Nepal
October 2023
Hunters - Myself and my brother
Hunt Area – Dhorpatan hunting reserve, Dogadi block
Safari Operator – Himalayan Safaris
Agent – The Hunting Consortium
Travel Agent – Kathi Klimes in house via the Hunting Consortium

My brother and I booked a hunt in Nepal. Checked with several booking agents and The Hunting Consortium could get us in a year sooner than the other agents so we went with them. Very satisfied with their service.

Exective summary: For those who don’t want to read the long version. We had a great hunt and killed 2 nice blue sheep. You better be in good hiking shape for this hunt. Spent a few days in Chitwan national park afterwards due to finishing early.

The long version:
We flew Turkish airlines via Istanbul. On arrival Mahesh, the owner of the safari company, met us and helped us get through customs. The guns end up in airport jail and you have to get a government official to sign off, even though paperwork had all been done ahead of time. The government official ended up being out sick and it took 2 days longer than expected to get the guns back in hand. An additional day was lost waiting on weather to clear to have a safe flight in the helicopter to get to Dhorpatan. We stayed at the Yak and Yeti hotel which was very nice with friendly staff and had the best continental breakfast I have ever seen.







Finally we made it to Dhorpatan and were met by the porters and guides. It was about a 3 hour hike to camp, which was situated at a small village, through the forest of rhododendron, oaks and sycamores. This camp was at about 10,500 feet. Normally one would spend a second night at this camp and day hike to a pass and back to help acclimatize, but having lost 3 days already we packed up and headed out the next day. It was a long line of about 15 porters, 6 mules, 2 government game scouts, and Mahesh (the safari operator).







The next day we hiked through a 13,000 foot pass and then along the Seng River to camp 2. This took about 8 hours at a moderate to slow pace. We started seeing herds of blue sheep ewes, lambs and young rams about 1 hour before getting to camp. I think they deliberately take the hiking quite slow so that they can assess your fitness level and also not tire you out and save your legs for the days you are hunting. At this camp I found some snares, which are set up by local herders in the summer, to catch sparrows to eat. Generally, the next day would be a fairly short trek to hunting camp which is at about 14,500 feet on the other side of a 15,000 foot pass. With the days we lost however, and with both of us in strong hiking shape and showing no signs of altitude sickness, Mahesh asked if we just wanted to get up really early and start hunting while the porters and he moved camp. Of course we said yes, and it was an early morning with a hike to the 15,000 foot pass starting at 4AM in the dark.









At this point we split up with my brother going one direction down a ridge, and myself going up a ridge. At lunchtime I was sitting on top of the ridgeline at 16,500 feet (I texted my wife with an In Reach so that I could see my position on a Topo Map when I got home). At this point I was feeling the altitude with a headache and some nausea. From here we spotted a group of rams with what looked like a shooter about ¾ of a mile away across a big basin. We stalked up the ridge and around the basin to a knob overlooking the sheep and waited out being socked in the clouds until visibility improved. The sheep were still there and I killed mine at under 300 yards. The altitude was just over 16,000 feet according to the InReach topo map. The pack out was impressive with the sheep only being gutted and then 2 porters trading off with the entire animal carried out in a bamboo basket with a strap on their foreheads.











I met my brother back at camp when we rolled in a little after dark. He had seen a huge bull Tahr, but no good blue sheep rams. He was feeling well with no altitude sickness, but he had seen only 15,000 feet as his max altitude for the day. I was feeling somewhat better with the headache resolved but still had nausea and ended up vomiting up dinner later that night. We had been taking Diamox, but I really wanted to hunt with my brother the next day, so I took a dose of dexamethasone and woke up feeling great. The next day we hunted up the ridge again and ended up way past where I killed my sheep when we found a big herd with 3 really nice rams. He ended up killing the best one at 300 yards at about 3PM. We were a long way from camp and had dropped quite a bit of elevation down the side of the mountain where the sheep was killed. The porters and one guide were left to pack out the ram and we went with the other guide and the park ranger with what turned out to be a plan to side hill around the drainage until we hit a trail that would lead back up to camp. Pretty soon we were in the dark and socked in with fog and hiking by headlamp. In the lights we saw eyes at about 70 yards that were obviously a predator and through binoculars both my brother and I could see the silhouette of a long-tailed cat. Awesome, we had seen a snow leopard!!





A herd we saw hiking back after killing his sheep.




Pretty soon, we could tell that they were looking for the trail but could not find it in the dark and fog. At this point we had dropped enough elevation that we were back into brush and shrubby trees. With the language barrier we could not figure out what the plan was. There was on old log and some dry brush, so we started a fire. The log ended up being too wet to get to light, but with the brush we had some big flames for a little while until we ran out of flammable standing dead brush. Luckily some of the porters from camp had been sent down the ridges to look for us and they saw the flames. We were actually only about 300 yards from the trail, but it was very faint and indistinct in this section and we had walked right over it in the dark and fog. We climbed back up what felt like about 2500-3000 vertical feet back to camp and rolled in at midnight. The guys carrying the sheep didn’t make it back until noon the next day and some of the other porters went out to meet them and help carry the load. This sheep they ended up cutting in half to carry out the longer distance.




We packed back up and dropped back into the Seng river drainage where we camped.






The next day we made it back to the village and overnighted there. The following day the weather was clear and we caught the helicopter ride back to Kathmandu.






Due to tagging out early, we had a few days extra and Mahesh set up for us to go to Chitwan National Park. We stayed at Kasara resort and spent 2 nights there, but unfortunately did not see a Tiger. It is a tough time of year to see much due to very thick grass. It sounded like you would see much more wildlife in April after the grass had fallen down and been burned in some areas.












Back in Kathmandu we had a day and toured some Buddhist and Hindu temples. After that the long flight home with a missed connection in Istanbul. No openings to Dallas the next day either so we ended up being rerouted through JFK. Luckily we had no problems with the guns, but were recommended by the US customs guy to not leave the airport with these so we slept on the floor in the terminal overnight. We had missed our Dallas connection to home and it would end up being another day, so we just rented a car and drove the 7 hours to home.

Great report! Thanks! Congratulations ! Dream hunt

Thanks for the fantastic report. I have a couple of hunting buddies wanting to do this and as much as I would like to join them and see Nepal, I think I've waited too long to tackle those kind of altitudes. Glad you guys had a great hunt, Congrats!

Absolutely fantastic trip and pics

Thanks for the report.

Hunting in Nepal is unreal.

Of all the mountain hunts I've done, I think nepal was the most memorable.

Congrats on a great hunt. Many of us envy you!. Great pictures and report. I,too am probably too old and out of shape to do this hunt... Those elevations are darn high and many can't handle them. Thanks for the fine report. Nice sheep!!
Bruce

Thanks for sharing your report and experience, what a cool trip!

Very interesting Report.
Thanks for sharing it

Incredible.

Larry,
Let's go do this hunt! I will get in shape if you will.

Thank you for sharing!!! I so badly want to do this hunt! What an epic experience!

Congratulations! I'm supposed to do this one in the spring of 2025.

quote:

Originally posted by dogcat:
Larry,
Let's go do this hunt! I will get in shape if you will.

I’d have to learn a lot more about it. I am getting too old for some of these adventures.

quote:

Originally posted by larryshores:

quote:

Originally posted by dogcat:
Larry,
Let's go do this hunt! I will get in shape if you will.

I’d have to learn a lot more about it. I am getting too old for some of these adventures.

Me too, but they have sherpas who can carry you!

awesome hunt and report. still at the top of my list!

Did this hunt 35 years ago. Worlds greatest hunting adventure!

What a great report, I really enjoyed it.

Amazing hunt that seperates the men from the boys! Congratulations.

I wish they re-opened hunting in India! What a paradise it once was. So blessed to have seen a glimpse of what it was before the window closed forever.

Thanks for all the comments everyone. It was a grand adventure.


If anyone has interest in doing this hunt and would like more information I am happy to speak with you.

Congratulations! Beautiful photos but there is no way this flat lander would make it up there.

.

Great report & pictures! Congratulations on a super hunt!


.

Fabulous report! Thanks for sharing your adventure with us! Congratulations!!!

I was booked and tried to hunt them in China about 2006 or 07 but the Gov shut it down.
The pricing is well more than double what it was but hey, everything has gone sky high.

I've tried to stay in shape but at my old(er) age, not so sure if I should give it a go.

Zeke

This is a wonderful report and a bucket list hunt. What sort of temperature regime did you experience and what were your guns and optics? Also did you take sleeping bags?

Inquiring minds are interested in your choices.

We were the first hunt of the season. We both took Zero Degree down bags and blow up mats (Therm-a-rest Neo Air for me). Mine is an old North Face Superlight and I was plenty warm. Temps were probably down to about 20F for lows and upper 40's for the highs when at the hunting elevations. I am sure it would be a bit colder on the later hunt dates.

I took a Rem 700 7mm magnum with 160gr Barnes TSX handloads. Leica Geovid 10x42's. Took a Swarovski spotter but didn't really need it. The guides had a compact spotter for trophy evaluation.

My brother took a custom built 6.5 PRC. Leica Geovid 10x42's and 15x56 Swarovski Binos.