Tavis is 'old school' which you either appreciate or you don't. I respect him for that and after alot of research, I ultimately booked with Tavis for a 2021 10 day back-pack dall sheep hunt. I knew what I was getting into in regard to Tavis' approach. I knew he didn't scout ahead of time, I knew he didn't use helicopters, I knew success rates could be modestly lower than some of his neighboring concessions. That said, I knew it would be the ulimate adventure experience and I wanted that element of the hunt. I ultimately flew out of that hunt without ever having seen a ram over 8 years old and it wasn't for weather or lack of effort. My guide and I hunted harder than I could have imagined and if you are truly looking for the most physical, difficult hunt (as you mentioned above) then Artic Red should definetly be your choice amongst the NWT concessions. I'm an active Ironman participant and had just competed in a full length event 3 weeks before my hunt. We hiked between 7 to 14 miles all 10 days I was there.
While the harvest should never make the hunt, it'd be lying if I said it wasn't a little bit hard back at the hotel in Norman Wells after the hunt when the 10 other hunters from Gana River and Canol all had 9+ year old rams. Their hunts weren't canned by anymeans but it felt from our conversations that there was plenty of scouting and relocating involved. The vibe I got was that their hunts were easier. Other hunters at Artic Red that same week killed great rams however as well.
Artic Red has some excellent guides and implements a classical, almost old fashioned, approach. It's not for everyone and if you want an easier hunt, perhaps look elsewhere. That said, it's magical in it's own right if you're up for it. I'll never have a Dalls Sheep of my own given i'm school teacher and that hunt was truly a once in a lifetime opportunity for me finanacially speaking. However, I cherish my time there and I'm not sure I would change things if I could. I may have answered differently had you asked me when I was sitting in Norman Well's fondling all the other hunters' dalls however
I don't feel like Tavis would disagree with my thoughts here either. He is honest about his approach and says more or less the same thing as I do here in his film with Yeti on YouTube, Arctic Red.