The Bighorn Sheep, Lord of the High Mountains
This mountain climber, a symbol of the Rocky Mountains, lives at high altitudes, usually on inaccessible ridges. The Indians of the Yellowstone region were once its heaviest predator. Though reduced in number now and restricted to a much narrower range, bighorn sheep nonetheless prosper in their high mountain habitat. The rams usually live alone. They join the herd during the rutting season, in December, when they clash in fierce butting contests, but by January they retake their solitary heights. long as the snow is no more than a foot and a half deep and the temperature stays above -20° F, a pack string can still travel. Above: In Alberta in October.
Writer and filmmaker Alain Rastoin accompanied us on our first big expeditions. Knowing how to ride a horse or drive a dogsled is not enough to make someone a good team member. An expedition also needs people who are good organizers and fundraisers, and Alain was highly capable in these areas.
Advancing with twelve horses along a six-foot ledge on an exposed mountainside requires enormous care. One niglit we almost found ourselves stopped here at an altitude often thousand feet by a blizzard.
Mountains are to the rest of the body of the earth, what violent muscular action is to the body of man.
