Here's a few photos from a reasonably long day on the hill chasing some chamois. We left home 6am and got home at 10pm.
It was -5 degrees when I left home and -3 when I got home. I think the day may have got to a high of 2 or 3 degrees, but for the entire day there wasn't a breath of wind and not a cloud in the sky. It would have been one of the most stunning days I have spent on the hill in a long time. And when you're constantly moving you don't realise how cold it really is anyway.
Getting into the mountains was uneventful, but when we hit the bush line we realised how deep the snow was. It was a pain in the arse, too soft to walk on, and waist deep in places. It was all good once we reached freezing altitude, then we would hit patches where we could walk on top of it. But the majority of the day was spent pushing through snow up to at least our knees.
We walked or waded 11.3kms, but I swear it felt about five times that distance.
The chamois were still rutting, and we saw a few. Enough to keep the day interesting anyway. One good buck was spotted away up high in country we'd never get to in those conditions, so we focused on another we spotted which we thought to be in the 9 inch plus category.
Gav hadn't shot a chamois before so was after a representative animal. Long story short the buck went up the valley and we lost track of him somewhere in the bluffs.
The younger chamois we saw were all down low, sitting in the sun. But no older bucks were hanging around them unfortunately. They were in easy country to hunt compared to what we had to hunt in for the day.
We had an awesome experience with a couple of young bucks. One was trying to prove himself dominant over another, and then he spotted us and decided to come over and have a sort out. He walked in from over 100m out, to within 10m, before deciding we were not friendly intruders. It was pretty neat. He was lucky I'd chosen not to take my bow this time...
As we expected, we saw a few deer too, as at this time of year with a bit of snow around they're pretty easy to track down. They love the sun, and most we saw were well and truly relaxing out in the snow tussock all day long.
No shots fired, but an awesome day out none the less. The close encounter with the chamois buck was a clear highlight.
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Cheers
Josh
