FIORDLAND SUMMER CHAMOIS

They’d seen a few good velvet stags and explored some new country. Now with the roar just around the corner, it was time to give the legs a good stretch.

My good mate Aaron Loader and I decided that chasing a few chamois around the hills for three days was as good a way as any to get the blood pumping in preparation for the upcoming rut. With the target species decided, all we had to do now was to choose the destination. This wasn’t easy, for as we all know, the very steep terrain that makes Fiordland special is the same reason the low numbers of chamois are pretty safe.

We decided on a spot that looked quite promising on the map with a good steep climb into a hidden valley shadowed by several high basins, lots of tight guts, steep cliff faces, scree slopes and some decent-sized tarns. We booked the time off work, prayed to the weather