Ice Climbing & Alpine Tahr Hunting - A Weekend at Chancellor Hut, WestCoast.

It was my Friday and the weather forecast for the weekend looked great. I had planned to go hunting up the Karangarua River and over into Horace Walker hut. But with a fresh dump of snow I knew there would be a risk of avalanche. 
Instead another guide Kat had taken the same days off and we decided to head up to Chancellor Hut.

Kat wasn’t quite as keen on hunting so we decided to spend the day ice climbing on the Fox Glacier. We found a big steep wall close to the Chancellor access. After lapping it a few times we stashed our climbing gear and packed light for the afternoon’s walk up.

Apart from arsing-up a couple times the hike up was great and we arrived at around at around 6pm, 3 hours after leaving the ice. 
Once in the hut I made some soup and started glassing the nearby bluffs looking for anything that might be making its way down to feed on the grassy shelf before dark. Soon after I saw two bull tahr slowly making their way down a steep section of rock about 500m away. I couldn’t quite size them from this far but made a plan to get closer before it got dark. 

New Zealand’s Mountain Tahr came from the Himalayas and were released here in the early 1900’s. They were initially introduced, along with other game animals, to create a hunting industry out of our wilderness areas and lush habitats. Since, animal numbers have sky rocketed and now the government has to pay people to keep the herds down in mass culling, usually from helicopters. How’s that for a backfire! There is no market for the meat and the animal is left to rot.

For recreational hunters, getting one of these mountain critters is a great achievement which comes with an even greater challenge and respect for the animal. Living on mountain tops and bluffs, they are not normally easy to get to and have exceptional eyesight; forcing the hunter to stalk in from painfully far or take long range shots. A bull can weigh up to 120kgs and nannies around 40kg - as long as you don’t mind chewing through it that is a heap of meat for the freezer! The main reason they are so sought out though is for their trophies; the bulls horns and his impressive mane.

As I started closing the gap between me and my chosen bulls I spotted a nanny and her young making their way towards me. After getting distracted watching them for a while I couldn’t find the two bulls which had now made it off the bluffs. As I started moving into high ground I saw them sprinting downhill. Shit, I can’t of spooked them already! 
They stopped in line with me and started heading my way, just as I had hoped they would. My rifle hadn’t been shooting the best after I had mounted a new scope earlier that week and I didn’t have my suppressor on. I knew this would change the way it fired so I wanted to get as close to the target as possible before I decided to take a shot. 
I could already make out the bigger bull and I’d say he his horns were at least 11’ and I was surprised to see he still had a lot of his winter coat. A very impressive animal indeed.

While ‘humming and harring’ on whether or not to take the shot he stopped moving towards me and turned back towards the bluffs. I stalked in closer, moving only when he put his head down to feed. He could sense something was up and kept turning back and stopping.
Once he reached the bluffs he was about 200m away and sitting above me. It wasn’t the best position but I knew I wasn’t going to get another chance so with a deep breath I took the shot, aiming low behind the front shoulder where the ‘engine room’ sits. They both shot off down the shelf and I heard more animals running in the reeds. 
I reloaded and tracked him in my crosshairs. By the way he was running it was obvious he was hit but these animals are tough and I wanted to drop him before he reached the shrub. He finally stopped and I took another shot and then another. I presume they both missed as he hadn’t dropped but had slowed down a bit. I slung my gun after reloading and raced towards his last location in the fading light. I got to the edge of the shelf and hoped to see him on the track below but it was obvious he’d made it to the scrub. 

“I stalked in closer, moving only when he put his head down to feed”

I knew it was going to be near impossible to recover him in the dark. After sitting and listening until well after sundown, I headed back to the hut, replaying the evenings events in my head and picking apart where I’d gone wrong.

The next day we slept in until 9am and after breakfast made a move. Kat wanted to catch some views of the Neve so headed up higher while I went low to find this bull. 
After finding a bright red blood trail I got down into the scrub until it had bluffed out. From there it was hard to follow. I didn’t want to risk falling or exposing myself to avalanches from above to recover the animal so called it off.

I saw Kat on the track below and we took our time heading down. Once on the ice we made our way low expecting to walk out when a couple seats became available on a flight out. We made our way back up and got on the heli just as it started raining. So much for a good forecast! That’s spring for ya.. 
Although I wasn’t able to find my Tahr it was still a great weekend moving in the hills and I appreciated the light pack!