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Sheep Hunts and Bomb Proof Gear with Adam Foss
141 Plays17 hours ago
In this episode, Drew Miles talks with renowned sheep hunter and mountain photographer Adam Foss for a deep dive into the mindset and gear that define true backcountry hunting. Drew and Adam discuss their shared appreciation for simple, durable equipment and the hard lessons learned when gear fails in brutal conditions. From tents, boots, and packs to the importance of proper fit, comfort, and weather-ready setups, they break down what really matters in the high country. They also reflect on the balance between going ultralight and staying practical, emphasizing that reliability often outweighs saving a few ounces. The episode wraps with a campfire story and a look into Adam’s work in mountain hunting photography and film.
ADAM FOSS
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/fossman8/
Website - https://www.foss.media
TRICER USA
Website – https://tricerusa.com/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/tricerusa/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/tricerusa/
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@tricer6985
#tricer #tricerpodcast #mountainhunting #westernhunting #sheephunting #backcountryhunting #publiclandhunter #gearjunkie #huntinggear #mountaingear #huntfilm #outdoorphotography #adamfoss #drewmiles #huntthewest #ultralighthunting #gearreview #huntingstories #modernhuntsman #mountainlife #hunterlifestyle #sheephunter #huntingcommunity #optoutside #packout #tentsandboots #backpackhunt
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Transcript
Introduction and Encounter with Adam Foss
00:00:01
Speaker
All right. I have a fun episode of the Tracer podcast. I'm going to start with this story. I was up in ah Bozeman, Montana two years ago and I was at Stone Glacier and there was this cocky guy in there talking crap on my tripods. And me and him went round and round, back and forwards, talking, talking.
00:00:17
Speaker
And I'm just, I'm trying to convince him. This is like Tracer's first coming out with new stuff, right? We just got the new tripods out. The last one wasn't even released yet. And, uh, I was with Cody rich and we walk out of there and he goes, do you even know who that was?
00:00:29
Speaker
And I was like, no, he's like, that's Adam Foss. He's like the King of sheep hunting. know like And I was like, I don't know who he was, but he needs to use my tripods.
Expertise in Hunting and Gear Design
00:00:39
Speaker
And then, uh, long story short, Adam ended up reaching out to me and I got him a tripod and we've been talking back forth for a few years. And, uh, turns out Adam is definitely one of the Kings of sheep hunting. I was on the phone with, with, uh,
00:00:54
Speaker
Sheep Foundation this morning, they were talking about you you you. You are synonymous, you and your whole family, I believe, with with ah Canada and sheep, correct? For better for worse. Thank you. Yeah, that's ah its quite the intro.
00:01:06
Speaker
That is true, though. That is a true story. I was talking about, well was so well, so that's a great little segue, too, because I was talking about the, essentially, like the bino ring, right? Yeah. The clip that goes on the bino attachment that, you know, going out of a bino harness, and I was sort of like,
00:01:24
Speaker
pretty convinced on the on the nature of having a center, not a center post, but just having it be in the middle to for left to right balance of ah of a ah um bino, not a super heavy bino, just like yeah to stabilize it.
00:01:36
Speaker
and And you told me, oh, no, it doesn't matter. It doesn't actually make a big difference. And then so was just trying to stuff out and the best thing, the light bulb went off when when I'm like, okay, this guy kind of gets it because, you know, even the Arca Swiss footprint of the, of the ring, like it's not a quarter 20 that you screw a plate into. It's actually just like the profile of the, of the Arca profile to slide in. And just like, I guess what I'm trying to say is I appreciate gear and equipment that's like stripping everything down to make it as simple as possible.
00:02:12
Speaker
And yeah, there's some, you know, sort of my background being mountain hunting, there's some weight savings, there's some space savings, that's great, appreciate those things big time. But also just like functionality and simplicity in gear when when stuff falls apart or breaks or a little tiny screw backs out, you don't have the right Allen key, like the less moving parts, the more simple, the easier to use, lower profile.
00:02:36
Speaker
And so I mean, you know, so it comes in out vinyl harness totally way better than the extra profile of stacking a plate along, so. yeah, I guess shit talking can lead to interesting. Lead to relationship, dude. ah You know what's funny, dude? Cause talking about it, and when I first started Tricer, our, like our little motto was fast, light, simple. And my partner's like, you don't want to call it simple. And I'm like, no you don't understand. Like,
00:03:02
Speaker
For me, like what I want all my gear to be is fast, light, and simple. and that's what like And we've kind of stuck true to that with everything we've designed. It's like, well, is it simple? right Because I don't want complex. I want as simple as possible because I just know like the more I have going on, it's like we're going to get into mountain hunting and gear right and and like why my kit is so simple.
Gear Reliability and Mountain Hunting Essentials
00:03:22
Speaker
like The more complex things are, like the more things can go wrong. like i I have become like so simple in everything that I do. um it just helps out there. I agree. Yeah, I do agree.
00:03:35
Speaker
And yeah, you oftentimes you don't have a backup and oftentimes you're planes, trains, and automobiles away from getting out. And so the the times that you get burned on those on those pieces of gear that that fail or fall apart or don't hold up to what you had desired, they they burn into your mind and you're sort of, I'm always...
00:03:57
Speaker
probably similar to to you or most gearhead type people. I'm like writing a list right after a hunt, usually on the hunt, like what worked, what didn't, what I broke. Yeah.
00:04:08
Speaker
And either, you know, broke something that i need to get replaced or broke something that i need to figure out a way to find a better mousetrap. And that's sort of just constantly running in my mind. And again, yeah, it is, it is to save weight in space, but it's also, um,
00:04:22
Speaker
You know, I think the the the more that life moves fast and it gets busy, like when you are out there and you're out of service and you're fortunate enough to be out hunting, it's really nice to not be farting around with your gear and have more complex complexity. Like it's just really, you know, I find myself more and more thinking, yeah, I'm just glad that all the companies that I get to work with and products that I get to use are usually driving a pretty high level of minimalist, simplistic mindset.
00:04:50
Speaker
and utilitarian. And it might not have bells and whistles and it's like, that's sort of what I want. Yeah. I feel like a lot of the bells whistles like don't get used. I always tell people to like, get your gear set up for 90% of the time, not 10% of the time. And I feel like too many people focus on the 10% of the time.
00:05:08
Speaker
Right. Like, ah what if this happens? It's probably not going to happen. So we'll just focus on this 90%. um I'm very similar. Like we just went to Alaska and it ended up raining for, think, five days straight, about an inch and a half to two inches a day.
00:05:22
Speaker
And I had a list in my phone before I even flew back out. Like, this is what I have to change next time. You have to remember this stuff because this was not good. So what was it? Oh, there's multiple things. One, i let Brad Hunt talk me into going floorless and not bringing my Hilleberg.
00:05:40
Speaker
um I would never again go to Alaska without one of my Hillebergs. um I will bring a big floorless tent for like sitting in like as a group. But I will never again. we were in four inches of water.
00:05:52
Speaker
it was If I didn't bring one those Helinox cots, ah it would have been horrific. um i probably would have brought a second set of rain gear because we were soaking through, even though I was wearing like the best, like Kuyu's thickest rain gear. and We were soaking through rain gear because it was just so wet.
00:06:07
Speaker
um We definitely brought tall. I brought tall boots. A lot guys didn't bring tall boots. um There's a quite a few things. Oh, fire starters, like actual fire starter logs. Cause like trying to get the stove started, everything was so wet. You could not, we were going through like using the back, you know, the little, the little pumps are pumping up your air matches. We all carry now.
00:06:26
Speaker
Yes. Using one of those with like all of our little fire starters, you know, we make, I make my own kind of like, um, cotton ball type deals and just having to like going through like six of them to get a fire started. Right.
00:06:37
Speaker
So I definitely bring some like fire logs. Um, we would do our meat differently. I would build ah a structure for my meat, like a teepee structure for my meat. Cause that got wet and got sour. I didn't turn all my meat into jerky. There's a bunch of, we had a bunch of wins, a bunch of losses on it, but, uh, but was a learning experience, right? Like, I mean, and I went with experienced dudes. Like, I mean, guys, Brad's been Alaska eight times and we still made mistakes, you know? Yeah. Yeah.
00:07:00
Speaker
The tent one is a really interesting one and and sort of anecdotally, I mean, you know, i kind of, for for better for worse, and get sort of brushed with a brush stroke of and I'm the gear guy or I'm way into gear. I get to work with a bunch of different gear companies to do gear product testing and things of that nature. So people ask me a lot of questions and tents, I would say tents, boots, and backpacks are three of the biggest things What are you using? What should i use for this hunt?
00:07:33
Speaker
Or A versus B, you know, and those are especially the tense is an interesting one because i personally um it's a lesson that I learned and it's about once every 10 hunts. It's like not every hunt.
00:07:50
Speaker
You know, course, like you're hunting in Montana or Colorado in September. And it's, it's like, yeah our memories are so short in that you had a great hunt. The weather was great. You're running a TP 10 or you're sleeping under a tarp or a baby sack whatever.
00:08:03
Speaker
then it's like one, every five hunts, one, every 10 hunts you are, you get completely whacked and the pound and a half extra for your nice, whatever. mallow or nemich or alec three big bomber four season tents you are you're it's saving your hunt like it's it's like making your hunt more comfortable safer but it's it's actually saving your hunt you know because you can keep out there and so that's one that's just you know you can get away with it a lot of the times and the one out of ten times that you don't you are you're kicking yourself so
00:08:38
Speaker
um So let's, let's talk, let's talk tense. Cause we could, we could talk gear. we could talk sheep as well, but I love talking gear. um i have, I'm a, I'm a tent freak. I have so many different tents and I do like, I love my ending on I have a knowledge three, which is a four season.
00:08:54
Speaker
And I just ah called up John up at Hilleberg. He just sent me out at Enon this week. um I didn't go with, i didn't go with the was it the Alec? the the The bigger brother, the four season. went with the three season Enon.
00:09:06
Speaker
I feel like that should cover most of what I even in Alaska. Because I'm not really going anywhere extreme. Are you staying away from the three seasons where you are? are you staying all four season? Because you're just up there and... No, I like to push it and I like to get some weight out of it.
00:09:17
Speaker
Just like early on, if I look at the weather, I'll try and run a three season or or like pick for Hilleberg specifically, it's a color system. So the yellow label is basically the three season. But um yeah, I mean, the Ina, that tent is is, so we're talking about the Ina is a three season one person tent. I think it's like 36 ounces.
00:09:36
Speaker
it's basically just over two pounds. That tent is badass. It's bad at the bone. That's why I got it. Yeah. I've run that thing November up on the Beartooth Plateau and the Illuminates. I ran that.
00:09:48
Speaker
I was just up hunting sheep here into early October Northern BC. The thing about that tent is that it's small. a small guy too. And so all this stuff comes with a caveat of like, this is my personal experience based on my own choices. Also based on my body size for something like a tent.
00:10:06
Speaker
The Enid is, is, is unbelievable. And I think as I kind of, use these tents more and more, what I find is sometimes you don't actually want a big tent because you're creating this bigger profile that's going to be whacked more by the wind. It's going to carry more snow load. And that, you know, just because it is so small, it's basically a coffin with a hoop a hoop pole.
00:10:29
Speaker
And if you pitch it, if you orient it the right way, like, so basically almost think of it as like a boat or something, you know, a canoe and in, the in water going through current, you know, upstream or downstream, whichever you orient it the right way. The wind is just wrapping right around that thing. And it is unbelievable. And and they they wouldn't say and recommend that you bring it in anything into like a late season winter hunting or camping situation, but I have.
00:10:53
Speaker
um And it's a, it's a sweet tent. I love that thing.
Tent Strategies and Mountain Environment Challenges
00:10:57
Speaker
I've had my, um, my anyon, um, which is like a sim similar tent hoop style tent.
00:11:04
Speaker
Uh, the two person I've had that out and like 55 mile power wins and totally fine where my buddy who is in my teepee nightmare, mean, thunderstorm teepee stakes are out of the ground. They're out getting this wrapped in and I'm just in my tent, just laughing.
00:11:17
Speaker
Right. Even though he's even, so my, my son and him rather they just getting this whacked by freaking rain. It's just coming hard. And I'm in that anyon and just like, ah Yes, it's loud, but it just handles it. And I'm really excited to get the Enin because I just wanted something a little bit smaller.
00:11:33
Speaker
um Just a little better footprint for me. I do love the Floralist Tens. It's just they have a time and a place. And for me, I just feel like... I can never go wrong. and And honestly, their four season tents are made for going to like Antarctica.
00:11:45
Speaker
I think guys like you, I think Schneider pushes the L label as well. I know Petra would want people to hear that. But like, I mean, for what we do in the you know lower 48 type hunting, there's not many situations where that Enon is not going to be okay.
00:11:58
Speaker
You might get little drafty, but it's it's that three seasons pretty hardcore compared to what's out there, right? Like, I mean, compared to buying like a freaking big Agnes tiger wall or something, you know what I mean? It's it's just 10 times the 10.
00:12:10
Speaker
Yeah. And everything comes with a little bit of experience and ah and a little bit of common sense too, right? So if you're looking at pretty, and now we have like the power of technology. So we have like incredible ability to predict the weather. So I was just up on a trip with my wife, Northwest BC, wicked weather. We got totally just got stomped by mother nature, but we're sitting there in the tent pulling weather from in reach. And like the accuracy of that weather is like pretty remarkable. So it doesn't help,
00:12:37
Speaker
change the weather because the weather is what the weather is. But if you're looking into the future, if you're looking two days or less into the future using in-reach weather, it's pretty, it's pretty accurate.
00:12:47
Speaker
So if you're seeing here comes a storm, here comes high winds, here comes a lot precip, then you're sort of planning your hunt plan appropriately. And if you're in that E-man, and you're pushing into late September, maybe even October, and you know you're pushing it and you check the weather, weather's coming, you wouldn't pitch it up on top of a ridge or in the most difficult spot. You just use little bit of common sense to say, hey, I'm gonna just tuck into the timber, sit this one out for two days then I'll be back hunting. So yeah, a little common sense goes a long way too. And I think that's something that you can't necessarily always learn on the internet. You can't necessarily learn from watching YouTube videos. You gotta use a little bit of common sense and you gotta learn from little bit of experience too.
00:13:26
Speaker
Are you running the footprint under yours? I actually ordered a footprint and I haven't used it before on any of my Hillebergs. And I was kind of worried with it being the old label, like ripping it on some of the rockier stuff. Are you not running, you're not running footprint on yours? You don't have any problems? I don't, I don't. Just like one more thing to kind of worry about.
00:13:41
Speaker
It attaches to the tent. You can like attach it to it. That's why was like, ah, it's nine ounces versus getting the Acto, which is little heavier. So it's kind of like, if going run not. We'll see. And that's in for vestibule or actually the whole length of the tent? It goes underneath the vestibule the whole tent. So it goes, it goes from, it goes the whole tent. So like underneath your sleeping quarter into the vestibule, it's nine ounces. And it kind of like, don't know, bungee's on something.
00:14:03
Speaker
And I'm like, ah just, I don't know. We'll see. I was going to put some Tyvek under. I just don't want to rip it. Like I've had a few times, like even with some of the pads going through, like and some of those tents, like just popping a pad, going through on a rock underneath you. You know what I mean? i don't know.
00:14:16
Speaker
Yeah. No, I use that. It's an investment. Yeah. Totally. Yeah. if you're in that type of rain, maybe it's not a bad little assurance policy too. Yeah. i did So that was kind of one of my big fails, right? Is I wanted to use a, um we used, we brought a floorless, which is nice have the stove.
00:14:32
Speaker
What I'm going to next year to ruin knowledge because I just know my knowledge is just going to be safe. Like we had unreal. We didn't see the sun for five days straight. It just rained. It never stopped raining. And, uh, it was literally, we were the only dry portion that you could have been in. And by dry, it was still four inches of like swamp underneath us and like up to our cots. Like if I was my non-match, that big bath, big bathtub in it, and would have been fine. Plus we're flying in. Why not? And then bring like a bigger, like maybe like an eight man teepee for chilling in with the stove.
00:14:59
Speaker
So you could sit in there. Cause we did like a tarp. Like one thing that we got lucky with is the guy told us like, Hey, buy some blue tarps. Like what? He's like, dude, trust me. So we bought like three blue tarps and that saved our butt we made our own like little shelter with tarp that's sitting under, river but it's still the wind and storm. Like you're still getting wet the whole day because it's blowing in sideways and getting you.
00:15:18
Speaker
So that's my shelter. That's my shelter stuff. So that's cool to hear you using Hillburg. It does seem like any hardcore sheep guy or like Alaska guy, BC guy is going to be in the Hillburgs.
00:15:30
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, and it's also like a stylistic thing on on how you hunt. So I think, you know, I've, I've maybe spent a dozen or 15 nights in a teepee tent and half of those would be on a horse hunt.
00:15:44
Speaker
So you're on flat ground. You're never camping way up high. You gotta to be next to grass and water for the horses. So it makes sense. That's I'm not a horseback hunter. I maybe do one every five or seven years. And that takes the exact amount of time. It takes me to forget that I don't like hunting on horses.
00:15:59
Speaker
I can go do another one after five or seven years. And then, um you know, so it's sort of one of those things where I want to camp. I don't need limited where I camp based on the kind of tent that I have.
00:16:13
Speaker
yeah So if you're hunting, you know, generally speaking, you're hunting sheep or something in the mountains, like you're trying to hunt, um, you know, above timberline or, you know, you might have camp on your back, you're going to the end of something and you can just, you can just camp wherever you need to camp and you're not limited.
00:16:28
Speaker
And so, um, you know, specifically like archery sheep hunting, oftentimes what you're trying to do is like, you if you do find a ah ram, you're trying to hunt like generally, very generally speaking, just like any mountain animal, sort of like put it to bed in the morning, wait for the thermals to get strong, come around, hunt it from the top, slip down on it.
00:16:46
Speaker
try and kill it. And so if you're in the bottom, at least from, from like, that's sort of the way that we've developed our style to hunt, or just generally speaking, is like, if you're hunting from the bottom in a teepee tent or in just, just for, for whatever reason, you're hunting bottom and you're looking up all the time, no matter what, you are always going to have to climb up.
00:17:05
Speaker
go around, drop down on it. So you're always like a day away or or like a solid half day away, as opposed to if you're hunting in a ridge or something like that, and you see something, you're kind of right on top of it. Now, of course, like the reverse of that is generally there's no water up there.
00:17:22
Speaker
you have to like carry, you know, five, 10, 15 liters of water from the bottom, which which mentally like sucks, right? Cause you know, you're carrying 22 pounds of water. Your buddy has 22 pounds and you know, you have another 60 or 65 pounds of stuff on top of that. So yeah, roundabout way of saying TP, a TP 10 or a tent that can only be pitched on big flat spaces.
00:17:48
Speaker
is going to limit where you hunt and how you hunt. And so for species that, that I've grown up hunting and like to hunt, you just prefer to have something a little bit lower profile because it's going to allow us to camp wherever you need to.
00:18:01
Speaker
Yeah. So that's what people don't understand about TVs. While yes, you have a lot of space. They take up a lot of space. I mean like the smallest teepees, even like my one man's like eight foot by eight foot. you know what I mean? Like it's hard to find a flat spot like that.
00:18:12
Speaker
especially when you're hunting mountain. and Like i I mean, I don't have no, I have no experience hunting sheep. Right. But I have like glass scouting goats. It's been up 12, 13,000 feet hunting deer. It's very hard to find a flat spot big enough for a teepee.
00:18:25
Speaker
Right. Unless you hike down to the bottom and get to one of these meadows or something. You know what i mean? um Yeah. So cool. We kind of, kate we beat the shelter to death. Let's talk about boots. because i hope, I hope you go where I think you're to go, but let's see what kind of boots are you running up there?
The Importance of Boots in Hunting
00:18:40
Speaker
I basically run Las Portivas in a few different styles, which is like a more of a mountaineering style boot. i don't know, man. I think boots are really, are really tough because they're so personal. They're personal to your fit style of hunting, things that you like, things that you don't like.
00:18:56
Speaker
But yeah, I've kind of tried. pretty much everything. And I sort of keep falling back to the lightweight, stiff, higher performing mountaineering style boot, as opposed to like ah more classic, like leather boot, like a Schnee's or a Kennetrek or something like that.
00:19:15
Speaker
And that's for a few different reasons. um Yeah. Like I said, little a little bit of higher performing there, there, they're quite a bit lighter. And probably the biggest thing is just like the profile of the toe and the way that like,
00:19:27
Speaker
you can put your foot into like spots and have purchase and you need about, you know, little four inch ledge. And I just feel a little bit more solid in them.
00:19:38
Speaker
Um, that's not to say all the downside is they're not super durable. Although I don't have a Nova boot that is super durable and they're not as waterproof for sure. Like a leather boot is, is quite a bit more waterproof. So if it is like really wet hunt or,
00:19:54
Speaker
um I don't know, i'm going on a back-to-back hunt or something like that and I want to have dry feet, I'll throw in a pair of leathers and I might throw in like a pair of crispy Brickstall, like the long, tall ones or something like that. But um yeah, so like the Equilibrium from La Sportiva has got a lot of use. The Equilibrium Top, which has a built-in gator, has got a lot of use this year.
00:20:17
Speaker
And then as you get later into the season, I run like some, some different late season ones, some double boots too. Like a Spantic has a double boot. G5, I think is the one that I have right now. It's a double boot.
00:20:32
Speaker
Yeah. So then you're getting into like pulling the liner boots out, drying them out while you're hunting in your sleeping bag. kind of getting a fresh set of boots in the morning. And then to like, I'll bring almost like mid to late season, let's bring those boots like right inside, put them in your sleeping bags. You don't deal with frozen boots every single morning.
00:20:49
Speaker
But yeah, that's my personal choice. I don't know. therere i beat the I mean, they don't last very long. I got a box full of boots that just get destroyed and sometimes they get resold or sent back and warrantied. But yeah. How about yourself?
00:21:02
Speaker
Kenetrax. So it's kind of like where I've settled. Because I have something a weird foot. And I have to break my feet. Even though Kenetrax is breaking feet in every year. Because like I blister. Like I have to break my... I'm not blistering right now I've spent so many times, so many days in my boots this fall.
00:21:15
Speaker
But... um And I like a stiffer boot. I like the... heart I run the hardscrabbles a lot. I like the mountain extremes. similar you're saying just for like especially but going somewhere where it's to steeper like having that purchase where you can just take your toe in and you're only in three inches but you're still you your foot's off the hill but your toes are on the hill you can still hike i like that the lost vertidas are probably the boot i want to try the most because a lot of guys are getting really into them a lot of my friends run them a lot of my friends are mountaineers and they love that boot they really do love that what's that they're narrow Yeah. and They're narrow hitting. That's why I think I might have a problem with them. And that's where I run. the path I get, I get pushed the sides of my feet and just the Kinectrax just fit my feet. Right. It's like, it's one of those things where like, you can't, I don't want to knock influencers. Right. I love influencers. you um When it comes to boots, honestly, boots and backpacks, like you really have to find the one that fits your body. Right.
00:22:03
Speaker
Um, I've tried like a bunch of them and just, just have the one that I've loved the most is that Kinetrex and I wear them. yeah um Those two boots all the time. if I want to, if I'm on my like fourth season, allcot in December this year, it'll be probably the mountain extremes, right? Cause there is like 400 gram insulated boots.
00:22:22
Speaker
Most them, I don't run an insulated boot because my feet sweat. um But when those foreheads on and they just, I love them Honestly, i do like how tall about extremes are on my, I don't get any heel lifts at all in the extremes. So I kind of want to switch over to extremes for everything, like even on insulated, but just a lot of boot is the problem. It's heavy. um Yeah. I wear a lot like locally, like um all my predator hunting and lot my local deer stuff or even like Arizona stuff. I just run the freaking like trail runners. Yeah.
00:22:49
Speaker
trail runner shoes i can't think of the name of those shoes but whatever i run trail runners a lot if i can't if i get away with it i will because it is my feet just want something like that but in the mountains kind tracks yeah it's a i think i said it earlier in the podcast boots backpacks and tents are three of the most just personal choices opinionated fit to a body type fit to a hunting style fit to a personal preference and Um, yeah, I don't have like a definitive, like this is the best, this is the best boot. This is the best backpack.
00:23:22
Speaker
This is even the best head. Although I feel pretty strongly that he'll, I can be pretty definitive on tents. Tents, I can be pretty much like, Hey, this is a good choice here. ah like, I definitely think like, if you're goingnna go do, if you're going to go to, let's say you're going to Colorado for a, um, high country meal deer hunt.
00:23:40
Speaker
don't bring a Tiger Wall Big Agnes tent. You're going to probably end up in a storm and you're going to be miserable. Yes, it's a lightweight tent. It's phenomenal for going hiking yeah Yellowstone Yosemite.
00:23:51
Speaker
If you're going up in the mountains, like bring something that's going to be stronger. like i even I love even like some of the tarp tents, but I like using the Kefaro Super Tarp. It just goes all the way to the ground. It has all kinds of gaios, all kinds of stake points where I know i'm going to make it through a storm where if I'm in one of those Tiger Walls, like I'm going to get wet.
00:24:08
Speaker
Yeah. yeah Yeah. And that the little addition to the best fill in the blank is the best for me yeah or the best for me on this hunt or the best for the weather, the hunt, the style, all sorts of things come into place. There's like one size fits all.
00:24:27
Speaker
Have you tried the Graxol boot dryers? I have not. Is that like a little? they're They're sweet. They're super sweet. Yeah. So you can put them in. Like I've never used them until I went with Brad to Alaska and you literally just put them in your boots and turn them on and they use like no dark energy. You put your, you know, put your anchor or dark energy on there.
00:24:48
Speaker
He uses barely any power at all. Run it all. All night. Your boots will be dry. It'll take all the, they're super light too. I think that they have new ones that just came out. Um, and I mean, they're like maybe 12 ounces, eight ounces, something like that.
00:25:00
Speaker
And it's two of them. And they're like, look like hockey pucks, which you should know those are already from Canada, right? Just freaking drop those hockey pucks in the top of your boot, dude. Turn them on and they run all night and they dry your boots. So someone like you would probably really benefit from those things.
00:25:14
Speaker
Cool. I'll have to check out. Are you doing darn tough socks? I'm curious. Yeah, for the most part, I'm wearing a pair right now. Yeah, Sitka came out with some socks. I was trying those out this year. They seem pretty good.
00:25:27
Speaker
um i think, you know, darn tough, smart wool. um The Sitka ones seem great. i think they're pretty interchangeable. I think the the sort of, I don't know if I've advanced any anywhere in socks, it'd be that you don't actually, you know, we used to use big, cushy, thick socks, like thinking that they're more comfort, they're more support, but turns out they just sort of make your feet sweat and yeah know, you have more opportunity to have some bunching or some wrinkles or something like that. So actually like not like a really heavy sock, just like a midway, very midway sock. And then, um, you know, this time year, probably like right about now into mid October, going into some more mid to late season hunting, I'll run like a, usually it's a silk or sometimes a synthetic liner sock.
00:26:11
Speaker
So run like a really thin liner sock with like a kind of a medium, just a normal medial hiking sock. And that allows you to push moisture from the liner sock out, helps with blisters a little bit, gives you just like a tiny little bit of warmth and then some like customization with the fit. So you can work on like a different combination of liner versus outer sock. And I'll use like a pair of super feet, like the blue ones, which is just like an insole that has like a bit more stability. And I've, I've got into those from,
00:26:43
Speaker
like my trail running shoes. was wearing them in my running shoes. So I was like, well, you seem to be doing the trick. So I'm going to put them in my hunting boots and just dialing in like that fit. And that, um, yeah, I think, I think maybe that's like, was just like, I guess, I guess it like a lesson than that I've learned over the years is that the things that are going to let you down, I guess we're hammering on it pretty hard, but, um, your boots and your pack are going to let you down if you don't have them.
00:27:09
Speaker
fit to your body. Like you said, if you're, if you are a person who gets blisters, you want to be wearing your boots well before you have a hunt. So you can break your feet in, you can break the boot in, you can try out different sock combinations. You can try your pack out with 40, 50, 60 pounds for training, but also just like the fit and sort of the peace of mind of like, I have used this piece of gear.
00:27:31
Speaker
You know, I'm looking at my window right now. I have a little 900 foot mountain right here that I can walk or run from. I carry my kid in my back and my backpack, I can go with my wife, i can go with friends, I can go and it's like I'm going to be using the frame that I'm using for hunting most likely and the boots that going to using for hunting and I'm going to be doing that as often as I can, usually a couple of times a week.
00:27:52
Speaker
Yeah, man, for sure. I agree with that hundred percent. I, uh, I love the darn tough socks. I've done everyone else's socks, right? I've done first light socks, Kuyu socks. i've I've tried them all. And I just always go back to the darn tough stocks. And I actually yeah pretty much, what I do is try and buy like a pair every couple of months. Cause they're 30 bucks. Like they're not cheap. to buy It's like, there's something about buying a $30 pair of socks. You're like, Oh, um, but, but I probably have eight pairs of them now. Right. And, uh, I love them. I've tried the liners. just can't get on board with it. I don't know.
00:28:23
Speaker
like they probably would help me, but like, I don't know. I should do it. Try it again. feel like I always end losing the liners and I just, i don't know. I just, I never do it. I've tried the liners before though. A few times i've done that.
00:28:33
Speaker
Usually like what you want to, the when I start using them is when you have big swings in temperature. So it's like, you know You're in the mid-late season. You're hunting. It's like you're going hike up something for four hours. you're gonna There's no way your feet aren't going It's 20, 30, 35 degrees.
00:28:50
Speaker
You're basically like full octane, pretty high output, and then you get to the top of the mountain and you're sitting there glassing for four hours as long as you can. The first thing that's going to get cold is your feet. And the reason your feet are gonna cold faster than they're not is because they're wet.
00:29:04
Speaker
So that like liner sock helps wick moisture away and keeps your feet a little bit warmer. Um, there's a couple of things you can do too. You can get to the top and loosen your boots. You can put a sitting pad underneath your feet, like a Z light Z rest, like anything you can do to keep your feet just like a tiny bit warmer and actually like insulation, like a 400 gram insulating boot.
00:29:24
Speaker
Um, will help to some extent, but actually like in some ways with mountain hunting, because you're going to hike four hours and then you're going sit, it's going to make your feet sweat quite a bit. So you want to weigh, that's where i see that piece of gear like playing is, is, is managing moisture to keep your feet warm. Cause like, what, what is it? Heat escapes your body like 21% or times faster if you have moisture on your skin or something like that than if you don't.
00:29:50
Speaker
And that's what, that's what we're doing. You know, in the reverse of that when we're sweating, that's how you cool yourself, right? Like the evaporation of the water off your body's skin is gonna cool you. So by having water on your feet, like your feet are just, they're gonna be cold. They're gonna be ice blocks.
00:30:05
Speaker
And then you're done, you're done with glassing for that moment. So you keep moving around. So what I'll do a lot of times, because I have sweaty feet, is I'll just switch my socks out. like right I'll get to where going, switch my socks, take them out, let those other ones dry out, all way from just tying to my backpack, let them hang outside for the rest of the day, while it's not raining, and then I'll put new socks on. And then that way I'm doing that, cause my feet sweat a lot, and I recognize that if my feet get wet, going start blistering. So I'm like, I just switch socks out. am I might do it once a day.
00:30:29
Speaker
um and Sometimes I'll even oh take my boots off, let my feet dry out, and then put socks back on, right? Whatever I got to do. yeah Curious, are you big puffy pants guy? Yeah, for... Into September. Yeah, yeah, I am. And I think of them as, you know, for two for two big reasons. One, it's it's like, you know, I think people think of clothing as like, well, it lets me be more comfortable and and enjoy the hunt a bit more. And it certainly does.
00:30:59
Speaker
There's also a case in my mind to be made from what I've seen is like certain clothing items and used in a certain specific way is going to actually like increase your opportunity for hunting, which is like exactly why we're out there. And a pair like, think like a pair of puffy pants, what it does is like, for me, it gets you in the mindset of going to sit here in glass.
00:31:22
Speaker
So if you stop, take the time, put puffy pants on puffy jacket, set your tripod up, throw your awesome Arca Swiss low profile, slide that thing right into a tiny little pan head.
00:31:33
Speaker
If you've taken all that time, found a spot out of the wind, like you're going to sit there for for, for a longer period of time. You've gone into like glassy mode and puffy pants, among other things, just like help you kind of do that.
00:31:48
Speaker
and The other thing they do is like they give your sleeping bag. Like if you want to run a lighter sleeping bag, like if you're on the fence between 32 degree bag or a 20 degree bag or a 20 degree bag or a five degree bag, you can choose that like the light, the,
00:32:02
Speaker
what would be the lighter weight bag, the cooler, the but the lower, the higher temperature bag to save some weight, knowing you have a puffy pant and a puffy jacket and maybe even down boots. If you're running little down booties, that's going to allow you to bump up your, your sleeping bag. So like, instead of having to use my zero degree bag, when I'm on the fence, I'm factoring in, okay, well I'm going to bring puffy pants and a jacket so I can actually save seven or eight ounces out of my sleeping bag by bringing my lighter sleeping bag and those pants might weigh eight or nine ounces.
00:32:35
Speaker
So i'm like a net, I'm at a net, uh, equilibrium. It's the same, but I get a piece of gear that functionality, like functionally i can use, you know, half the time hunting is a glassing maybe half the time.
00:32:48
Speaker
and So that's how I think about them. Are you a bad guy or quilt guy? I am not a fucking quilt guy. What? I am a quilt. I love, I can't do it back. I can't not do it back. I've been a quilt for almost 10 years now.
00:33:04
Speaker
Really? I think it's just, I mean, I think like Northern BC, Yukon, Northwest Territories, like it's too cold. I mean, I don't know. I have one. I tried it. Dude, smash it. I love I want you to destroy them. Destroy it. I go for it I don't It's not going offend me. I'm not going to stop doing it. Defend and blow them up, dude.
00:33:21
Speaker
Let's go. Tell me why. What don't understand is like, yeah how do you, I guess I should revisit one at some point. I have one. i don't understand how like if you're rolling around in your bag, how you so keep the seal from your quilt to your pad from like letting cold air in. I use the like, like my favorite quilt is the lighting equipment 10 degree.
00:33:44
Speaker
And I have i mean i don't even know hundreds of days in that quilt. And I love And it doesn't come off. You just do No, not really. I mean, a little bit maybe, but not really. i don't i don't i never tie mine to it. It's so big.
00:33:55
Speaker
I have like the extra large like long, large one. you know I think it weighs like, dude, it's a 10 degree and it weighs 18 ounces. So it weighs nothing, right? And I'm just, I just roll so much in my sleep that I ended up getting like twisted up like a freaking alligator. You know what I mean? a sleeping bag, it drives me nuts. Yeah.
00:34:10
Speaker
So like, I just like the quilt. Like I'm so i'm surprised that you're you're not a quilt guy. but i But I also, I'm not stuck to only using hunting brands either. So like, I try everything. So like, I love like Western Mountaineering. Like my puffy pants are for feathered friends.
00:34:24
Speaker
um Like some of that stuff that you're talking about, like that's, I'd like that you talked about sportivas, right? Like it's not necessarily synonymous with hunting. it's It's a mountaineering brand, right? Some of those brands I really did like that. like an equipment quilt, man. I love it. I have like four or five different quilts probably.
00:34:40
Speaker
I'm to check it out. i I used one when they sort first started getting popular probably like 10 years ago. And I just found it like I couldn't get it to seal properly. And then i'd wake up because there'd be like cold air coming in. But yeah yeah, it's definitely like a big time weight savings opportunity.
00:34:57
Speaker
Huge weight savings. And just for me, I just like being able to have it. I'm not going to roll around in there. Right. But I don't know. yeah I think I've like, I've wanted to try like peak, what is it? Peaks has their new, like sleep bag with arm holes and stuff in it. Like i kind of want to try it.
00:35:10
Speaker
think still, I think sick has a similar one. So if you're not, what, what bag are you running then? What what brand bags are you running? Probably like in my duffel bag of, Of bags I have, ah probably starting from like warmest to coldest, I have a Volandre Mirage, which is like a French company, I believe.
00:35:31
Speaker
Started off at 20 degrees, i've probably it's probably like 35 degrees now, that's my lightest one. yeah And then I'll have one called Mountain Equipment, which is like a UK company. yeah That's my coldest one, of things I think it's called the Xero, zero with an X, I guess.
00:35:49
Speaker
That one's really warm. And then i have a couple sickle ones, the down one and the synthetic one, um which are sort of great mid-season options if you want something a little bit more functional with like the armholes and things like that. so Yeah, the sickle one has the armholes and like the front zip, right? Very similar the peaks. Do you do you feel like the armholes are gimmick?
00:36:12
Speaker
like I'm friends with peaks. I'm friends with these guys. like do you Do you use the armholes? Are you like out there with your armholes? like is it... I don't ever use it outside my tent. Like I'm not, I'm not like out there, like an Oupa Loopa running around or whatever with a thing.
00:36:25
Speaker
But I'll use it to cook. Like, so if I'm laying in a tent, it's like, it's when those days are really short. So it's like up up here, you know, we'll hunt like in November, for example, like where I grew up in Alberta and the Rockies, it's dark at 4.30, 4.45. You know, it's not really light till 8.30 or 9. And it's cold, like cold, cold. So you're basically like,
00:36:47
Speaker
You have all your clothes on, you're in your sleeping bag, and sometimes, you know, you're in a backpack tent. You're either by yourself or with a buddy. And you're basically either, like, if you don't have armholes, you're kind of cracked halfway and you're cooking and stuff, but you're always, like, you know, you're always making coffee or doing something.
00:37:05
Speaker
And, you know, from 5 p.m. till you go to sleep or whatever, 9 10 like, you kind of like to have a little bit that functionality, but for like summer stuff or longer days, generally, no, I don't really need to use the armholes.
00:37:19
Speaker
Yeah. I guess as a quilt guy, i don't have to worry about that. Cause arms just pop out, leg pops out, whatever. Yeah. So as a quote guy, I'm like, I just don't see them. i'm like, what do I need that more? I don't know. I don't know. That's cool.
00:37:30
Speaker
Uh, so cool. We touched on, we're touching on gear. I like, I like gear, dude. I, this is, it's fun to talk about gear, especially someone like you who just spends, who's so knowledgeable, right? I mean, like it's undeniable. Like you are like the epitome of like mountain hunting right now. Like one of the guys up there, that's just your name goes hand in hand with it. Right. Like, and you're living it. Right. And you're doing this stuff.
00:37:49
Speaker
Um, You talk about backpacks a lot, right?
Backpack Preferences and Gear Comfort
00:37:52
Speaker
You've brought a couple of times. What backpack are you loving?
00:37:58
Speaker
I don't know. Maybe similar to boots sometimes. is like i just everything that i I use a lot of Mystery Ranch packs and have for quite some time.
00:38:10
Speaker
um There's things I would change about them, I would say. But generally for big time, heavy load hauling capabilities and and durability, um their stuff for me at least is pretty good was having this conversation with a buddy the other day and he's like well what about this pack what about this pack what about XO what about and I'm like I've never them because like I feel like a backpack at least at least for me is one of those things where I don't like I'm always sort of tweaking and trying different stuff but like a backpack isn't really a thing where I'm like
00:38:44
Speaker
Oh, let me just go try out a pack on a, on like a 14 day, like hundred percent she sheep on the Northwest territories and then sort of like, like it, don't like it, find something wrong with And I suppose I could test it out and doing some, doing some shorter stuff and try it out. But like, I'm kind of like a little bit more like what I have isn't necessarily broken. So I don't necessarily need to fix it.
00:39:05
Speaker
But we started using mystery ranch. Like their packs were, I mean, hunters were adopting them in like, I think we were started, started using them 08, 09. Um, you know, they're basically military packs. They had like a nice 6,500. It was called. That was a, they basically figured out a way to separate the bag away from the frame and ah opened into what they call the overload to put like military stuff in. So like um a 65 pound chunk of cast iron, ah mortar base plate, like sniper rifles, ammo boxes, whatever, like big heavy things, which is like basically exactly what you're trying to do in your hunting. Like, uh,
00:39:41
Speaker
bag of boned out meat that weighs 60 or 70 pounds so it's like that same concept and coming from like a high durability standpoint so we were running like arcteric spora packs or or um you know more like mountaineering style packs where the not very doing not very durable and the biggest heaviest load you're going to have out of the truck is whatever mountain mountaineering backpacking maybe it's 50 or 60 whatever it is and it's going to go down every single day and hunting is like the only activity really that I can think of that is like you walk out of the truck at 65 pounds, 10 days later, if you're fortunate enough to be successful, like 120 pounds. So you need something that has like the ability to carry that load and has it been a bit of durability. So we started using those packs then.
00:40:29
Speaker
And it's really cool to see. I mean, it's similar to apparel, right? Where you have a whole bunch of players in the market. Like you've seen like, Kuyu and Kryptek and Stone Glacier and for a second like all these apparel companies. And you've seen in backpacks, again, Stone Glacier and and Exo and Kuyu makes packs and Sikamake packs. You see all these like packs coming out. And I do believe like there's something out there for everybody. And it's cool. like like Kurt Roscoe who started Stone Glacier is buddy mine. It's the reason I was there shit-talking with you at Stone Glacier.
00:40:59
Speaker
um i was rescuing a life-size doll sheep in there that was... I needed to get out because all my friends that work there were, uh, we're leaving the company. Um, that's a different story. i Probably can't say anything about that a podcast, but, uh, um, Kurt is six, you know, Kurt, are you seeing him around? I've seen him around.
00:41:20
Speaker
I think I had him on the podcast. all right. He's like six, two probably has like 30 inch waist. built like an ice climbing, long limb, tall, lean guy. His backpack frames are tall, narrow, like, like longer hip belts. And everybody I know that loves a stone glacier is usually like, if somebody says, a man, so I'm like, best pack ever. i'm I'm like, even if I was like talking to the phone, I'm like,
00:41:45
Speaker
You're probably tall and probably or you're probably a taller guy. I'm thinking of my mind like, oh, Brady Miller. He loves tall, lean guys. Totally. Yeah. so So that's that's the reality. And um you know Mystery Ranch, for me, what I'm looking for...
00:42:03
Speaker
And what I think is a differentiator for Mr. Edge for me is like, I like the waist belt. I like the like five cemented waist belt. I like a big fat lumbar pad. And when I had these stone glaciers in the past, I would put, Kurt would give me like more foam to put in the lumbar to create like, you know, kind of like the way that your lumbar sits, you know, where tailbone is like to have that ability to like, not only for comfort, but just so that waist belt doesn't migrate down.
00:42:30
Speaker
So that's what I liked about the fit of mystery ranch. And yeah, basically everything builds off a frame just like many of other backpacks, but that modularity is nice. And and like you have peace of mind knowing like, okay, same frame.
00:42:42
Speaker
I know how to fit them. I used to work their booth in like, 2011 or something like that. we We'd go and work the trade show booths. So fitting people, being comfortable with how to fit them. um You know, I think that's a big part similar to booths, but, but, but like with packs, I've been to like a lot of different hunting camps in the North where, know, you finish your hunt, you're hanging around.
00:43:03
Speaker
This happened two years ago up at Arctic Red in the Northwest territories. I was filming a guy's hunt for wild sheep foundation. We got done early. we were sitting in camp, telling stories, waiting to get flown out. And, people were kind of coming up, it was sort of a little bit of a buzz around camp and, and they were saying, oh man, I love my pack.
00:43:20
Speaker
And I'm like, you would love it more if it was fit properly. Like, let me fit this for you. So I'd fit and it doesn't matter. Stone glacier, whatever it could figure out sort of, they're all sort of basic, uh, basically the same thing, you know, adjusting the yoke, tightening things from the waist belt up, like some very basic things that people, you know,
00:43:38
Speaker
they buy their pack from Shields or Cabela's or wherever. And there isn't like an intimate knowledge of like specialty retail that allows you to say like, let me help you fit this. And there's videos online and there's a lot of education out there, but i still think most people, they buy that pack maybe on the way to their first Western hunt or they order online and they throw it in there and they say, wow, it feels great because it feels so much better than other pack that they've ever had or they don't even have experience with it.
00:44:01
Speaker
And it's like, oh man, these things can be fit to you so perfectly. that and they have the customization and modularity that, you know, using using that ability to fit it to your body is like almost as important as like what the actual product is. Like a pack, an ill-fitting pack, an ill-fitting top of the line pack is worse than maybe like some other middle of the road pack that fits perfect.
00:44:26
Speaker
Yeah, man, that mystery ranch, um, definitely durable. I would say that about them, uh, a little more pockets than I would like. They've got, they kind of got like, they're not very simplistic. There's a lot stuff going on there. Cause I think there's the military side of things. Our military guys want that tactical stuff there.
00:44:40
Speaker
I know they just came out with a new frame. I think like last year or year before, right. and A new frame, which was pretty so phenomenal. Um, I ran XO forever. um great packs. I had hip issues with them.
00:44:53
Speaker
ran them for like eight years. i mean, I had went through K2 and a K3 pack with them. um Maybe not eight years, something like that. Six years, something like that. 2016 2023.
00:45:05
Speaker
Man, I switched over to initial ascent last year and it just fits me perfect. Big lumbar, like you said, and it just holds weight really well. um I really, I love that pack. um I did, Eberle Stock to sent me two of their new frames to try out their carbon fiber, their new carbon fiber frame.
00:45:24
Speaker
I'm curious, my kids weren't in their pack for years, so I'm curious to try one of those out. But right now I have a hard time for my body type um beating that initial set, man. it just It just feels... I don't get any of the shift or hip pain.
00:45:36
Speaker
And plus, like you said, I'm very much like i ran the same two Exos forever, and this is kind of a similar pack to the Exos. I like that. um And i liked i don't like to change too much my backpack, right? So like I like to know like if I kill an animal, like I don't want to say, oh we kill a lot of stuff.
00:45:50
Speaker
We kill a lot of stuff. Like we were seven or eight animals deep this year already. Right. Like, so I want to be able to take my pack apart, put an animal on there. And like, if you're using the same pack, it gets really easy to do that. if If it's your first time going to the field and you bought a Kefaru, good luck.
00:46:05
Speaker
Like figuring out if you you need to practice putting a bag on that thing, how to strap me down on it, dude. Cause like, like dude, like, yes, you you got you see the picture of Schneider carrying out an elk on it. But have you ever figured out how to do it? Because like there's it takes time. So that's one thing I can say about backpacks before you go out, similar to breaking boots in, is take your backpack, no matter what brand it is, get a 40-pound bag of dog food or something and figure out how to take your pack off the frame, how to strap that dog food down, how to get it up, how to how to load it.
00:46:34
Speaker
Yeah, 100%. And yeah, you think about the first time doing it in the dark, it's raining sideways, there's wolves howling all around you. It's getting ahead a't happen No, and i think I think a backpack is, for me, is similar to like your truck. It's like, I don't want to change my truck every year or it's just like, i go in there, my sunglasses are in the top thing. Like, I know it's like all, I know where everything is. I put the same, put my in-reach in this pocket. i put food in this pocket. Like my spot, like I know where everything is and it's just like, you know, you can change some, some,
00:47:07
Speaker
Whatever. it's three days, five days, seven days, you can kind of change a little bit of stuff or you can use a different peg maybe. But I just like i like the simplicity of like you're just sort of using the same thing year after year.
00:47:18
Speaker
Yeah, I do. I do do some stuff with like buckles and stuff. I do do some like locking buckle type stuff. I switch buckles out packs. I do – something I love is like gatekeeper straps.
00:47:29
Speaker
if you get some of those, you can actually attach gatekeepers onto other buckles. so it's really good for like tying meat down and stuff like that as well. yeah So that's a little like pro tip for me is like look at your pack and there's certain, you can buy straps to do stuff to it. Like all the time it's hard to get an animal head onto a pack, especially if you don't run a top lid, right? Like you have those gatekeeper straps,
00:47:45
Speaker
you actually can clip them through where your strap connects to your clip next to your backpack and have double straps on there. Right. And then make another strap. So like there's things like that I do. um But just again, it's like you said, it's just, you know, how many days you have the field and that thing, you know what i mean? It's just, you use it, you learn, figure out what you need, what you want to change. But I would definitely say before you go out in the field,
00:48:06
Speaker
figure out how to use that backpack. Cause man, there's nothing worse than like watching a guy trying to figure out even take, like there's a, there's a process to to get the damn thing open, to flap, flap, flat to get your meat on there. Right. if you don't even know that process, like what shops you gotta off, like man, good luck in that bowl on there and have that thing not slide. There's nothing worse, Adam, than carrying out a load that's shifting everywhere on you.
00:48:25
Speaker
No, it's the worst. Especially in the country you guys are in. And I would, and I think I'd add to that the the the fit component of it. And so just back to that little anecdote in the, up of in the territories, there was maybe like eight guides in camp. These guys are are doll sheep guides.
00:48:42
Speaker
They're at a super cub supported backpack style outfit. Like they don't use helicopters. These guys are legit, like probably five to 15 years experience. One guy, one guy was a buddy, a buddy of ours.
00:48:58
Speaker
Uh, his name's Al Kloss he's 60, he would have been 66 or 67. He's like 68. Now guided, like skilled, like 165 doll sheep, all backpacks. So they have this much, so much experience.
00:49:11
Speaker
Um, I don't think anyone could say that they're not experienced mountain hunters, sheep hunters, that they don't have a lot of, you know, they have probably 80 to 80 or 90 days in a backpack each year. um and i And I was talking to some of them, I'm like, when's the last time you fit this They're like, well, what do you mean?
00:49:28
Speaker
And I'm like looking at the buckle and like, you know how kind of dirt gets in like like like slide buckles and stuff and like yeah it kind of creates an imprint and it's like, you can see it's never been, it's like never been used.
00:49:40
Speaker
I'm like, well, how's this pack feel? like, oh, it feels great. And then it's like, you adjust it and have it fit and they're like whoa, I had no idea. had no idea that this pack even adjusted, you know?
00:49:52
Speaker
Cause they probably bought it 10 years ago and they were like, yeah, that's as comfortable as I've needed to. And a lot of those guys too are cut from a little bit different fabric. Like it didn't, you know, I think this has like a good maybe point in this conversation now is like our gear is so good. ah You know, we as society are like so soft in that we have like the comforts of lightweight, breathable rain gear and awesome tents, all this stuff. Right. And so I think, if you know, think about it,
00:50:21
Speaker
uh, we're tweaking like percentages out, right? Like we're getting like 1%, 5%, maybe 5% lighter and tweaking things a little bit higher performance. And I like doing it. I think it's fun.
00:50:32
Speaker
Um, but at the end of the day, like people were out here running around, you know, mountaineering, climbing Mount Everest, you know, a hundred years ago with wool and people were sheep hunting up at the territories and jeans and flannel shirts and stuff like that. So, um,
00:50:47
Speaker
Yeah, it's like a good reminder that don't get like, like do the gear thing because it's fun. Do the gear thing because you like it. There is, you know, I think every like five years there is like a bit of a leap and in something really specific. You're like, oh, wow, that kind of is like change of the game.
00:51:02
Speaker
But don't get lost in it. And there's no substitute for experience. There's no substitute for actually having your boots on the ground because, you know, if you're lost, I'm surprised at how many people do like from a time investment standpoint.
00:51:14
Speaker
you know, and I'm sometimes guilty of this too, but like analyzing gear or spending tons of time, maybe like in the gym or, or like shooting or or things that are important for sure. But then when it comes to like having a pair of broken in boots or having a properly fit pack, they're like, Oh no, I didn't, I didn't worry about that. And it's like, those are, those are like, it's low hanging fruit to kind of avoid some most cat. And, and, and again,
00:51:41
Speaker
This is just from mistakes that I've made. Like this is stuff that I've done that I'm like, oh, wow, can't do that again. You know, yeah we talked about ultralight a little bit and tweaking gear.
00:51:52
Speaker
um i can say that I'm not necessarily ultralight. like lightweight gear, but not an ultralight guy. Right? There's like certain things that like I did. i'm I almost want to say i'm a comfort over ultralight guy sometimes.
00:52:06
Speaker
When I normally be spending, you know, 100 days in a tent this year, i kind of know what I like and i make sacrifices in some places and sacrifices in other places with weight. ah Maybe I'll carry something lighter here that I don't really, because you know I'm not worried about it, but I carry a heavier, like my pad.
00:52:21
Speaker
talk about my pad all the time. i use like ah I do use some like Therm-a-Rest, like the Neo-Ares and stuff, the yellow ones. But dude, like I have a 24-inch wide, like four-inch thick Neo-Rest pad that weighs like 18 ounces that I sleep so good on.
00:52:34
Speaker
And I love it. And like i just I've been running that pad for like two seasons now. I used to run X-Therm all the time and the Neo-Ares. I'm like, man, once I got this pad, till yes, it might be six ounces heavier, but man, is it worth it Do you have anything where you're like, yeah, the weights.
00:52:49
Speaker
Yeah, that's a good point too. I think what what gets lost in the sort of sleeping system conversation is like the pad actually also is more comfortable, but also keeps you warmer.
00:53:00
Speaker
So like creating that loft off the ground. maybe you can go with a lighter sleepy Meg or a lighter quilt. That's your thing. hu So, so it's like, you know, these things kind of like stack together.
00:53:14
Speaker
And if you think about using them as a system, um, a pad that's heavier, I'm a pretty cushy pad type guy too, because it's more comfortable. It's also warmer. Um, I don't know. i mean, I'm kind of like, it depends on the on, on the trip I would say, but, um,
00:53:29
Speaker
I'm sort of like medium to lighter weight because like I'm bringing like 10 pounds of camera gear quite often. The camera gear stra sucks, dude. I switched to an 8,000 pack this year. So my 4,500 is not big enough because those long lenses and dual cameras, dude, cameras suck.
00:53:46
Speaker
They're so heavy. yeah so It's like quite interesting. Like how level I guess if I'm like shooting a hunt, you know, I'm kind of like, how light can I get this thing? Because,
00:53:59
Speaker
that I know I'm throwing in 10, 12, 14 pounds of camera gear on top of it. So if like I'm supposed to start at 65, I could get it to 55, throw back 15 pounds. I'm back at 70. And, um, but, but yeah, i would say like the tent is ah an assurance thing. i would say for me, food is, um, I'm like not really willing to like go ultra light on food, uh, for a couple of
Food's Role in Hunting Success
00:54:24
Speaker
reasons. Like one,
00:54:25
Speaker
I don't know. I come from Italian family. Like i eat a lot. Um, I like te eat a lot. I like to have pepperoni and cheese and bagels and like dried fruit, like, like some amount of real food. And I think as you get along really good, cause I'm like that guy who my friends are like stealing my snacks, like day four, cause they decided to bring some freaking trail mix and that's it.
00:54:51
Speaker
yeah And I'm like, oh, you didn't want to throw in like some salami and some some baby bell cheese? Because I'll tell you what, dude, day five of a hunt, some fresh salami and some baby bells put together or some Tillamook cheeses, dude. Oh, forget about it. That's so good.
00:55:06
Speaker
so good. And I think as you go like back to back and year over year, you're kind of going like, man, I don't want to just freeze dried and oatmeal here for the next 50, 60 days. Yeah. Um, but also like food is, is fuel. So like, you just want to be, you just never want to be in a situation where you're kind of running out of gas and you know, you have more fuel, you have more fuel, you feel better, you perform better.
00:55:29
Speaker
And then also like, I think of food as it's, uh, it's basically like sand in the hourglass. So like if you have 10 days of food and you know, where you go hunting, like that's your 10 days of your hourglass and like it's tipped over. So when you're out of food, yeah, you can maybe push it another half day, but you're done. So if you have like 10 days of food heavy, you can go over a little bit every day. Oh yeah.
00:55:55
Speaker
You can easily, you can easily, be on day seven or eight or nine and be like, okay, now we're going to split half dinners. Or if you were, you know, if I go on 10 day hunt, I might bring like five ramens or something like that. If I'm on day seven, have two ramens left. We're on a bunch of sheep. The weather's coming in. We want to stay out there hunting. It's like,
00:56:13
Speaker
eat a ramen for dinner, like dial back on some of your snacks by day five or six, your stomach's already shrunk. Anyways, you're going to fine and you can stretch it and you can keep hunting in 10, 11, 12 days, as opposed to like, you're being 10 days of food, like to the ounce, that's all you have. You're in full starvation mode from the jump.
00:56:32
Speaker
You're going to be done. Um, so yeah, I just never want to be in that situation. And then I guess the third reason it's the only piece of gear that gets lighter as the hunt goes on. So yeah, you bring, if you're bringing two pounds of food a day, you got 20 pounds or you get two and a half pounds of food a day, you got 25 pounds, like either way, halfway through that hunt, you're, you're already chewed down half that food. So I would say just throw it in, bring it.
00:56:56
Speaker
Dude, is there anything better than some good ramen under a tarp in like a storm? Oh, dude, so good. Middle of the day, cracked some ramen. So good. We went to Alaska, dude. We're flying in.
00:57:08
Speaker
i brought like I brought snacks. like I had some good candy. I mean, like I knew we were going to be raining. I had some Snickers bars. Dude, these guys went and like bought like some jerky. like I don't know if they thought they were going to go on a diet for a week.
00:57:20
Speaker
Dude, I was calling them snack horse. They were like in my bags, the little squirrels like stealing all my snacks. I'm like, you guys, we're flying in. You could bring as much – you could eggs and bacon. You know what I mean? But I was having – I felt bad. I was like – I brought enough ramen. I was sharing ramen with them a few days because like it's like I feel bad being under the tarp and everyone's – and we're freezing. It's cold. It's windy.
00:57:37
Speaker
I eat my ramen. They're over there looking at me. yeah raman is ah Ramen – ramen is – it's awesome and it's cold out, especially when you know you got the fog or you're stuck in your tarp. It's just nice. Something to warm you up. It's kind of like making – Like when you make a fire the middle of the day just something about it just kind of makes get something to do and it feels good.
00:57:53
Speaker
Absolutely. You like peanut butter? I do like peanut butter. i like doing, I'll bring the little, um, like the almond butter packages. I'll do those. Put it in your ramen next time. Peanut butter in my ramen.
00:58:05
Speaker
Really? Like kind of like making like a little pad Thai type deal or what? Poor man's pad Thai. poor man's pad thai. have to try that out. I've done it with, I've done like the ramen with like the mashed potatoes. You've ever done that? It's like some backpacking thing.
00:58:19
Speaker
It's pretty good. They get some potatoes. Instant potatoes. Instant potatoes, together with the ramen. You make something, remember what they call it There's something and you put it like jerky in there stuff. I don't know, but I've done that kind of stuff. What's really good, dude. I've done, we've done a couple of times now is I'll bring like little salami logs.
00:58:33
Speaker
And if you cut those things into like little, like, you know, little salt, little, discs and then fry some of those up and then put the little baby belt on top of the melt. Dude, it's like on day seven, it feels like you're at gourmet restaurant.
00:58:45
Speaker
Dude, try that sometime when you get, cause like the fat starts coming off on a little bit. You know what I mean? It's kind of like, it's, it's good. You just get, you start getting hungry, man. Like day seven or eight, you get tired of eating the same thing. I know like Brady Miller was doing this whole like no water food thing. And I'm like, screw that.
00:59:00
Speaker
Like just bars. Like if you're just going to bars for so like, especially when I got here, don't spend a lot time in the field. Like food is so important to me. Cause like, dude, it's like the one thing you have, like they throughout the whole hunt. you know what mean? Like you're laying there for 10 hours a day. Sometimes nothing to do to lay there.
00:59:16
Speaker
And like, all you have is like some crappy trail mix or something like, dude, like bring some snacks, man. i like snacks. You're here first. year to year first I know. I agree. And I think that there's never, you just never want to be in a position where you're feeling like you're bonking.
00:59:31
Speaker
You're kind of out of gas and you got to climb something or you got to keep going. And you just know it's like completely avoidable to, to, to bring. I love having some gummy bears, dude. Throwing some gummy bears in there, some sour patch kids. Just it's great. I got up a hill, throwing those things in.
00:59:45
Speaker
This has been an awesome podcast, Adam. We always end with a hunting story and I think you might have one or two for us. Uh, want to give us a hunting story to the campfire hunting story
Hunting Stories and Photography Artistry
00:59:54
Speaker
real quick. Adam Foster. Wow.
00:59:57
Speaker
Jeez, you're putting me on the spot. um Give me a theme or something to narrow my ground. It was dark and stormy and you're the top of a mountain and there's a thunderstorm.
01:00:11
Speaker
You're waiting on this giant doll sheep. Let's go. i'll I'll tell you a funny story from this summer. was with Sam, perfect my buddy, my buddy, Sam, because it was stormy. It wasn't dark, but it was very stormy.
01:00:24
Speaker
Um, his hit. So we were sitting there, some Rams, it's like opening day, Northern BC. We're kind of watching them. Like they're moving back and forth. This like really cliffy section that you can't, you can't really see from the bottom. You can't really see from the side. You kind can only look at, look from the top.
01:00:40
Speaker
And, uh, you know, it's doing like the big thunderhead thing. It's, it's pretty hot, but we're getting big, like rainy hail storms in the afternoons and middle the day. So we're sitting there out on the tarp, just like we're pinned down. We saw these rams go in There's basically nowhere for them to go, but we can't like, we're looking down little tiny shoots and it's like, we're looking between our toes and his hair. Like we started hearing the guidelines of that of the tarp, like humming.
01:01:07
Speaker
No way. Like humming. And then his hair started. Is there static electricity in like the clouds? Yes. I'll send you a video. No way. His hair started hand standing up.
01:01:20
Speaker
ah Which was like, which was pretty, it was pretty freaky. So it was actually like, it was a, it was a stormy lightning day, but we were waiting for these rams to come.
01:01:30
Speaker
And, and he was sitting there because it was so steep and he's looking and he had his panhead of his, of his, of my tripod with the the brand new Leica 82 Talbot APO sitting on it, waiting for these rams to pop out. And he saw just like one little body move in between the cliffs. And he goes and pulls his binos up, pulls his binos up.
01:01:52
Speaker
of course his binos hit the pan head of the fluid head and pan handle the fluid head.
01:02:03
Speaker
And his like his look, it looked like he had just like,
01:02:10
Speaker
uh like he just ran over your dog i would say pretty equivalent probably more than a dog he was like he comes back and was checking on this other spot and uh he's like he just shook his head i'm like what's up he's like spotter's gone like it's gone like god And he tells me a story and we couldn't get to it. Like it was 500 feet straight down and it was like this big nasty thing. And we were just, uh, he has a, he had, he had like maybe an eight or 10 week old daughter, couple months old. And I've got like a son who's two now who's under two.
01:02:53
Speaker
we were just like, man, would be such a bad story to die trying to recover like a spotting scope and a tripod, even though it was like a really nice spotting scope and a really nice tripod. A phenomenal tripod. I mean, tripod probably made me cry more than the spotting scope.
01:03:06
Speaker
Yeah. It's probably still there. We could like send somebody, send somebody a pin or it'll end up in a flushing down to her send some climbers in there to repel down and and recover. So I got it. Yeah. I got a text from Cody, Rich and Sam was like, Hey man,
01:03:19
Speaker
Sam threw Adam Foss's tricer BC off a cliff. Can you help me out? yeah So I ended up getting you another tripod set up and I ended up getting Sam a tripod set up out of that too. So Sam did good. So he threw yourself, he threw your tripod off a cliff and I'm getting the tripod out of the deal. So yeah, good for Sam. Thanks for doing that.
01:03:35
Speaker
We call my brother on the way home. He's like a, you know, sheep on our guy as much as the next guy. And, uh, and, and Sam goes,
01:03:46
Speaker
F lost his spotting scope. And he cam goes, he's like pretty dry, sarcastic, funny guy. People that know him. Uh, he goes, oh you guys are going lightweight. Just like three of the spottings go off, hiked out.
01:04:02
Speaker
Ultra light. Yeah. what What a fun podcast, Adam. Um, Adam, if people want to check out some of your art, I mean, I want, I guess I'll call it art, your photography and stuff you do. Where will we find you at?
01:04:13
Speaker
Yeah, thanks. If you want to call it art, that's great. I appreciate that. I do i think it's art. I think what you do is incredible. You're one of the best photographers, especially like when it comes to mountain hunting, Adam Foss is synonymous with this incredible photography.
01:04:25
Speaker
um You're the guy, you're the dude. You're the dude that Yeti goes you're the dude that Sikka goes to. i mean, you you're the dude, man. So where can we find you? Well, thank you.
Adam Foss's Online Presence and Conservation Efforts
01:04:35
Speaker
Yeah, I'm probably like most active on Instagram, which is just my last name, FOSS, so it's Fossman8. And then, know, a lot of the different brands that we work with, you might see some of our work percolating out through what they're doing. Our our production company is called Foss Media. So maybe you'll see some films or commercial projects that we're working on through those channels.
01:04:56
Speaker
But I don't know, this time year, I'm trying to like, I'm like trying to stay off the internet. I just try to go out, be out there, enjoy it, come back. ah got like,
01:05:08
Speaker
16,000 photos dead or something like that from this last trip and then go back out again. geez. Yeah. Try and stay away from that stuff a little bit, but no, it's cool. And it's sweet. I mean, it's the hunting industry is fantastic. The conservation arm of, of, of what hunting is, is, is a beautiful thing. And so, you know, the internet and things like social media do help connect all of us and see what everyone's up to and everyone's working on.
01:05:34
Speaker
So yeah, that's, that's where I might be. And yeah, I appreciate you having me on. It's fun. Awesome. Awesome. did I'm sure I'll see we be it Will you be at sheep show? I haven't missed it. Yeah, I'll be there.
01:05:45
Speaker
so I'll see you at sheep show. Oh, Booth. Yeah. We got, we have shot and sheep the same week. So I'm going to spend like half a week. I get, I go to Mexico, come back on Sunday from Mexico deer hunting, fly straight to shot. And then from shot, i'm going to jump up to sheep and Reno and do sheep. So do both of them.
01:06:01
Speaker
Cool. Yeah. I'll see there. is kind of my people, right? Like I like shot, but she's kind of like, I like sheep, man. Cause you never know if the guy you're talking to has a hundred million dollars in the bank or $10 in the bank. It's just bunch of dudes who love hunting.
01:06:12
Speaker
Sheep shows just, yeah it's it's probably my favorite show of the year. It's a good show to be at for sure. If you're going to to one. It's yeah, it's, I haven't missed it in a long time and don't plan on missing it. It's a really good one. Awesome. All right. Adam Foss, you're the man, dude. Thanks coming on.
01:06:27
Speaker
I'm just a guy. Thanks. Thanks for having me.