Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/433799
S P O R T I N G C L A S S I C S 1 2 4 t he Rocky Mountains are a vast stretch of peaks that are young by geologic measure and by any other measure still raw and wild. The men who first journeyed here were the toughest of the tough: adventurers, explorers, and trappers who plied the wilderness and hard-rock miners who lusted for gold. Strangely and by wild coincidence, I crossed paths with one of these men at a very critical moment in a hunt for a mountain goat. Although the explorer was long gone, his efforts from more than a century ago prevented my efforts from turning disastrous. Similar to the early explorers, wild goats are legendary—and for good reason. The nannies, kids, and young billies live among the crabby grass and dwarf, wind-beaten trees in the transitions from sheep to goat country, but the big billies live among barren rock and the desolate, high-altitude peaks where the air is thin. The reclusive old ogres live mostly alone but occasionally in groups of two or three and in some of the most beautiful places on earth. Every aspect of hunting them is hard. I first saw a mountain goat deep in the Colorado wilderness while scouting for elk. Across a mile-wide chasm, I noticed a single white speck moving up a rock face that appeared to be only a degree or two short of vertical. Through a spotting scope I watched the goat