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

Broomd said:

Great writeup and thread...thanks for sharing.
Thoughts...
Some areas are simply not worth an October hunt.
Heck, I've had Kodiak October hunts that were a total wash due to weather, can't imagine the chugach.

These days I go early to mid September. Too much work logistically to not increase the odds.
Also, I won't head into any goat country without a bomber 4 season free standing tent. A Rab or integral designs MK series is must-take gear.

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Yellowknife said:

You are probably right on the timing. What suckered me in was the fact that there have semi regularly been goats taken out of the even later registration hunt out of the area in the past few years. Oh yeah.... and Oct Chugach goats are way cooler looking than Sept ones! Also I grew up climbing those Chugach Mountains year round, and didn't think that snow would shut us down as bad as it did. 8-12" of fluff isn't bad, but this was very slick, and like I said, the mountains were kicking off little avalanches everywhere.

If we would have had a good four season dome tent we would have brought it. In high school, we used NF mountaineering dome tents for camping in the snow on the Chugach and they worked great. All we have now was my dads Nallo 3, and it did just fine. Just had to wake up a couple time and kick the snow off the top.

There was a couple of lessons learned on the trip, but that's normal on my adventures. One of these days I'll have it all figured out, but that day is still a long ways off!

Yk

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Yellowknife said:

You are probably right on the timing. What suckered me in was the fact that there have semi regularly been goats taken out of the even later registration hunt out of the area in the past few years. Oh yeah.... and Oct Chugach goats are way cooler looking than Sept ones! Also I grew up climbing those Chugach Mountains year round, and didn't think that snow would shut us down as bad as it did. 8-12" of fluff isn't bad, but this was very slick, and like I said, the mountains were kicking off little avalanches everywhere.
If we would have had a good four season dome tent we would have brought it. In high school, we used NF mountaineering dome tents for camping in the snow on the Chugach and they worked great. All we have now was my dads Nallo 3, and it did just fine. Just had to wake up a couple time and kick the snow off
the top.
There was a couple of lessons learned on the trip, but that's normal on my adventures. One of these days I'll have it all figured out, but that day is still a long ways off!

Yk

Click to expand...