I’m on a hunt to shoot a mountain lion… of course not with a gun, but with my camera. I’m on assignment for KSL Outdoors to get video of these elusive predator cats, when I get the call one morning to head to the Uinta Mountains where local houndsmen spotted fresh tracks in the snow. I immediately grab my video and SLR cameras, and bust up to the high-country (specific location will remain secret.)
Upon arriving, the hounds are already off leash and howling to get moving. My guide, Nick Liefting, speeds us up a private, snow-covered road to where the fresh tracks were found. As soon as we stop, the dogs pick up the scent and bound up the mountainside, barking with glee as they go on the hunt. Using a GPS, Nick tracks his dogs and we hike up after them into rough terrain. Post-holing in thigh-deep snow, we reach the top of a mountain lousy with rock outcroppings – the perfect place for cougars to den.
But the dogs have lost the scent. We hike on a few more yards, bushwhacking and cursing the snow, when the dog’s cries echo off the pines. They found the cat and are off once again. Nick and I climb to a ledge where we can get a better view, when my eyes fall on… something. Focusing closer, I see a set of eyes staring back at me from the bushes on the edge of the rocks. It’s a kitten! I tell Nick there’s a cat right in front of him and he curses out loud. In all his years of tracking cougars, he’s never seen a kitten before.
Nick is nervous though, because a mama cat won’t stray far from her babies, and our only protection from mountain lions are the dogs… which are about a mile away by now. Although we’re spooked, we stay firmly in place, mesmerized by the wildlife hissing a mere 5 yards away. The furry little guy shivers in fear as it tries to slink away from us. I quickly shoot video of it, and snap off a quick picture with my iPhone before it jumps off the ledge and disappears into the aspen trees.
Elated by the encounter, we feel that our luck has run out with this one sighting. Finding a full-grown cougar would just be a bonus. The dogs are still chasing something, and finally stop on the next mountain north of our location. We quickly slide down the snow-covered aspect back to the snow machine and drive to the next drainage as close to the GPS signal as we can get. As soon as Nick cuts off the motor, we can hear the dogs barking up a storm in the evergreens.
Nick’s brother, Todd, joins us and we begin hiking up the mountain. But the terrain gets very steep, so Nick stays back as he’s carrying his 2-year-old daughter. Alone with Todd, I grasp at scrub oak to keep my footing on the slippery slope. We post-hole through wet snow, climb on all fours over drifts, and scramble on red rock ledges and rock outcroppings. Finally, we reach the dogs that are both at the base of a large tree… but there’s absolutely nothing in it.
I’m disappointed and resign myself to just capturing the kitten on camera. But Todd thinks the cougar jumped out of the tree without the dogs noticing, so we keep hiking. The mountain get even steeper and the sky is getting dark. Just before we get to the top and call it quits, the hounds howl and run away with renewed energy. We follow, traversing the slope through tangled brush and tree branches. As soon as we exit the leafless jungle, Todd sees her – a giant mountain lion high up a pine tree.
I climb further up the mountain until I’m eye to eye with massive feline. The cat is nestled into the branches, seemingly content to stay there, high above the dogs. She’s almost serene, but her mood is given away by the low growl coming from her with every released breath, loud enough to hear over the constant dog barking from the trunk below. I slowly withdraw my SLR, and her eyes shoot over, locking with mine. She tenses up, unsure of what I’m about to do next. As I take a few frames, her eyes practically glow, like she would love to jump down and sink her teeth into my neck. Todd moves to adjust his stance, and she hisses, her face becoming a primal scowl that sends a chill down my spine. I feel that if the dogs suddenly weren’t with us, we’d be dead men in an instant.
As the sun goes down and the light becomes too faint for good photos, I pack up and take one last look at the lion. She continues to stare unrelentingly, as if to dare us to climb up there with her. Todd grabs the dogs and pulls them away and as I head down slope, I look back one last time at the tree. I don’t see the cat. Maybe she already jumped out, or maybe she crawled further into the thick branches. Either way, I move fast with the thought that a giant cat stalks the darkness behind me.
To watch the story, tune into KSL Outdoors on Saturday, March 1st at 6:30pm on KSL 5.
Awesome! What a score, on your first try, too.
Totally! My co-worker, Adam, has been on something like 9 hunts and only got photos of 2 cats over the years. The fact that I got a cougar and a kitten on the first try is pure, dumb luck.
No fooling! I was thinking you were pretty lucky, and smart enough to not extrapolate that to luck in avalanche zones. Sorta nullifies the dumb part, huh? 🙂