tahr and chamois quest 2013

[Cyclic-Rivers]

       

OK! Now we are finally hunting! Come on guys, put one on the ground!

Bisch

[flyne]

The more I look at this thred the more I want to go back to NZ just love that country
Jim

[Marksman Quivers]

We kept climbing the creek It was getting on towards lunch time now and we were not far off the saddle heading over the range.
We crossed the creek and headed up a smaller side creek by this time it was starting to rain, and as Clinton mentioned previously we stumbled upon as good a camp site as your going to get that high on the mountain.
Situated in a tiny bowl next to a creek with a low tussock patch the size of the tent footprint and a wind break from gusts coming up the valley.(which were reported to be coming)The angle wasn't bad either.

After clearing a few rocks we got the tent up by now the rain had turned to sleet and would shortly be snow.
So we settled in for the rest of the day wondering what tomorrow would bring.

As the snow got heavier we had to punch the top of the tent every 15 minutes to shed the snow  otherwise we end up with a collapsed tent and bent poles (happened last year) so we kept that up for about 15 hours, the shed snow builds up at both ends of the tent and then you have to be careful that doesn't collapse. Oh the fun of mountain hunting.

 

 
Next morning we cleaned the excess snow off and went hunting.

[Marksman Quivers]

This guy was on the other side of the creek heading out of the catchment.

After the snow we saw no mobbed up groups just individuals.

 

Early on the wind was gusting hard blowing fresh powder everywhere, it made being out in the open pretty unbearable. We huddled for a while next to a big rock and tried to glass to no avail then we decided to go our separate ways as it started to subside.

 

Clint went over the range behind me and I headed round the front of the range we were on.

 

[Lone Ranger]

MORE UPDATES PLEASE!!!!!

[Whip]

Wow!  I thought the steepness of the slopes would have been more than enough to do me in.  Add snow on top of them and I would have surely been a goner.  
What an amazing trip.  You both have my utmost respect      

[mmgrode]

Keep it coming fellas!  The photos you guys post are spectacular!  What sort of camera are you guys using?

Cheers, Matt

[ozy clint]

my camera is a canon EOS 450D with 18-55mm and 55-250mm lenses.

[Cyclic-Rivers]

   

[coaster500]

What an great hunt....  I wish I still had the legs and lungs for a trip like this!!!

[maineac]

Fantastic so far!!

[sheephunter]

Awesome adventure! Keep it coming!

[Marksman Quivers]

CM

From Clintons lofty perch on top of the range he was able to look to where I was glassing.

 
CM

 
CM

At one point during the day , Clint came over the radio rather flustered telling me a Tahr had bedded below me on a small saddle.
I gathered what gear I needed and dropped over into a small steep creek knee/waist deep in snow, When I got to where the Tahr had been he was gone it was just to noisy getting down in the snow.
I climbed back up and saw the Tahr 80 meters away he had crossed where I walked up earlier and headed towards Clintons direction.

In hindsight I would have been better coming down the front of the ridge, but there the breaks when your stalking blind, as we were to find out more and more on this trip terrain just doesn't look the same viewed from afar.

 
CM


I watched later in the day as Clint put the bull Tahr up from his rocky hiding place Just by the sound of him climbing down in the snow .
The Tahr ran right out the front of the range non stop, it was amazing to wath him move that fast in such fatal terrain, what he did in minutes would have taken us hours.

[ozy clint]

that's the tasman sea behind mark in that pic.

i really thought mark was going to get a shot at a bull that day. i was having lunch and periodically looked to see what mark was doing. i couldn't believe it when i saw a tahr bedded just below him. like mark said the terrain looks very different from afar. trying to talk someone in by radio proved difficult because what seemed easy to me probably looked like death to mark.
the shoe was on the other foot later in the trip.

the ease with which that tahr traversed that bowl can not be described. they are the king of the mountain.

[coaster500]

[Fanto]

what a fantastic hunt!

please more of the story! more photos!

thanks

[Cyclic-Rivers]

Guys, you gotta get this out before its blurred with your next trip lol.

Great stuff Keep it coming.

[Marksman Quivers]

CM

A little reminder of why we are doing what we are doing on Clintons bow.

 
CM

 
CM

The range where we had some close encounters with Tahr 2 years previous.

 

Back at camp.
Temps that evening when we were cooking dinner in the tent were 0.8 degrees C (33.44 Fahrenheit) outside the tent and 4 degrees C (39.2 Fahrenheit)
inside.

 

Our gaitors and boots were frozen rigid in our vestibules.

[ozy clint]

Originally posted by Cyclic-Rivers:
Guys, you gotta get this out before its blurred with your next trip lol.

Great stuff Keep it coming.

bear with us guys, we're still in the recovery phase.


i should change my self motivation sticker to- 'if you want to kill the devil, you have to go through hell and back and then through hell again'