In reply to the question about terrain, I' ve attached a few photos.
The vallies are " U" shaped and formed by glaciers. The sides are very steep often sheer rock faces for 2,000 feet (Hard Granite.) the valley floors are flat and thickly forested, in places there is not much undergrowth, and there are a lot of grassy clearings. The mountain tops are open and covered with tussock and snow grass. The smartest and biggest Wapiti live up on the steep sides and hole up on little shelves where they have a huge advantage over hunters. They can wind you or see you from 1,000 yards or more. To hunt them you either have to come in from the top, not always possible as there is often a series of cliff faces, or from below and you can be sure they' ll be onto you before you find them. I tried sidling in from the sides, but it was tough going, a lot of climbing to avoid sheer faces.
The animals in the photos were shot in the valley floors. You could call them in. But as you can see they are not the Big Wapiti with the large throwback tines. These animals seem to be the ones that are the hardest to get.
This first picture is taken at our campsite. the chopper landed us on the stoney river beach in the foreground. You can see the steep sides and rugged tops in the background.
