64 ALASKA SPORTING JOURNAL AUGUST 2019 | aksportingjournal.com
Despite the struggles, all four of the hunters successfully
brought their own goat off the mountain. (BRIAN WATKINS)“We must go back next year and
retry our luck in the waist-deep
snow.” (BRIAN WATKINS)To harvest a goat with a rifle isn’t
extremely hard. You just need to be
physically apt and stubborn enough to
keep pushing on.
Some of the areas we went to
were terrifying. You must imagine a
nearly vertical avalanche chute that
you dig each foot in to get support.
The mountain can decide at any second
to break free and instantly kill you. It’s a
feeling of fright and takes a certain mix-
ture of luck, stupidity and stubbornness
to successfully cross.
All around those chutes are 3,000-
foot vertical cliffs that you edge along. We
brought mountain axes and crampons to
get through them, but they are only tools
to help and don’t prevent slides.
We would take the boat through the
bay daily until we found goats. Every day
would turn up a new obstacle. We worked
as a group to strategize a game plan, then
one of us would put the stalk on a goat.
Using wind and terrain in our favor,
we successfully closed the distance
down to within 200 yards each stalk.
With one rifle, it kept us bowhunting
while one guy would chase a group with
the rifle. We must go back next year and
retry our luck in the waist-deep snow.
Luckily, we did go four for four on
goats and were each able to harvest a
magnificent animal to make this a trip
to remember. ASJHeaded home after success on the mountain.
“It’s a test of will and endurance, and often you
question your sanity as you drive through the
thick brush,” Watkins (nearest left) writes. “At
least once a trip, every goat hunter asks, “What
the hell am I doing here?”(BRIAN WATKINS)Enjoy the real Alaska and sh in
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