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Wonderful story Ripp. And what lovely mountain scenes you must have seen. The vertical walking must be tough. One question, you mention using horses to talk the head and meat and camp gear back to the main camp. How far did the horses get up the mountains? To the temporary camp, to where you too the tur after it was shot?

As for the pretend hunters, I don't intend to dwell on the negatives of non hunters and their pretend successes. Lets concentrate on your achievement and wonderful hunt and other happenings.

I would ike to see some more photos of the tur. Any other angles of the beast?

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Agree on the pretend hunters..good term..

The horses were able to be taken to the beginning of the mountain..but only did that after the Tur was shot..Each day we left camp on foot...this photo was taken about 20 minutes out of our spike camp..we would hike to the bottom of the mountain.. in the right on this photo..and then head up from there..


I was told that because this was such an early hunt with the snow and mud, the horses would not be used much in this hunt..but was also told in the summer--July, August..horses can be used to go higher on the mountain..that was the case when I hunted Ibex in Kyrgyzstan..we were able to get almost to the summit..however the steepness of these mountains, I would not see that possible in this case..the Caucasus mountains are considered extreme in angle and elevation..this is an excerpt of what I found on wikipedia..

"Europe's highest mountain is Mount Elbrus 5,642 m (18,510 ft) in the Caucasus Mountains.[4] Elbrus is 832 m (2,730 ft) higher than Mont Blanc, the highest peak in the Alps at 4,810 m (15,780 ft). The Caucasus Mountains are defined as the continental divide between Asia and Europe for the region between the Black and Caspian Seas."

After I shot the Tur, one of the guides in this photo..one on the left..went back to camp and got a horse to bring back the meat and cape...The main guide hiked across the canyon after I shot the Tur and slid him down one of the chute's still full of snow..was very easy going in that regard..plus Tur are NOT very big as to weight..was surprised on their body weight versus size of horn.. similar to Ibex in Spain as to body size with Tur perhaps 15-20% larger.

As to other angles--this is what I have...was going to put more on yesterday but photobucket was giving me fits...






Edited by Ripp (10/05/16 11:20 PM)

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