain gear, put the covers on our packs and headed for camp. On the way back, Chad checked the forecast on his InReach, Sunday showed rain, lots of rain. We knew where the rams were and figured that they would head down to the tress in the bowl once it started to rain. The problem with that was the only way to get down there was by climbing the ledges and we knew that wasn’t an option. As we walked back to camp, we weighed our options as to what to do. By the time we got to camp, we figured we might as well pack up while it’s still somewhat dry as Sunday would be a complete bust. By the time we packed up and made it back to the trucks, it was raining hard. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a fair weather hunter, but it wasn’t safe to hunt those sheep where they were. The walk back to the truck was full of mixed emotions. I was grateful for the experiences I had that season, but I was also sad that this was likely my last sheep hunt for the season. Due to work and guiding commitments, if I did get out for general sheep again, it wouldn’t be until the last week of October. With that said, this really wasn’t an option that I was excited for. Yes, hunting the last week of October can be amazing from what I’ve been told. Its colder, there can be snow, and rams are starting to move with the upcoming rut. On the other hand, this is my first season really sheep hunting and I didn’t want to bite off more than I could chew. I figured that I would see how the season played out, what the weather was and make a decision closer to the end of October. The one thing I knew for certain is I had a great time so far hunting sheep. I had learnt a ton about mountain hunting and back country camping, I seen some amazing country, and I got to hunt sheep. To me, even though I didn’t fill a tag, my sheep hunt was a success. At the time, I was still a little bummed. I shouldn’t have been, because I had no idea what was still to unfold.