and on the 9th day we awoke to a fresh fall of snow. the weather had cleared, a welcome change to being fogged in like the previous 2 days. it was time to hunt and hunt hard. when the weather is good you must hunt. i was not going home without having hunted as much as i could. a year is a long time to wonder if i could have done more. if the weather allowed i was out there.
i had ventured far from camp over the last few days and today was no different. we had been glassing chamois the entire trip on a ridge across the face of the range we were on. none of us knew what lay beyond. all we knew was that there was always chamois over there. i decided to make a day of it and check it out.
the snow had made the tussock very slippery and it was hiding the holes between the rocks and clumps of tussock. i slowly made way down and crossed the head of the creek that we had walked up from the river bottom. then i made my up the ridge that the chamois we could glass from camp would appear from and dissappear to. my anticipation was high as i poked my head over the ridge.
more little spurs and ridges. this looked more like trad bowhuntable country. it was more broken and not so open like the bowl we had been hunting where they can see you a mile away. every time you looked over the next little ridge or in the gully you might see something. the sort of topography where you could poke your head over a ridge and if you don't see something you walk a few hundred meters and check out what is over the next one.
i slowly made my way to the next one and peered over........
straight away i laid eyes upon a lone chamois only 40 meters away. i dropped back over the ridge in suprise. "whoa, this is the real deal" i thought to myself. this could be the best chance i might get.
i dropped my pack and made a start at getting close. i had to climb down some monkey scrub down a 2 meter drop off to get on the little spur that led down to where the chamios was. once there i snuck down through some knee high brush while it was out of view in a little rock slip. i got to about 20 meters from where i last saw it then waited. i caught it's movement up towards me then it came into view and i could tell it was a nanny. then it slipped into the tussock again and out of sight. i kept trying to find her but i couldn't see her moving. then i caught movement. i almost got busted as she had fed up towards me up another little slip. she looked my way but turned around and fed back down. now or never! she was at around 13-15 meters quartering away at a steep downward angle, about 40 degrees.
i hit her a little far back than i wanted and she ran off and stood on a little knob at 30 meters. i had another shot but missed. she took off again and pulled up about 60m away. by now she was getting reluctant to move and i managed to get in and put another shot on her. she trotted off about 10m and went down. i got in closer still and not wanting to take any chances on what could be a once in a lifetime thing i put one last arrow in her chest.
then it hit me, there was a dead chamois at my feet. i couldn't believe it, a dream had been lived. i knelt down beside her, placed my hand on her soft tan fur and took a moment to give thanks to her and the mountains. the mountains are often reluctant to share their bounty and when they do it's special.
this was something i had dreamed of doing for years. more importantly i did it in the manner that i had always wanted to do it. packing in and out and with a trad bow.
Topic: NZ backpack hunt for tahr and chamois. take 2 (Read 3793 times)
