Hunting in the Himalayas is considered to be one of the most difficult mountain hunts. First of all, it is physically heavy and requires serious physical training of the body for loads and high altitude. It is also important for many hunters, that this hunt requires lots of time and not everyone can afford it.
The idea to go hunting in Nepal arose in 2016 - I was ready for that adventure mentally and physically. But my work schedule turned out to be completely unprepared, it was too stressful at that time to spend a lot of time on the trip. I had to postpone everything for a year and find a little free time in a series of working days to realize my dream. The situation seemed to be going well – I paid for the upcoming hunt and rearranged the schedule so as to spend several days in April there. But then force majeure intervened in the plans, which competent lawyers always try to put into contracts. A ban on the import of weapons into the country was introduced due to the state elections in Nepal in 2017, it was during my hunting. So, I had to cancel the trip. The hunt did not take place again. But! I met Maxim Vorobyov, who brought my long-awaited dream to life after a year, in April 2018.
The departure date was set for April 2. That day was very convenient for me for various reasons, but circumstances forced me to postpone the flight for three days – on April 5. Moreover, the question of postponing or even canceling the trip arose again on the eve of departure (April 4). The reason was still the same - lack of time.
I made the final decision not to cancel the trip after Maxim, had contacted Nepalese outfitter Amrid, who assured us that the hunt could be carried out in a couple of days, since we would be in places where there were large populations of both Himalayan tahr and blue sheep. In my heart , I was really waiting for such an argument to succumb to temptation and try to achieve a goal that had been eluding for two years.
So, the journey began on April 7, 2018. Maxim Vorobyov and cameraman Alexander Rozhkov and I had extremely little time, just one week for everything, including the road to the hunting area and back. Now it seems an outright adventure, but then I haven't known about it.
First of all I flew from Yekaterinburg to Moscow, then from Moscow to Doha, and only then from Doha to the capital of Nepal. I've already heard from Maxim and other hunters that the Kathmandu airport is not the fastest customs control procedure in the world, but in our case, it was also associated with an unsuccessful arrival time. On this occasion, I would like to advice the hunters: if you are going to hunt in Nepal with your weapons, I recommend to fly there on weekdays, when all the officials whose signatures you will need will be at their workplaces. The second advice is to choose early arrival flights, since it will take a whole day to customs clearance your weapons at the airport and visit the local city administration, where the local officers will work hard to get your temporary hunting permit. Each of these mandatory procedures will take at least 4-5 hours. Our trouble was that the plane arrived in the afternoon, and it was not possible to issue all the necessary documents for the transportation of weapons around the country until 5pm (the time of the end of the officials' work). Thus, we had to leave it in the airport's luggage room for the night.
In addition to the "customs clearance" of weapons, all people who arrive in Kathmandu will have to register their arrival at the airport terminal, then buy a visa and pass passport control with a purchase receipt. The procedure wasn't difficult, but there were a lot of evening flights, and we stood in a long line. After some time, my companions and I began to observe a curious picture: the line was miraculously moving while we were standing motionless in place. There was no inexplicable miracle – we just discovered the peculiarities of the local color, when the most experienced travelers bypassed the line and didn't stand in it.
After the airport, Amrid conducted a short sightseeing tour of Kathmandu, then there was dinner and rest at the hotel.
At 8 a.m. the next day (It was on April 9), I had to go for weapons. The best variant there is to accept fate and doesn't rush things, because the latter is a completely thankless occupation here. But it seemed to me that it was possible and necessary to hurry them because in I was in the condition of time pressure! As a result, nerves were also wasted along with time. Nepal has a communist system, and all customs are completely in the spirit of this system. It would be very funny to observe the distribution of functionality among the "million" local officers of the customs service if we were not in a hurry. It looked something like that: Amrid provided information about the need to obtain weapons to a customs officer. He passed it to the next one. Thus, the information was transmitted four more times along the vertical of power, until it reached the leadership that owned the right to sign and seal. Then, permission to receive weapons came down to us in the reverse, exactly the same order (not a single link of this thoroughly built chain was missed). I don't have enough stock of ironic techniques to describe this action in words. You should see it! It will impress you if you see it, just believe me.
After spending more than four hours as observers of the actions of the official apparatus, we arrived at the helipad – a kind of small domestic airport of regional communication. It was at about two in the afternoon. We weighed ourselves, then weighed the luggage and prepared for takeoff - the pilot, Maxim, Amid, the operator Sasha and I - a total of five people plus ammunition. We were lucky that we got a new helicopter, with only 100 hours of flight time – I had flown enough on the old ones, and I had something to compare with.
Unfortunately, a strong thunderstorm that came to the destination of the area of the future base camp forced us to land about halfway to the hunting grounds, in the town of Pakkhara, where we spent the night.
The morning of the next day, April 10, brought good news – we could continue on our way, and we had already reached our destination without difficulty.
We were met by a whole army, 22 people from Amrit's team. They waited us at the helipad in the mountains, there were professional hunters, sherpas, cooks and support staff among them. It was 10 am when we all started our route, headed for the mountains. The path was about 14 kilometers with a rise of 1600 meters. By 3.30 pm we reached the first camp at an altitude of 3100 meters. It was a two-hour walk to Tahr's habitat. So, we decided to spend the night there.
Everybody got up early in the morning at 3 a.m. on April 11. We had breakfast and continued our way at 4 a.m. The huntsmen went ahead to reconnoiter. We followed them.
By 8 am, we reached an altitude of 3800 meters. The rangers reported that they had found the tahrs.
I should climb the sheer cliff that turned out to be snow-covered and seemed slippery to me. Therefore, we decided to go around it from the side, along grassy slopes, and the operator and I went around. Maxim and Amid continued moving on wet, slippery rocks. As a result, Sasha and I went to the ridge on one side, and Maxim and Amrid on the other. The guide, who happened to be on our side, pointed to a densely growing shrub. He said that the male of tahr lay down to rest after the morning feeding there. It was necessary to wait for it to show up. The presence of shrubs was very unusual for mountains at that altitude. But the bushes were a boon for us, because they compensated largely for the lack of oxygen and facilitated oxygen starvation, which inevitably occurred when staying in the mountains for a long time at a similar altitude.
The shooting distance was 300 meters. There was no need to get closer to the animal – the distance was quite comfortable for a confident shot. It was 10am. We decided to wait.
At the same time, Maxim and Amid detected four tahr's males on the other side of the slope!
Time goes very slowly, when you wait. Those two hours might have been like torture, if I hadn't the opportunity to survey the surrounding mountain landscape. It was very bizarre, unlike those that had been repeatedly seen before. It was getting close to noon, but Tahr, we were waiting for, did not show any desire to make it easier for us to hunt. After conferring, we decided to move on to the three or four males that Maxim was watching. We were about to set off, when the walkie-talkie worked and reported that the company of four tahrs had disappeared from view. The weather began to grow worse – it began to snow, and a few minutes later a real blizzard with gusty winds began to spin. The time was approaching 3 pm when I suggested to Amrid to frighten the resting tahr from the shelter. Amrid ordered, and one of the guides approached the animal as close as possible and threw a stone in its direction. I was preparing for a shot at 300 m, but suddenly I discovered that the sight was fogged up! It was already impossible to stop what was happening – tahr rushed away from its hiding place, and I could only see its muddy silhouette. I took aim as far as it was possible and fired… the miss. The beast disappeared from sight.
It was impossible to continue hunting in such conditions - the snow cover was about 10 cm at that moment, the time was already more than 3 pm, and it was getting dark at 6 pm in that area. We had nothing to do but pack up and go to the camp.
The April 11 was ending. There was only one day left to hunt.
In the morning we got up at 5 o'clock and walked along the riverbed to the habitat of the blue ram. It was necessary to walk no more than two kilometers. We walked five km and didn't find a single sheep.
The huntsman offered to climb higher. We saw a group of sheep at an altitude of 4100 meters, one of them was of decent trophy quality. The distance was 850 m. That distance had to be shortened, and one of the huntsmen and I went around, while Maxim and Amrid stayed to watch the herd and adjust our actions.
The weather began to play against us once again. It began to snow; fog began to cover the space around. But we continued climbing and reached the 4350 m mark. There were four hundred meters from there to the rams, but then it turned out that the sheep were also moving, while we were approaching, and they had went 600 meters away from us. However, we knew about it from our observers, while we could not see the animals because of the fog.
A little time passed, and the fog began to dissipate. Finally, I saw the sheep, but not all of them, but only five out of ten. Unfortunately, the fog again covered the neighborhood once again while we were deciding on a specimen that could be regarded as a trophy. We had to wait for it to lift again for 30-40 minutes. But we waited in vain - the sheep disappeared with the fog. I had to go down to Maxim and Amrid with empty hands.
It wasn't hard to imagine what we talked about when we got together. So, my expectations to get two trophies in two days were not fulfilled. It is clear that this is hunting, and it is impossible to plan everything, nature has its own laws. Moreover, it was too presumptuous to count on a quick hunt in Nepal! Nepal is not Europe at all and not even the Caucasus! You should take much more time for hunting there. I had no doubt that the decision to go there for two days was reckless and extremely adventurous! Hunting in Nepal is not a "weekend hunt" at all.
It might seem to the reader that my self-flagellation occurred in a state of humility with the prevailing circumstances, in a kind of sad sadness. Not at all – I was still hoping for something, and therefore my nerves were on edge. And why shouldn't I hope?! Theoretically, if we had been a little more lucky, I could have already got both a tahr and a sheep. But we were not. It was hardly possible to correct the situation - the time that I could afford to devote to hunting was rapidly running out. The maximum that could be done was to spend another day there- April 13. But I had to be in Yekaterinburg on April 15th. So it was unlikely that we would be able to do something in time. Although we could do a lot more during the whole day, and we still had almost half of April 12.– it was only 11 am. We just needed only a little bit of luck…
And then the guides reported on the radio that he had found sheep. We descended quickly to a height of 4000 m and spotted the group of animals, among which were young and females. You are probably familiar with the condition referred to as "confusion of feelings". How could I put into words the cascade of emotions that engulfed me at that moment?! We found sheep!!! Damn, there were only young males and females… What if? And what if we looked closely?!
And we took a closer look, and found a large male among the herd after careful consideration! The distance was 292 m, the angle was 18 degrees. I quickly prepared for the shot and did not even wait for the ram to turn sideways – it stood with its back, arching its spine and lowering the head to the grass. I shot to its spin. It ran few meters and fell down. The bullet hit into its shoulder blade. The shot rang out at about 12.10, my trophy became a 10-year-old bharal.
It was a miracle! An hour ago, our entire group had complete disappointment from a failed hunt, self-torture for unreasonable actions, a desire to anoint ourselves with ashes. And suddenly everything changed, it turned out that a miracle was possible - to take a blue sheep in Nepal for two days of hunting!
The photo session with the trophy was quick –we couldn't miss the moment, and we went to look for Tahr now that luck had turned to face us.
The guides told us while we were moving to their habitats, that they had seen a very large tahr in the morning, but they weren’t sure whether it remained in place or not.
We decided to stop at the camp, to have rest for few moments. At 3.30 pm, we moved towards the gorge, where we observed the tahr yesterday. It was good that we rested before – the path was difficult I had to climb the steep cliff that was bypassed last time, since there was very little time left before sunset. I won't hide the fact that the guides helped us. I gave the carbine to the senior guide not to lose speed, because the weight of the carbine was 12 kilograms. However, when I reached the top , it turned out that the rock was not so steep as it seemed from below. The stones were dry, and the soles did not slip. It was safer to climb than yesterday.
Unfortunately, there was no tahr on the slope. We went to the next one. And I experienced a real euphoria there! The lonely tahr was grazing the grazing grass three hundred meters away from me.
I measured the distance - it was 300 meters; the angle of inclination was 10 degrees. The distance was short, the angle of inclination was easy, the only difficulty was that the color of the male merged with the color of the terrain, and I could not find it through the sight at the beginning. But I found! I didn't wait for it to turn sideways like the previous time. The bullet hit the shoulder blade, but did not damage vital organs. The male ran down. Unfortunately for it, it ran to our direction. I was above him and fired again, but didn't notice a branch that was the bullet's path. It slightly touched the animal, but did not stop it. And only the third shot turned out to be the final one – the tahr approached 200 meters, and I sent the bullet straight into the animal's head. My trophy became fourteen years old male.
Then there were congratulations, a state of elation and happiness. I felt that I was extraordinary lucky – I managed to take trophies of both a blue sheep and a Himalayan tahr in one day, what was a rare exception for Nepal.
The maximum task was completed, the hunt was completed…
We returned to the camp in a wonderful mood. Wo had to wait for the Sherpas to deliver the trophy of tahr to the camp – dusk was coming, and it was not possible to lower the trophy from the sheer cliff on their own. But Sherpas did not appear even after dinner. I had to go to bed – in the morning it was necessary to get ready and move out to the helipad.
But they hadn't returned to the camp yet when I got up in the morning. However, there was no need to worry – Amrid explained that the tahr was so big that even Sherpas cannot deliver it to the camp. They lowered the animal to the river and promised to deliver it to the place on our way where it would be possible to take pictures with it.
At 9 am we set out and we saw the trophy after 3 kilometers from the base. We examined slowly all the hits: the first was in the shoulder blade, the second passed tangentially due to the ricochet, and the third clearly had to be in the head.
Then we made the photo shoot and continued our walk to the helipad. This eighteen-kilometer crossing took 10 hours. The total climb for the day was 2,610 meters. It was dark when we got to the helipad.
A helicopter arrived early in the morning, we loaded meat, ammunition, and people. As a result, it was quite difficult to get off the ground. However, we got to Kathmandu without any adventures. Thus, on April 15 I flew to Moscow to move from the capital to Yekaterinburg on the same day.
Already at home, we watched the video made when Maxim was watching 4 tahrs, that grazed on a steep cliff on the first day of hunting. We would never know why those animals disappeared from view if not for that record.
As it turned out, the quietly grazing tahrs became worried, sensed some kind of danger, and then disappeared quickly. A minute after that, a snow leopard jumped out of the bushes and rushed to chase them. The camera captured that moment! I could get the Tahr trophy on the first day if that attack hadn't happened!
But let's leave everything in the past, everything a has turned out the way as it has turned out. And I was very happy with the result. I was even grateful to that leopard, because the animals in that group were only seven and nine years old, and I ended up with a gigantic mature fourteen-year-old tahr.
In conclusion, I would like to sum up some results. I spent a week on the whole trip: there and back. On April 10, we arrived to a helipad in the mountains and on April 14 in the morning we flew back from it. I spent four full days in the mountains, taking into account that the road took two full days. Two days of hunting. It is not always possible to get a trophy in such a period even in Europe.
It was an adventurous, extreme, bright hunt with decent accompaniment and organization, beautiful trophies and a storm of emotions that will remain in memory for a lifetime!
I would like to express my gratitude to Maxim Vorobyov, Amrid and his entire team for the impeccable organization of the hunt. I would love to return there onve again, as I received a warm welcome, professional and high-quality work. It is very pleasant to be among professionals – you feel confident among them.
