i recently received news via social media that a hunting guide lost his life a few days ago while descending a mountain. young guy in great shape with lots of experience on big boy hills. from what i gather he just very simply slipped and fell while descending after a successfull mountain goat hunt...200 ft to his death. a buddy posted something to the effect that more hunters die hunting goats than any other game animal. not sure if thats statistics or just theory...but i couldnt find any reason to doubt him, it dont take a whole lot of observing mnt goats and their country to figure out they often call seriously dangerous real estate there home. in fact, the closest i've personally come to what i would consider serious injury was on a mnt goat hunt...in which case i got away pretty easy cause my pack was in the right place at the right time when i hit a rock ledge headfirst after slipping at the top of a 30-40' cliff with a full goat and camp on my back. i was solo and inexperienced at mnt hunting at the time, and was also traveling heavy, in the dark, and descending an unknown route down a treacherous mnt...stupid. but hell, guys dont hunt mountains cause there safe, part of the allure of mnt hunting is simply the unknown of heading up and walking around on terrain that humans just arent really equipped to navigate naturally ...and ya gotta learn someway right?
the recent news of a fellow guide cashing it in while doing routine stuff (for him)evidently got me thinking...as news of that nature will do.
alot of serious mnt hunting goes on in Alaska...and this forum is filled with plenty of mnt hunters of all kinds...lots of die hard sheep guys here and proly hundreds of years of goat experience as well if someone combined a couple handlefulls of the more serious hunters experiences among us....so i got a couple questions in query to how often it really is that a hunter gets seriously injured or killed on the mountain.
first off to be clear: i'm gonna define serious injury as any injury that was either life threatening, or required assistance from outside sources in order to reach safety or medical aid (thus becoming life threatening had the means to call or send for assistance not been avail)
so how many forum members personally know hunters who have perished on the mnt?
how many have been seriously injured themselves?
how many have had partners seriously injured while hunting together?
....fyi, this thread is simply to scratch my own curriousitites. i'm not really looking for statistics gleaned from any joe blow with more time and attention span for internet research than me...i'm personally more interested in real accounts, and first hand knowledge. but by all means post whatever you got relavant to the topic.
the recent news of a fellow guide cashing it in while doing routine stuff (for him)evidently got me thinking...as news of that nature will do.
alot of serious mnt hunting goes on in Alaska...and this forum is filled with plenty of mnt hunters of all kinds...lots of die hard sheep guys here and proly hundreds of years of goat experience as well if someone combined a couple handlefulls of the more serious hunters experiences among us....so i got a couple questions in query to how often it really is that a hunter gets seriously injured or killed on the mountain.
first off to be clear: i'm gonna define serious injury as any injury that was either life threatening, or required assistance from outside sources in order to reach safety or medical aid (thus becoming life threatening had the means to call or send for assistance not been avail)
so how many forum members personally know hunters who have perished on the mnt?
how many have been seriously injured themselves?
how many have had partners seriously injured while hunting together?
....fyi, this thread is simply to scratch my own curriousitites. i'm not really looking for statistics gleaned from any joe blow with more time and attention span for internet research than me...i'm personally more interested in real accounts, and first hand knowledge. but by all means post whatever you got relavant to the topic.
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