How To Prepare For Your First Mountain Hunt In 6 Easy Steps

Planning for your first hunting trip in the mountains? Here’s how to make sure you are well-prepared.

If you have never been mountain hunting before, it’s important that you don’t underestimate what it’s about. You will be at high altitudes, in cold temperatures, and will have to climb using a ton of energy, every day you are out there.

If this is your first ever mountain hunt, then listen up. Here are the things you need to know about if you are going out into the wilderness.

6 Easy Steps to Prepare for your First Mountain Hunt

Before you rush off on your first mountain hunting adventure, use these 6 simple steps to prepare yourself.

1 – Get your Mind Right

When you go mountain hunting, you are going to have to walk a lot, at elevation, and in the cold weather. The higher you go, the colder it will get. You will be exposed to the elements, you will be exhausted, and if anything goes wrong, you will have to hike all the way back to base camp and start anew.

If you are not psychologically prepared to be uncomfortable, cold, wet, miserable, and in pain, then you probably shouldn’t go hunting in the mountains. Psychological preparation is key hereⁱ. It might not hurt to spend a few tester nights outside closer to home, without comforts like a fire or a hot meal.

2 – Get your Body Right

To hunt in the mountains at any time of year, you need to be physically fit enough to take on that challenge. It’s going to involve a lot of walking, miles, and miles of it, often upwards. If your feet, legs, and body can’t keep up with the demands of this, you are going to be in physical pain that might negate your ability to pull back that bowstring when the time comes.

Physical fitness training is key here, as is practice with your weaponry. You need to be able to last the distance, and that means focusing on endurance training.

3 – Get the Right Gear

What should your hunting plan include? Clothing, gear, and equipment are the three things that you need most. Mountains are notoriously cold, even in high summer, so you need enough layers of clothing to keep your body temperature up at all times. This means layering up your fabrics, relying on wool, and not forgetting that crucial waterproof layer on the outside.

Get the right gear for your mountainside and your trip will be so much easier.

4 – Invest in Camp

Your base camp should be as comfortable as possible. Admittedly, you are likely to end up tracking prey for miles and miles away from it, but you need that warmth and cosines when you return from the wilderness. Investing in good camping equipment and doubling up on things you might lose, or break can really life your spirits.

You might not always be able to light a fire, so cooking equipment is necessary. You should have plenty of warm bedding to nest up in, and enough heat that you don’t freeze in the night.

5 – Do your Research

Even the best GPS system is going to run out of batteries at some point. You need to know the are you are hunting in at least enough that you can get yourself out of it, should the worst happen. Research the rivers and streams, learn where you could get fresh water if you needed it, and which areas hunters usually avoid and whyⁱⁱ.

6 – Always Buddy Up

Going out into the wilderness on any kind of hunt requires safety precautions. We would always advise you to tell someone when you expect to be back, for example, so that you avoid being lost out there. Downloading a useful app called “What3Words” can help in an emergency so that people know where you are.

But when you are going into the mountains hunting for the first time, going alone is pure folly. Anything could happen. You are in unfamiliar terrain with loaded weaponry and the potential for mistakes to happen is vast. Buddy up and be safe out there, it’s just good common sense.

i https://www.outdoorlife.com/blogs/game-changers/hunting-skills-3-ways-mentally-prepare-yourself-mountain-hunt/

ii https://www.outdoorfederation.com/tips-prepare-mountain-hunting/