Are you ready for safe mountain hunting?

By By Otha Barham / outdoors editor
August 13, 2004
Every year about this time thousands of hunters from the Deep South begin planning and packing for a journey to the western mountains. Most go for big game elk and mule deer primarily. They are seeking challenges beyond their familiar whitetail deer and yearn for the limitless beauty of the mountains.
Each year the hunters take along newcomers who have heard the praises of mountain hunting or have simply dreamed of a hunt where snow-covered peaks or quaking aspens frame the daily scenes.
The first timers are always surprised with the realities of the mountains. The beauty is beyond what they envisioned. And the dangers are sobering whether readily understood or learned, sometimes the hard way, over a period of several trips through a series of experiences.
I offer a warning here that can dampen the surprise for those new to mountain hunting and could save your life if you are making your first foray to the high country. I lived in the mountains seven years and hunted them in four states along the continental divide where most of the nation's highest peaks exist.
It's Different
Don't confuse the dangers and safety practices of hunting deer in the South with those of mountain hunting. Yes, gun safety, target identification and the other obvious elements of a safe hunt are the same or similar. In fact there are so many similarities that it is easy to believe that all aspects of the hunt are similar. Beware. The weather, the terrain, the vastness of the hunting areas and the very air or lack of it are different.
They are so different that many hunters become lost or stranded in the mountains each year so many that in Colorado, a fee is charged each person buying a hunting license to help pay for rescues. Some of the hunters recovered are dead.
If you catch yourself saying, "Oh, it won't happen to me," scold yourself and listen up. A man and his friend drove up a mountain in the Rockies that rose from the valley in which they lived. They had hunted the mountain all their lives and knew it like we know our living rooms. It was a warm, clear fall day so they wore only light jackets.
The pair parked the truck in a familiar opening and walked off downslope to check for game sign in preparation for a hunt later in the year. A sudden snowstorm blew in, as it often does in the mountains, and they started back uphill to the truck. The snow became so heavy that they could barely see their feet as they walked. This is called a whiteout.
I have been in whiteouts, and finding your way is like finding your truck in a Mississippi forest while blindfolded. It is hard for a southern hunter to realize the dependency we have on landmarks such as trees, hills, streams etc.
The two friends may have passed by their truck by mere feet, but they missed it. They wandered for two days in the deep snow and finally found the truck which wouldn't start in the freezing temperature. They burned the fuel and all the seats to keep warm. With nothing left to burn, they left the truck, thinking they could work their way through the snow down the mountain and home. They again became disoriented and walked another day until death was just minutes or hours away. As they were preparing to die, a rescue team with a track-driven vehicle found them.
Unwise decisions
A few years back, I walked past my 4-wheeler in deep snow trying (wrongly) to find it by taking a short cut. Searching for it while walking steadily downhill until nightfall, I decided to walk on out to a ranchhouse and return the next day to retrieve my ATV. I chose the wrong ridge to descend the mountain and ended up camping most of the night on the crest of a cliff.
I always carry emergency gear and food, so I built a good fire and was safe. But it cost my rescuers a night's sleep and a lot of worry and it was a six mile journey back up the mountain the next day to get my machine.
I am experienced in dealing with heavy snow and the other adversities of the mountains, and I still got in trouble. The two friends who went scouting for game were much more experienced, and they nearly died.
There are hundreds of these stories about Mother Natures unforgiving ways. Heed them. Go prepared. Take both survival gear and a survival mental state to cope with whatever the elements throw your way. Meet the challenges of the mountains and enjoy your adventure.