Yesterday morning after I called it, it looked like it was going to be a beautiful day. We got on the horses and started riding, which felt like forever on those tiny little saddles, then the wind started picking up and picking up the higher we got until it was blowing 30-40 mph. We actually climbed for two hours over 3000 ft. We were at 11,000 ft in elevation, really hard to breath that high up. We finally got off the horses and literally just as we got off on the top of the big, rounded top of the mountain, the one guy motioned for everyone to get down. There was a group of 25 High Altai rams that came up on the top of the mountain and were standing about half a mile away from us so we ducked down into the rocks and watched them. There was one really big one in the group and a bunch of good ones and then some smaller ones. We watched them feed for almost an hour and then they worked their way back down into mountain edge, so we made a stalk on the mountain to where they had bedded down by then. We made a stalk all the way around the mountain and got within 340 yards of them. The one big ram was a beauty so I got into position and then waited for almost two hours, freezing, freezing from the wind. Up where we were, it was quite sheltered so it seemed like the wind had finally died off and finally he stood up and walked straight away from me to 365 yards stood still, so I made my shot. Before I shot, I asked everybody and they all thought the wind was about 10mph so I gave it about six inches of wind drift and allowed for the distance, and it turned out that I actually got the luckiest shot that I've ever had in my life. The bullet was actually blowing at about 30 mph up where the ram was but we just couldn't tell from our position. Anyways, made a lucky shot and dropped him in his tracks even though the bullet had drifted over more than I had planned. So we got him, he's a beauty 53x52 with 21 inch bases, he's a great High Altai ram. Everybody was thrilled, me and Matty especially because after two years, we finally got our argali.  

It's a good thing too because by the time we finally got him off the mountain, all the meat and everything, it was pretty late. Now it looks like there's a storm coming in as I'm standing out here blogging and it's snowing on me. We're lucky we got done with this and we're going to try to get out of here today, back to Hovd, and then catch an airplane out tomorrow to Ulaanbaatar, then from there the next day we'll drive to the area for the Hangai sheep. That's the plan anyway, but "Man plans and god laughs", as Louisey always says. I'm standing out here in the snow and there's a herd of Yaks all around me... I'm definitely in a far away place.