A World Class Guide

Guide, Glenda Groat after a successful caribou hunt

The benefits of having an experienced hunting guide, especially when on a rugged sheep hunt can be too numerous to count and at times life saving. Throw in the ability to cook ingenious meals when in the backcountry and you have one of the world’s best, Glenda Groat.  Fact is having a female guide is rare thing and to be a sheep guide is very unique indeed. I soon as I heard about her,  I knew I had to feature her as a C&C inspiration. Even though I’ve never met her, she has become somewhat infamous in the hunting circles. The fact there is a “she” in the sentence combine with the grit to carry all the supplies for the hunt up to 12 days at a time, camp in the most precarious of conditions and still maintain a sunny disposition while finding you a book sheep… this is the type of guide you want on your hunts.

I asked Glenda to give us a feel for her life as a guide and some of the challenges she’s faced to-date:

“I have been guiding for the past five years, sheep for the last three and took a book stone on my first year guiding, hopefully this isn’t just beginners luck. Guiding and the mountain way of life runs in my family, my dad guided, his dad guided and outfitted and really the guiding and outfitting industry doesn’t go much past those two generations.

My mom and all my aunts cooked at some point in their lives which is the much more traditional thing for a woman to do in the bush. I started out cooking for Yukon Stone Outfitters in 2005, but I think I spent more time out hunting with the guides and trailing horses all over that beautiful country than I did in the kitchen. I was lucky to hunt with some tremendous guides and learnt a lot in the two years I spent in the “kitchen”, by the fall of 2006 they turned me loose with my first moose hunter! Needless to say I never went back to the kitchen…

In 2010 I decided to change scenery and lucked out getting on with Stan Stevens and Mackenzie Mountain Outfitters in the North West Territories where the game is absolutely phenomenal, both with numbers and quality.  I could hardly believe how many sheep I saw on my first hunt with Stan.  Stan has strictly backpack hunts, which was a little different from the horse hunts I was used to but  he did offer his son’s pack dog to help me out with some of the weight. That pack dog, Obey and I now come as a package. I’m sure his son misses his dog a little though! I have seen and had the chance to hunt some beautiful animals in the Mackenzie Mountains and plan on going back for more. In the spring, I also guide bear hunts a little closer to home in B.C. with Wicked River Outfitters.

Glenda with another successful hunt under her belt...

 “The thing I like the best about guiding the hunt, is pushing yourself to your absolute physical and emotional (at times) limits. When you are looking up at a sheep it can seem almost insurmountable for some. I have taken out clients of all different abilities from a guy I am sure could have run a marathon to a 73-year-old bank owner, and everyone is driven to do more than they thought they could. People prepare for a sheep hunt but there is no way to actually prepare for the entirety of what they are going to face” 

C&C: What are some of the biggest daily challenges when you are guiding?

 “One of the biggest challenges for me is food, when you are working as hard as you do everyday your body needs more than what you give it, you crave the stuff your body needs. A couple of years ago I hunted sheep with one hunter for 21 days! Pushing ourselves everyday and at the end of the 21 days, when we saw base camp again I ate two pork chops along with that fatty rind off of everyone else’s pork chop, I don’t think the dogs were too happy that night! I could never ever sit down and eat a plate of fat under normal circumstances, not only for the mental aspect of being a girl and worrying about my girlish figure but the fact that I cut well around the fat on my steaks on a normal day cause I just don’t like it.

On a day backpacking hunting we would eat a package of instant oatmeal for breakfast a granola bar and a small can of some type of fish for lunch and a package of mountain house for dinner. Then there is what we call hungry days, I am sure you can imagine how much that consist of. Some days you find your self sitting there dreaming of food, or talking about all the things you really want to eat right now, when you are walking to camp talking about what you and your hunter will eat and rationing out for how many days you might have. That is for sure my biggest obstacle is mentally feeling like you’re starving some days even when you have food”

 C&C: What is some of your most memorable moments when hunting?

“Probably one of my most memorable sheep hunts was with an older gentlemen who couldn’t get around that well and had very poor balance which made maneuvering on the rocks and steep side hills very difficult. We got up very early and got up the mountain and set up in a place were I thought the rams would feed towards us later in the day, I had seen the rams from a long ways away and knew there were two nice rams but I had no clue as to just how big the one was. So we were set up and the rams were feeding towards us, I put my spotting scope on to age them and see just which one we wanted for sure. I looked through my spotting scope and the adrenaline started to pump, I had a book stone in my guiding career and I felt this ram was pushing the magic 170” mark of a book Dall! But of course it wasn’t just that easy, the rams bedded down 500 yrds from us at about 9am so there we sat watching and waiting not able to get closer, hoping they would get up again. We sat there watching this amazing animal for seven hours, the choice between the three rams had been so easy I never took my eyes off the lead ram. After what seemed like forever they got up again and continued their pattern feeding towards us. Yes! the count down was on, my hunter had a good rest and we just sat and watched  400 yrds… 300 yrds… 200 yrds. At 200 yrds they were in range, I described the positioning of each ram as they were all broad side feeding, the ram at the front was a young banana horn, the second ram was good ram and the last ram in line was the old twister, the last ram in line. 1,2,3 the third ram was the ram we wanted, so whenever he was ready they were now at  209 yrds. I had my spotting scope on 60 power zoomed in on our ram waiting for the hit. Boom! The ram jumped and ran around to stand above the other rams looking out to figure out what had happen, ” You missed!” I said. “He ran around and is standing at the top” I ranged again 214 yards. My hunter said “No I hit him he is still standing there”. No, no he hadn’t hit him,  I was zoomed in on him and saw nothing and he was sure he hit him. As I looked through my spotting scope again I zoomed it out I could now see the big ram in my field of view along with the second biggest ram standing there with blood on his snow-white cape. My heart sunk, it took one more shot to put that ram down and the big boy shuttled away up the mountain. I had a hard time hiding my disappointment as we walked down to his trophy, he was very pleased to have gotten a ram after the “torture” he had endured but I kept looking up to see the other ram standing above us watching us walk up to his buddy. The ram we had taken measured 38″ with 14 1/4″ bases, for anyone who has hunted Dall sheep they know this is a very nice ram, but for me it was the one who dwarfed him still standing on the mountain that I will never forget. I learned a lot on that hunt, I think you always learn more from the ones that don’t quite go according to plan than the hunts where everything goes your way, and it is those big ones left standing on the mountain that keeps all of us bitten by the sheep hunting bug.  Pushing ourselves in pursuit of the next big thing.”

Another great hunt! Thanks to Glenda for all her stories.

Wow, I’d like to thank Glenda for taking the time to show us a sliver of her world. I know I would love to book a hunt with her! You can find Glenda through Stan Stevens Mackenzie Mountain Outfitters, or bear hunting at Wicked River Outfitters. And any companies looking for a Pro-Staffer, I know Glenda would be a vibrant addition to anyone’s team.