How does everyone deal with the wind when hunting elk? I know the wind normaly blows down in the morning and the elk are normaly coming up in the morning. I start out on top of ridges and call down, when I get a response, I try and work my way down and get even with them to call them in. I' ve been busted by the wind plenty of times. Would like to hear how everyone else deals with the nasty mountain winds.

First of all, a decent wind is probably not as critical as smaller, slower movements of air in your immediate vicintity which will carry scent without dispersing it a great deal. Carry some wind indicator powder in a squeeze bottle (unscented talc) or a small container of cotton balls which you can tear into tiny bits that will float on the air and show you where your scent is moving.

I generaly side hill hunt for elk,dropping off a ridge or climing one and hunt the middle to top 1/3 of a mountain.
I deal with the wind by puting a little deer scent on my coat or scent waffers on my hat or coat to help mask my scent.

First, I have never found a scent blocker/scent masker that worked with elk. Whatever I have used, if they were downwind of me they smelled me.

As stated, a prevailing wind is what you would want because then you can hunt into it. Usually, at first and last light, it is fairly calm and you do have to worry about " thermals" and wind swirls. What you usually read is that thermals rise in the morning and fall in the evening. It is not quite that simple. The first 30 minutes of daylight, before sunrise, the thermals are still going downhill. Shortly after sunrise, they begin to rise. Conversely, in the evening, the thermals move uphill until sundown, then they start going down. Makes it hard to hunt one direction in either the morning or the evening. I usually try and be in my starting postion before daylight or well before sundown and sidehill.

Even the pros get busted by the wind, so don' t feel bad. It is pretty fickle.

The wind is probably your worst enemy, its difficult at times when the wind currents change every 15 minutes and tring to stalk within range to get a bow shot off, but what works best for me is I have a vechicle parked down at the bottom of the moutain which is at the 2400 ft elev. and come opening day, I stalk down from the top which is about 5800 ft., Come opening week of bow season, this is the method I use as I work the revenes nice and slow, I take my smoke bottle out continuiosly and will cross the revenes depending on the winds as they change, the most important thing you can do is always try to figure the winds out, and then hope the bull doesn' t come and circle back. Heat rises and this approach from working from the top to down has worked well for me me as its also easier going down, especially when dropping one. Good Luck, Bobby

My trick is to hike to mid slope in the dark and then hunt up the canyon with the wind in my face staying at appx the same elevation so the up and down thermals are generally overpowered by the down thermal of the canyon in general.

About 9 or 10:00 the mid slope thermals will be shifting to a generally up canyon breeze and the upper slope thermals will be going up but the down in the canyon thermals nearer the creek will still be going down.

By 11 or 12 all the thermals should be going generally up canyon and up slope, unless you are on a very shady N or NE slope with a creek on it where it stays much cooler than the surrounding country. I generally still hunt these areas during the afternoon from below or mid slope and from up canyon.

Short answer, don' t waste your time hunting elk with the wind at your back.
On the flip slide it is very possible to smell elk if you have the wind at your face,
if you detect a strong elk smell it is worth investigating, a herd of elk has a very strong distinct odor.

Like BM I carry a squeeze bottle though mine has corn starch. And use it throughout the day to test the wind.