Getting the smack down by the mountain... or, my Chugach goat hunt in pictures.

I live deep in the interior of Alaska, far away from our mountain goat populations and all the fun the coastal guys get to have. Nevertheless, I've had the itch to chase them for several years, and have been putting in for the high odds Kodiak draw tags for as long as I can recall. For some reason, I have the worst luck when in comes to Kodiak, and have never drawn a single tag. In 2014 I decided to switch it up a bit and applied for all Chugach Mountain tags, which have much lower odds of being pulled (and lower odds of success), just because. Apparently that was what I needed to do, because by some massive stroke of luck, not only did I draw a tag on my first attempt, but my dad pulled the exact same one! Statistically, that's something like <1% chance of that happening. I was stoked and banked my time and money for this trip all summer. With my dad holding the same tag, I didn't even have to look for a partner. However, as it turned out that lucky draw used up pretty much ALL my luck for the trip. Follow along for my tale of woe.


The season opens Sept 1st and runs through mid Oct. While Chugach glacier country goats aren't known for the B&C horn genetics of the the coastal goats, they do grow massive winter coats and look like giant white fluff balls by Oct. It's a higher and colder country that Kodiak or SE Alaska and I think the coats show it, so I set my mind on a late season trip and rolled out of town on Oct 2.

Passing through the Alaska Range on the drive down to my jumping off point in Palmer, I was seeing plenty of snow. Mildly nerve racking, but carry on...



The pre-flight meeting. Weather was perfect in Palmer, and the snow levels were still plenty high in the Chugach.




Headed up into glacier country...



Tried a landing on this glacier, but it was a bit dicey so we passed. A good thing as it turned out. For sure there are goats in this country that will die of old age without seeing a human.



Finally decided on a lower existing cub strip and set up camp for the night. Several goats spotted from camp, including nanny living on a cliff about 800 yds directly above us and some good looking billys a couple miles up the valley and 2000 ft higher.



Too be continued:

Day 2:

The plan was to head out as soon as it got light and chase one particular billy that looked like he was in a stalkable position. We had determined early on that most the billys we were seeing were holed up on very high perches, and it was clear that just finding one that we could get at was going to be an interesting proposition.

As soon as we woke up it was clear we were in for a weather change. The wind was picking up down the valley, and the sky had the grey snow look too it. We left a stash of stuff in the SL-5 and took a spike camp with us up the drainage so we wouldn't have to come all the way back in the dark if successful.

The wind was kicking up lots of brown dust as we took off. Looking at the weather, I told dad I thought we were going to have exactly one shot at getting this goat before the weather hit, so we got after it.



Dropped the spike camp in a sheltered spot when we got the bottom of the mountain before starting the 2000 ft climb. The wind was really picking up now, and we were catching horizontal snow flurries that carried some sting.



Made it to roughly the location were we last saw the goat just in time for the snow to start. 15 min later and our visibility was getting down to zero in a hurry. There was no point in stumbling around in this weather and potentially chasing him out of the country, so we strapped crampons on and descended back down the mountain.



The weather was "brisk" on the exposed ridgelines.



Once we got down the the valley floor, it was a little better. At this point we weren't that discouraged and the weather wasn't unexpected for Oct. We just set up camp and planned on a better day tomorrow.

Day 3:

Yeah.... this isn't what I want to see in the morning.



Lots of heavy, wet, sloppy snow. It was extremely slick but would just ball up on our crampons. The mountains around us were shedding hundreds of mini avalanches, and it was very clear that we weren't going to be climbing anything anytime soon. With our plans thoroughly and effectively squashed, we started heading back down to base camp.



Or at least what we thought was base camp. The SL-5 was gone! Pretty sure we left it right about here...



After some digging, we found it under the snow. I know these things aren't four season tents, but for some reason I keep having to be reminded. At least the failure point was the pole, and not the fabric.



With a little repair work, I got it up again for the second time. For some reason I get a lot of practice at these "field expedient" repairs.



We left a message with our pilot that we were effectively confined to camp for the time being. That evening he unexpectedly arrived in camp to pull us out before more weather hit. Dad piled into the cub with just his day and hunting gear for the trip back to town, while I worked on breaking down camp. 30 minutes after the plane departed, (and just about the time I had camp packed), the weather very effectively clamped down again.



Nuts. Well it looks like I'm stranded here for a night by myself. Good thing I still had the camp and food. And the stove. Man I was glad for that thing.

Day 4:

And more of the same. Snow pretty much all day, and I was stuck in the cloud to boot. The pilot made several attempts to get me, but just couldn't make it up the valley.



Not wanting to completely concede that my goat trip had turned into a winter camping trip, I hiked up and down the valley in the vain hope that some really dumb goat would decide to come down from the mountain and stand in the creek.



No luck however, so I settled in for another night of feeding willow twigs to the little stove and reading my Kindle by myself.

Day 5:

The clouds finally lifted a bit in the morning and my snowy camp saw some light.



Shortly after daybreak, the cub flopped into the snow, rolling easily on his 35" tires.



I was bummed to call it it a trip, but it was pretty clear at this point that I had lost my wager with the weather, and my late season Chugach goat wasn't going to happen this year. Even though I'm no stranger to hunting in the snow, the ice and greasy slop had shut us down. I'll be back when I can draw the tag again, but might just push it a couple weeks earlier!

Yk

Sweet Jesus! Does anybody ever have a nice Chugach goat hunt? I feel your pain brother but thanks for sharing your adventure. Go gettum next time.

Great story! Sorry you didn't get your goat. I wish you better luck next time!

Great pictures and story. Thanks for sharing and I'm glad you got out of there. Better luck next time with the weather.

Sorry to hear the weather kept you from your hunt. Better luck next time.

Rough trip, but awesome story thanks for sharing!

Weather sucks! Hope the draws treat you well again and you get another shot!

Very well documented, great pics, and I wish you luck next time!

Sorry about the rough weather, if it helps any we had the same thing happen to our SL-5 on a early goat hunt this year during the night while it was blowing & raining. Except we didn't use trekking poles, it broke the golite standard issue pole, & to top it off the next day when my wife was tossing rocks up to use to hold down the skirt she bounced one right through the middle side of the ten & it tearing a nice hole which had to be patched by duct tape.

Great story. Makes me want to go goat hunting in the Chugach that much more. If it was easy, everyone would do it.

Thanks for sharing the story

You and your dad are as tough as they come! That looked like a brutal endeavor into the Chugach all the way around. Thanks for sharing the tale. Maybe have to give Kodiak a whirl one of these days. Have spent now 2 weeks on Kodiak on 2 different goat hunts in 2014 and only used my rain coat for 5 minutes total. Bummer about the hunt but no doubt you know how to handle yourself when the stuff hits the fan.

I'm fairly tolerant of cold and snow, so didn't mind the weather so much in that way. Just wish I would have had a few more chances to actually see and chase those white critters. Before it snowed they showed up like beacons. The big fluffy billys could be seen with the naked eye for miles. Afterwards it was like they vanished!

If I go late season glacier goats again at some point, the one thing I would upgrade would be the crampons. I had a set of 4-pt instep crampons, thinking they would be perfect for frosty slopes. Once the snow hit however, they were badly outmatched, and actually caused several long slides when they balled up snow under the foot. 10 pt models would be a much better choice for the conditions and also a better choice if we would have done any glacier crossings. Plastic boots would have been an excellent choice also, but I have yet to find a pair that fit my feet, so went with leather.

And I know this is blasphemy to some, but I continue to be underwhelmed by the SL-5. The space is nice, floorless has it's perks and the whole package is light and compact, so I will continue to use it in certain applications. However after almost two years it's not taking over any kind of a general purpose role in my tent collection. I know that some people manage to use it darn near everywhere, but I find it the 20 stake set up annoying, and tent itself is usually either cold and drafty or very wet on the inside. Other things like getting an even pitch in rough ground, and the way the zipper constantly jams are also aggravating. I was happy to have the little stove along, and currently it's my only light wt heated shelter, but there are better choices out there for that role I think. A larger heated shelter for stove use, and a simple tarp type system for bivy camps would be a better deal for my uses, and at some point when the budget allows that's the way I will go.

Everything else pretty much worked as advertised, but as winter type conditions go it was actually pretty mild weather and I'm well set for winter stuff.

Bambistew...

If they open the late registration goat again in the next couple years, I might give you a call. Next time around, I might be luckier?

Yk

Good write up, bad weather...

I enjoyed your story immensely. I'd still take that trip over sitting in my office any day....

Getting the smack down by the mountain... or, my Chugach goat hunt in pictu...

Very good story and photos thanks YK. I have to echo what Luke said regarding Kodiak, it's definitely a great place to hunt goats.

AK Troutbum said:

Very good story and photo,s thanks YK. I have two echo what Luke said regarding Kodiak, it's definitely a great place to hunt goats.

Click to expand...

Kodiak is tempting. I was down there this spring and saw quite a few. I may very well make that my next goal.


Yk

Kodiak, Kodiak, Kodiak!!!! Keep beating that drum. The deer are better there, the bears, and now the goats. It's working out wonderfully.

POW had a huge die off. The Mistys are too rugged and the goats too hard to hunt. Brown bears don't get big down in SE either. Lets not forget the Chugach is too rough and unpredictable for a goat hunt.

Yk that soil substrate looked horrible for a teppe pitch. I use construction steel spikes when doing a drop camp on beaches. I've even got sand and snow stakes to use when appropriate. I too have had a failure using the combined carbon hiking poles. One time on an alpine ridge I really struggled with that and used the loose segment very similar to the supporting repair you displayed. I like the sod skirt for the uneven ground types.
FYI.....when I flew into the Chugach we had two four season free standing shelters at the airstrip as back up. The Tepee wasn't deemed dependable enough for any kind of serious weather prior to departure. Bummer deal with the weather! You'll get one someday.