Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game East Meets West, Take 6: Back to the Mountains

Ready and I just wrapped-up our 6th hunt together. (Well, I'm trying to wrap it up - I'm stuck in Paris for a bit, courtesy of Delta.) We met for the first time on a mountain in Alaska in 2011, and found the company agreeable enough to have hunted together 5 times since. I had been to Germany twice, and he to the 24HCF hog hunts twice. We both longed for the mountains again, and Ready suggested an elk hunt in the Rockies. I nonchalantly mentioned that he had mountains on his side of the pond, too. And voilà, you saw his response in the other thread. The guy doesn't mess around.

Case in point - Ready fetched me at the airport, and whisked me not to our hunting area, but to some small burgh called Absam, Austria. I mean, why not take a guided tour of an alpha glass manufacturer?





Yes, Ready knows EVERYBODY, and has endeared himself to most. The factory made every workplace on the planet look like a craphole. It was more like a spa retreat from which world class optics just happen to ship daily. The company cafeteria space was more elegant than any restaurant I've been in for the last 4 months. And it's located at the foot of a mountain that leaves one speechless.

From there, we proceeded toward the next day's appointments, stopping to nosh in a beautiful village (they're all beautiful) called Vomp. (My pronunciation is poor, but I think it's like the sound your car makes when it hits a possum.)





I went through a lot of ibuprofen on this trip, what with my jaw smacking the ground at every view I saw. The alps are just friggin' breathtaking, and it never got old.





Ready & I will be updating this as we go along. Our photos are spread across 2 phones and several camera memory cards, so we'll refresh things as time and technology allow.

FC

Thanks for sharing!

That's awesome!!!! keep it going with stories and pictures!!!

Looks like good time where had.

We ambled down through Kitzbühel, and into a splendid gasthaus on a mountainside. After securing provisions, we made do with a humble meal in Ready's room:

In their breakfast room the next morning, it became clear we were deep into Chamois country:





No, not those! These:





The black horns:

Since Joe has now gotten us down to Tirol already, I will chime in here.

As a PSA, here the link to the thread building up to the hardship:

What else friends are for?

You see, I am rather "bequem". The "...lets stay down in the Wirtschaft and have a Bier" - type.

Now, that does not fly with Joe - at all.



Constantly he will be looking "Up".

Next day after staying in the little Gasthaus found us traveling to Italy - to Southtirol - to the Dolomites.

Yeah, the south Tirol...





Our host insisted on showing us their 700 year old church:






Then some coffee... and beers... in the town square:





And those Dolomites:





For anyone curious, the hats definitely threw-off the locals: they spoke English to Ready, and German to me.


There's lots more to the story of this part of the trip, but I'll leave that to Ready.

FC

Joe,
Thanks for setting the stage.
Let's get this show rolling.

Yeah, yeah... We'll get there...

I finally dragged my azz home yesterday, and fell face-first into bed for 10+ hrs. I'll get some coffee in me, & see what I can come up with to describe our trip to the hütte. Just be aware that all the high quality pics will come from Ready - he's got the good cameras, and the skeeelz. I sometimes get the feeling that he's taken several Master Classes in photography at Guide School.

At one point, we kidded about putting all of our lens-containing devices in a pile on the hill, and taking a photo to see just how many optics it takes to hunt these days.

More than once we pondered how the Jägers of old ever got it done, in lederhosen and old style boots, and rucksacks, but with no 14x scopes, flat-shooting cartridges, s30v knife blades, alpha bins, 80mm spotters, gore tex, bug dope, internal frame packs, camelback water bladders, topo maps... or butt-out tools...

On the plus side, my tick bites seem to be healing well.

FC

Are ticks bad there?

'mike - depends on the way of looking at it, I guess...

After 4 solid days of field Joe and me both had but two bites - on the last day, none of which got infected, it seems.

PIA - but could have been worse.

The reason for our most scenic, tirolean detour was just me tugging at any straw I could reach for to prolong "boots to the ground".

You may agree with me - see the serenity of a "Caffee Latte" in an old city square above...

We met Paolo, who is an old Gams hunter and author of books on hunting ballistics.



Paolo and his wife are natives of Tirol and very much live the hunting live - slowed down some by his on admission, but it was very interesting to listen to him explaining the species habit to us.

Keeping this running, while in South Tirol the Weather was striking, back in the Austria side, all was fogged up.

We met up with our host and finally (said Joe) set out for the hut on the mountain,



with a place to hang our hats.



Early morn found us enroute to the chamois... in the rain.



Even Tip was shut up - the attentions of a certain young lady might have taken his mind of the rain...

Paolo was awesome! He received us warmly, took us around town, and told us some wonderful anecdotes about Hubertus over beers. He then led us back to his pad, where his wife had laid out an amazing spread for lunch. That pepperonata was friggin' amazing!

Ready & I specifically asked him how to tell the male Chamois from the females. He responded in a dead serious tone, "wait for them to pee." We were sure he was yankin' our chains, but he explained that they're furry enough to hide the sheath on the males, and the only other somewhat reliable sign is whether the bases of the horns are round (male) or elliptical (females), which is kind of hard to discern from 800 yards away through a spotting scope.

And you've probably noticed how Ready slipped in a line about, "gams". I was lost, too. Turns out that's what Deutch speakers call Chamois. Everything has 2 names. Hell, when I climbed up to the ridge, there was nothin' but kilometers for miles & miles around.

To get from the Paolo's to the hunting area, we had to pass through Mittersill. The town's traffic circle has an interesting sculpture:





Perhaps that explains why we also passed by this:





Yes, I had to have Ready explain it to this country boy. And as the natives say, "He who Laufs last, needs a penicillin shot."

To get caught up with the thread, I need to point out that Ready left out the part about Henrik (sp?), our host/guide/jäger-watcher/mack daddy of Salzburg province. He showed us up to the cabin, and had us check zero on our rifles. I'm sure I committed a major breach of protocol when I suggested we fire from the windows of the hütte, using the windowsill as a rest. We 'Mericans are resourceful, though, and it worked like a charm. However, decorum prohibited us from documenting the act in photos.

Afterward Henrik whipped out some exceptional homemade soup & dumplings that his wife had made us:



along with some some of his very own pine cone obstler (schnapps) that was absolutely killer. (pictures forthcoming). It was the trip of a lifetime, and we hadn't even hunted yet!

FC

Somehow, that "Laufhaus" - Joke stayed with us the whole trip.

FC mentioned the "pine cone schnaps". Here a picture of it amberly in the glasses of an evening on the hütte:



Early mourning on the hill:



Going up the hill:



Chamois - there is more than 10 in this picture...



These chamoises are tough. Known to shoot back at you appearently. Maybe Joe knew more than me about them - 'merican and all - before ridgelineing he would do the "Hat on a stick" routine:



Hours of Glassing:

Joe, thanks for the pictorial thus far. It looks like a really amazing trip and you can't find better company than Carl.

However, Carl in a cowboy hat is just wrong. Cant explain it,but for lack of a better word, it seems unholy.

You're probably right, but it's still but a fraction of the sin of Europeans seeing this flatulent foreigner in a Forstdiensthut.

FC

And so there the matter shall rest, then. The Grand Poobah hath spoken.

Yeah buttttttt...Joe looks good in any kind of hat........

Wow. Keep the pics and stories coming. Bucket list-esque stuff... Wow.