Cleared Hot - Powered By BRCC - Cleared Hot Episode 24 - An Adventure In France

Episode Date: December 19, 2017

After arguably the worst travel experience I have had in ten years, I was able to link up with John Dudley, and THE Hunter Phelps in the mountains of France. Our target was the Chamois, a species of the goat-antelope family. The terrain was spectacular, the animals were elusive and alert, and at the end of the trip, we headed home empty handed. The experience gained, and the lessons learned, for me, made the trip a highlight of my year. Round two is already in the planning stages.

We're back, or I guess I should say I'm back since I'm the only one sitting in this room. But two in a row, today's episode is not only with one guest, I think this is actually the first time that I've had two guests. So the first guest, if you guys and guys, and gals, is the one and only John Dudley. I've done a few podcasts with him in the past. And if you know anything about this year for me, you know that I, I would be the best way to describe it. I would say I put my toes into the bow hunting kitty pool, but I think what I really did was a cannonball into the deep end.

And the only reason that I've had any success doing that is because of John and the coaching and teaching that he has given to me. And the trip that we just did, you guys will hear us talking about, is absolutely no different. So we went to France. We were supposed to go to an area of France that was near Grenoble. but just like when I look outside of my window right now, there are these little white things fallen from the sky.

And if you get enough of those stacked on top of each other, it makes things hard to move. So apparently where we were supposed to go receive somewhere between three to five feet of snow. And the trip we originally had packed for was us taking our backpacks and hiking up into the mountains. I believe it was about a four-hour hike. And it was going to be a,

a hunting cabin with beds and the ability to cook food, but no power, very detached. I was actually really looking forward to being in that environment, but the weather changed for us, and we weren't able to do that. So the guy that we had, Philip, who was absolutely amazing, and I'll actually put his contact information up in the link in the podcast, he apparently just audibled and was able to find another area much farther from Grenoble. I believe the drive was probably two and a half hours past Grenoble. But it was unbelievable.

You know, talk about some terrain that was challenging. It was vertical. Watching, I mean, I probably fell down. God don't know. I fell down at least 50 times. At least 50 of them were hilarious as well. Sliding all over the place. I ripped the pants, the butt on my pants, going downhill,

slightly out of control. Dealing with frozen leaves. and moisture and climbing from below the snow line to above the snow line. I won't get too much into all that because I think we talked about it on the podcast, but it was the trip itself was unbelievable. But I tell you what wasn't unbelievable. The travel out there. So what I need from somebody who knows something about the airlines,

because I haven't really started my adventure in dealing with their customer service yet, is what's the best way to go about? actually getting reimbursed for when they completely utterly screw you over, not because of weather and not because of anything other than, you know, I don't actually even know the word to describe it. So here, I'll tell you a little bit of a tale about how I even got to France. And I actually am very proud of myself that I didn't choke anybody to death with my own hands. And I actually, I did the best that I could to constantly sit back and just realize that the person I'm dealing with wasn't responsible for the problem at hand. I actually started every conversation with,

you know, I'm sorry, I'm very frustrated right now. I know that it's not your fault. I'm just trying to figure out a way to work through this issue. And I think that actually helped because I'm sure if I had talked to somebody at whatever call station they were at and began screaming, probably wouldn't have gotten very far down the road. So my journey to France began in Austin, Texas. And if you listen to episode 23 that was with my buddy John Wellborn. I was down there. I was the opening speaker for here's power athlete symposium. If you don't know what the power athlete program is or you've never heard of the symposium, I'm sure he will, well, I know he's going to continue the power athlete program and I'm sure he'll continue the power athlete symposium into 2018. Highly

recommend you check them both out. So it's down there in Austin. The day I was supposed to fly out, there was weather in Atlanta. It was apparently snowing quite heavily and I fly Delta a couple years ago. I just made the decision that I fly so much. I'm just going to pick one airline and try to get as many of the perks of travel as possible. And for people who view travel from the outside, it can probably seem to be very luxurious. But if you travel professionally and it's part of your job, I can only speak for myself. I find it to be the exact opposite of that. And most people that I encounter who travel professionally feel the same way. It loses its luster, probably because of the small issues that become big ones like I'm about to tell you about. So I'm in Atlanta. I'm not in Atlanta. My flight's supposed to connect into

Atlanta, then fly to London and then fly to Geneva, Switzerland, which is where we're going to clear customs and then drive down to Grenoble, a couple hour drive. And our guide was going to pick us up. It should have been seamless. Pick up your bags, meet the guide, and off and run. And off and running. That's pretty much not what happened. Sorry for the head cold. Also, in addition to the trip to France, I came back with, I don't know, some gunk in my head.

I'm fighting it. I can hear it in my voice. Hopefully it doesn't sound too bad to you guys. Get a text message about an hour before I go up and deliver my presentation. Hey, your flight's canceled. So I looked at that text and thought in my head. That's not very awesome. the cool thing about traveling often is that there's a dedicated customer service line for the medallion

members on Delta. So I got rebooked and the only change really was that instead of flying through Atlanta, I was going to fly through Minneapolis, St. Paul. Didn't actually change anything. My arrival time was actually going to be an hour earlier into Geneva than it was through Atlanta, which was a benefit because John was already in. Switzerland with Hunter doing some, or they were on their way to be there, doing some filming at the Olympic archery center in Switzerland. So I make my flight in Austin and I'm sitting there,

then I had gotten upgraded to first class, actually the very first row, and come to find out they did that because they knew that our connection was going to be tight in Minneapolis. So I had the opportunity to sit and listen to the conversation between the stewardess on our flight and the steward or stewardess, a crew of a flight crew of male and female steward and stewardesses was sitting on the airplane. Delta was trying to move one of their flight crews somewhere else. And there was, I wouldn't call it an argument, but it was a discussion about how to do that because the flight was oversold. And I'm sitting here on the Delta app, just refreshing it, watching our scheduled arrival time into Minneapolis and our scheduled departure time

from Minneapolis slowly inch themselves closer and closer and closer and closer and then finally they eclipse so we would land shortly after the international flight that I was supposed to be on and of course on international flights you're going to get generally one a day they're usually at the end of the day meaning if you miss it you're going to be twiddling your thumbs for probably close to 24 hours I'm looking at those times and there's no way we're going to make it and the flight crew got off They came back on. They took volunteers for passengers to get back on. It was an absolute complete and utter mess that had nothing to do with weather

and had everything to do with them logistically trying to pull their head out of their ass, which terminated us landing in Minneapolis as the plane to London was taxing. So they recommend that I go see a red coat, which my understanding is an agent for Delta Airlines that, I don't know, has more experience. I don't necessarily understand what the difference is. All I know is that they pointed me at one of those individuals. I said, hey, if you don't need anything out of your bags, I recommend that you leave your bags here at the airport.

We'll rebook you on the flight out of here tomorrow. So get yourself a hotel. And, yeah, we'll see you tomorrow. So that's what I did. I took the advice of the red coat, and I went and found a hotel because the line to talk to the agent to get a hotel was I don't even know how deep it was I didn't I didn't even feel like counting it was that deep so one got a hotel problem is I'm looking at

the Delta app and I wasn't rebooked on a flight so I spent about four hours trying to get myself rebooked which I eventually did got back to the airport the next day and they had changed the route of flight they I was supposed to fly from like I said Minneapolis to London London to Geneva I was happy with that flight leg because the worst experiences I've ever had flying internationally have occurred at Charles de Gaulle airport in France. I try to avoid that airport. I would rather saw my leg off without anesthesia than fly through Charles de Gaul. Nothing against France, everything against that airport. It's not that I want anything bad to happen. I just wanted to burn to the ground. But I digress.

my new flight, Minneapolis, Charles de Gaulle, Charles de Gaul to Switzerland, into Geneva. So then I started thinking in my head, my bags are still labeled Minneapolis, London, London to Geneva. And I started talking with the gate agent about that, ended up getting onto the aircraft and talked to one of the stewardesses. She gave my bag tags to the pilot. This dude was awesome. He was born in Austria or lived in Austria, had hunted himself, knew the area that we were going to. He took my bag tags, got out of the plane, went down, and made sure that all three of them got loaded. I couldn't have been happier.

I literally felt like, ooh, man, this trip is going to be okay. I'm already going to be 24 hours delayed, but I'm going to get there. And then in that moment, I realized, well, actually, how am I going to get there? Because the guy that had already picked up, John and Hunter, but I think, you know what, I'll worry about that issue later. Maybe it's not that far away. They can swing back and come pick me up. So I landed in Charles de Gaulle, two and a half three hour delay, or not delay, two and a half three hour layover, which should be more than enough time at any airport on the face of the planet, regardless of how busy you are, to get from one plane to another. I actually cleared customs pretty quickly, faster than I ever have there, waited around, got on my Air France flight from Charles de Gaul to Geneva.

landed in Geneva, it's feeling awesome. For one, I love Switzerland. I go base jumping there, or I try to go base jumping there every single year. It's one of my favorite countries on the face of the planet. It's beautiful. I find the people to be exceptionally nice. So I was fired up.

And I get there, and we're sitting around the luggage conveyor, and everybody from the flight is sitting there, and they're happy, and then the bags start coming out, and I'm pretty happy. And then more bags start coming out, and then I'm a little bit less happy. And then all the bags came out, and I'm not. really happy anymore because my bags didn't make it. So at this point, another adventure begins because I have to go deal with a baggage company or a baggage location company that services

five airlines that fly into Geneva, none of which are Delta, which is the company that I booked my ticket with. They flipped me over to Air France, which is one of their code share partners. Needless to say, the sweater was getting a little bit unraveled at this point. We start playing the game of, hey, here's my luggage tags. Nobody can find them. The last thing they can locate is that they actually arrived in Charles de Gaul airport, and apparently there's a black hole slash vortex there that the bags went into, and in 2017, they don't have a scanning device that can actually tell you who has possession of your bag. So about six hours, they tried to figure out where the bags were. At this time, I'm supposed to have already been on the way

down towards where John and Hunter are, and it gets to the point where they locate the the bags, but they're not going to make it for at least another 24 hours. So now I've got to go get a hotel. So that's not that's not that big of a deal. You know, whip open the old Google machine on the phone, find a hotel or nearby, go get a hotel. Finally, the next day and around midday, shortly after midday, my bow shows up on one flight, my two other bags show up on another one. I finally have all of my stuff. I'm not two and a half days delayed of when I should be hunting. Hunter and John are out in the mountains, and I'm just praying that they don't see any animals and that there's an avalanche, and I don't want them to get hurt, but I just kind of want to be

there when all the awesome stuff goes down. And to come to find out, it was like sleeting rain on them and snow, and they could barely move around. So it was everything that I had wished for for Christmas. But now I have to get there, so I've got to go to Hertz. You know, like the hotel in Minneapolis, the hotel in Switzerland, the Ronald car, all unexpected. expenses due to the fact that the airline was unable to get, one, me to the location I needed to get to, not because of weather, but two, they weren't able to link my bags up with me and sequentially keep it with me on my travel. And this is where I have a question for anybody who's familiar with the airline industry. And that is, what's the best way to go after these people to get that stuff back?

Because I eventually was able to link up with them. And it was an amazing hunting experience. again something totally different something i've never had the experience doing with my bow in terrain that was vastly varied from everything i've ever hunted in so i think even though we weren't able to i got one shot in two and a half days and missed it by a couple inches but i'm i think the hunt was incredibly successful just because of the knowledge but there's a lot of a lot of broken pieces along the way that got me there so how do you go and get reimbursed for all that stuff because my experience with the airlines is the first step is they want to tell you it's not their fault which is if you know anything about me that's really one way to upset me quickly is to run away from accountability and

responsibility as opposed to face it it's not like i'm asking him to buy me a bugatti it's just like hey i'd like for you to reimburse me for the cost that were not associated with this trip and uh yeah if anybody has experience with that, hit me up. I'll obviously post this on Twitter and Instagram and all the social media channels. If you have an avenue or an approach that has worked for you, I'm all years because I was going to call me yesterday, but I woke up to the news that the Atlanta Hartsfield Airport, which is where Delta is hubbed, lost power and like 1,100 flights were canceled just that day. And I called the customer service line and got the recorded message. Your average wait time will be four and a half hours. And that was, that was the attempt that I made

yesterday. But I am going to attempt to get paid back the money that they owe me for sure. So yeah, hit me up. Let me know. And, yeah, that's the end of my sob story. It was very, I don't know what it was. It was frustrating. But I actually did better than, better than I have done in the past. I have lost my cool with people in that situation before, and I've actually felt bad about it. I still feel bad about it. So I did a better job of trying to take a breath and just realize, you know what, the person I'm talking to, they're not at fault, they're a person too. Let's just work our way through this. So hopefully by not pissing off or yelling at people who had nothing to do with it, I bought myself a little bit of good karma, but we'll see. So I'll let you know

how it goes when I get the final result. But until then, Here is episode 24. We had an adventure in France. And I just want to introduce to the world a young man named Hunter Phelps who, damn, he's interesting. And I think John and I are going to make it our mission to mold him like clay into an indestructible man. So it's not even Hunter Phelps anymore. I think it's the Hunter Phelps. And here he is, episode 24.

Okay, got the red smoke. To the smoke, I'm looking at danger close now. I'm all right, baby. Give it to me. I need it. You're cleared hot. You want to kick us off, Hunter? Kick it off.

Hunter Phelps on the radio show podcast with Andy Stump and John Dudley. Let's get it going. Where do we start? It's stump. Not stump. Yep. And it's not the radio. It's the internet.

Podcast. And we are live with Joe Dirt, folks. Annie and I couldn't be more excited that he's here in the office. All I have are questions about everything from your life choices to this week. But we got to talk about this week first. So where are we, Hunter Phelps? We're in France. Where in France?

Somewhere in France. I could be hurt and not know where to describe where I am to my parents. Like, I'm done, Mom. Dad, don't come look for me because I don't know where I am. Well, I don't even want to know what we could possibly nickname Hunter after this trip. White knuckler, a green puker. It's been an adventure. Yep, to say the least.

It has been. I've learned a lot. Okay, what's one thing you've learned? I learned how to dry clothes properly. Step one. You actually haven't. Your boots are still wet from the first day. Two, I learned not to start drinking with Andy Stumpf.

I spent two days on the side of the mountain puking my guts up. Worst night, I was ready to come home after day two. But that went away and all's good. We're still here hunting shamies for one more day. Yep. It's been awesome. I have more awesome for you guys than me. Yeah, man, we got to enjoy two days of chaos while you enjoyed two days of chaos on your own.

I think I got here at the perfect time, though. The weather, it was bluebird the first day I was here. Today was glorious, not a drop of rain. I haven't looked at the forecast for tomorrow, but you want to talk about some different hunting. Yeah, this has been exactly what I wanted. Have you ever done any hunting like this? Or is there hunting to do like this in the U.S.? Oh, yeah, yeah, for sure.

We should actually describe what it is we're hunting for. So we're in the French Alps. Southern French Alps. Southern French Alps? All right, we got a thumbs up from the local guide. Philippe. Annie and I wouldn't be able to tell our moms where are we? All I know the closest town we're at is Grenoble.

And then we're southeast of that by at least an hour. I think we're three hours from Grenoble Okay, yeah We got the nod We're three hours from Renovable So actually none of us know where we are So we're an hour from Grenoble, it's fine Yep, we're hunting this small little mountain

South Alps We're hunting a small little mountain goat Small is an understatement Yeah, it's stinky But it's called a chamois And lives in just some fierce terrain That's where it survived and thrives. There's wolves here, crazy wild hogs, obviously some hunters and these things have

learned to find a place on the literally the toughest train this country offers to survive. And we're having to give it everything we got to get there, which is what I want. I really wanted it. And actually, I know that if you want to make this hunt, which is a really challenging hunt, If you want to push it to the number 10 on the dial, you come during the, you come during the rut, which is in the wintertime. And then if all of a sudden you throw Mother Nature in there, then at that point, it's going to take, it's probably going to break you. I mean, day one, when you're in the airport stuck, we had a foot of, we had, well, we had at least a foot. of snow. With sleet, you're trying to get up to super high altitude on roads that are sketchy enough

as it is. Yep. And we'll get back to that. And then we drove up, got in there, and then literally by the end of the first day that Hunter and I were here, Annie was still waiting on bags, started raining. The snow change over to rain. So we started hunting in freezing temperature. every single piece of clothing we could fit on to then we're just getting drenched on and it's still cold it was so nasty that I couldn't even get out the camera equipment yeah showcase any of that yeah to do anything yeah and to give a little context of that everybody's wearing what I would say there's a couple brands being worn but it's at the the higher end of what's available yeah and if that's not doing the job to keep you dry and to keep you

you warm it's it's for real yeah there's just certain things you can't when you're when you're wicking like when it's raining so hard that rains just coming down your neck you know it just wicks through you and you got to have everything's got to be right and um equipment was a tough pick just for one condition i had an i had a tough enough time figuring out what i could fit in one backpack for a hike in that would help me be camouflage the way I needed to, and then I guess to survive the elements the way that I wanted to, what would fit in a backpack with snow on the ground because I wanted to be white. And that was thinking, okay, it's going to be cold and it's going to be snow.

That's what we expect. And then all of a sudden, boom, it's raining. And we got like five inches of rain, I think. in one night. So literally you have these mountains that are just as serious as they get with over a foot of snow where we were. And then all of a sudden you just get this massive amount of rain. And it was just rivers coming down

and everywhere we drove in to begin with and the snow packed. Then it became just sheer ice. And you're trying to come down. And we ended up putting our truck in the to the side of a side of a bank. I was screaming like a little schoolgirl for my life.

Which is just beginning. How old are you, Hunter? I'm 21, and they do not make hills like this in Kentucky, I promise you. But you had to get your passport for this trip, right? First stamp. First stamp in your first passport, so that little book is going to get you to go and you can see

the whole big world, right? You're going to come back from this trip. A different man. I won't think who white toe hunts, you know. Like, I love white toe hunting, but this is a whole different league, a ball game. We've got to talk about the shammies more. How much do you think a big shammie would weigh?

40 kilos, probably. Which would be 88 pounds. It'd be times 2.2.2. It'd be 84 pounds, let's say, according to my math. Four times two is eight. Yeah, we're getting the nod. Hold on. I'm going to.

I got a calculator. Get those stretches going while we're podcasting. Our guide is probably one of the most vicious animals I've ever met. He's a legit dude. Half shammy. Half shammy, half gymnasts, full French. He has quads like a, I'd say like a CrossFit athlete. And he does stretches like a gymnast.

and he does those in fluorescent orange playboy pants. Boxers. Well, they're not boxers. Boxer briefs. Yeah. Buxer. Oh, what are they called? Boxer.

Okay, it's a boxer. Okay. I might be French boxers. Yeah. So they're tight in all the right places and you get to see a little bit of everything. A little package. A little pack. Packs it tight.

Back to the shammies. 88. I'm just trying to get, because I, I want to give people perspective. I mean, so I've only been here for two days. I've shot one arrow, air ball. Close. It was close, but it was a far shot,

but it was a far shot on an animal that, what would you say, a medium pizza dish, is your kill zone? Yeah, I wouldn't talk about how far you shot it at. I said a long ball. Yeah, we're limited, but the chamois is a species of goat antelope native in the mountains of Europe,

including the European Alps. That's true. the well there's a lot of mountains I can't pronounce but the chamois has also been introduced to the South Island New Zealand which they're very popular to be hunted there and they're they're just a really really cool animal if you should look it up they're kind of a black almost like a little miniature mountain goat male and female would pretty

yearly similar yeah very similar but they're they're super cool and I think Because of their size is why they can get around in the areas that they do. I mean, their hooves are really unique. And by that, I would describe it as not vertical, but as close as you can get. I think they can go vertical. I was watching them today across the valley, two of them sprinting. Yep.

You know, horizontally across the mountain that I would have been probably on all fours, scrambling across with no regard for their safety whatsoever. No, I think they know the faster you go you can just ride it out once you get to the bottom. But yeah, they're a cool animal. And I knew that the hunt would be, it really wasn't about the hunt. I mean, I know you really loved Alberta and you loved. That was a different experience that you had compared to some of the, well, the Georgia trip that we did. And the Montana is the only thing I have in between.

Or Utah. Utah, you did. which was also a tough hunt for terrain, but this was just a totally different experience. I mean, you're trying to communicate on strategy. You're spotting them from a long way off, and then you're having to just give it 110% to get there. And then deep down, you also know that if you don't make it happen,

you're going to have to come out of that crap for no reason. If you go down, you've got to come back up. That was always in my mind. Yesterday afternoon is a perfect example of this. We were driving around in a vehicle and spotted these little suckers on a crest or a little knoll.

And then we went ahead and had lunch. Went to had lunch. He whipped out the map, was looking at the route we were going to take, and we took the car. all the way to the back of the mountain. Hunter enjoyed vast majority of that ride. He's going to have very early onset arthritis in his hands

from holding on to the back of the seat. But get to the back of the mountain, and then we just dove down, a little bit of lateral movement and then just dove down off the back of that mountain. In my head, I was thinking, every step that we take down, we have to go back up.

Every step we were tag, I was like, oh, my. And when you're grabbing stuff on the way down so that you don't, like, end up at the bottom. Oh, yeah. You will go down if you don't hold on to something.

But we weaved around and lo and behold got to where did you see that, Matt? 52 yards? 56 yards? Yeah, the first sighting was it 52 yards? Yeah, there was one bedded at 52

just perfect. Which is a credit to our guide for sure because we did not whip out a compass or a GPS. We spotted those things from probably three to four miles away. Yeah.

And then approached from An approach from a good 15, probably a 15 kilometer loop and then came literally guess where they were on one ridge back and bombed off this thing where you can't see it. When it's so vertical, you can't see anything more than 50 yards underneath you. So we literally just nailed it and got right to this thing that we had spotted and were literally 52 yards. sitting there just waiting for him to get out of his bed and then the next part of France came alive we didn't know about

it was not ready for this but the Russian wild boar came walking up 10 yards of us which I wasn't prepared for I caught a glimpse out of the corner of my eye and immediately loaded an arrow even though you were the primary guy shooting yesterday yeah and then heard the grunting

I'm not I'm not a fan of things with teeth that large. And then you saw Borg go vertical. That's another thing. Shamies are not the only thing that will climb vertical mountains. Wild boar can climb like no North American

wild boar can. Yeah, these Russians mean business. Vertical. Vertical business. Yeah. What sucked about last night was the walkout. In the dark, if you're wondering. In the snow and rain. On frozen leaves,

the head of fresh, it started raining on us where the animals were bedded down. We started climbing. It went from rain to snow, snow to frozen leaves, frozen leaves to me on my face. I think it's more exhausting when you take those steps and your body's sliding around and you don't know if you can actually, like I can just walk uphill and take a pick a pace, but I would have a little bit of an ice capade moment and then sit there and just, I don't know if you're like me, but when I was Hunter's age, I wouldn't have gave a shit about any of that. But now that I'm my age, I'm thinking ACL, hip flexor, rotator cuff, like, here goes

my pelvis. All I can think is I just want to put Hunter in the ground. I just want to crush him going uphill and twice his age, unfortunately. Yeah, you actually did kind of wimp out on us. That was the same day that I was throwing up on the road. You drank less than we did. I think Andy Stump and John mixed me. my drink and put some kind of concoction in it because I woke up, mealy, puked, and that kind of

said it for the whole day, you know, I puked a few times, and you guys will probably see it all over Instagram and other social media for the next few years. But they gave me a hell because I couldn't handle a little wine and something else, concoction. And that was actually my breaking point where I thought, you know what, I need to get my ass back home. I'm not cut out for this crap. You're as pale as snow. But I thought, you know what?

And we went and had lunch, which we had a great lamb or goat or something. Dot, dot. And but I ate that and I sobered up. I mean, you know what? I was like, I'm hunting with a Navy seal and John. I said, I'm not going to wuss out and just go home. We tried to get you to stay there and take a nap. Yeah.

We actually did. We actually did. We thought, for your own good, just sleep in the truck. We'll see you tomorrow. Well, we wouldn't have said sorry. Yeah, you wouldn't have said sorry, but I thought, you know what? I'm here working, and I'm here with my friends, and I owe it to them to get my butt back on the mountain. Let's do it.

Let's party. Yesterday afternoon was almost, it was action-packed, for sure. It was. Interesting. It almost got done. Yeah. If that thing would have stood up and not been behind a bush, we would have had a nice chip shot yesterday. and then today we had

man another crusher I got a shot it was good though yeah we both got a shot on the same goat I shot first and then I said do you want to take a rip of that thing and this thing

pulled some Houdini moves he's really not impressed with us yeah he's like oh that's a bow check that out I'm 10 yards further oh you're gonna have another guy shoot at me again that's cool check this move actually yours You kind of, you Navy sealed his ass.

You snuck in. He had no idea you're there. And instead of, like, at least for me, he had already heard us. So he was kind of a little bit keyed up. So as soon as my bow went off, he was like darting. But when your bow went off, he had this look on his, like he popped up and had this look on his face like, what? They got here again?

So you all, I mean, just shaved hairs. So I feel like this trip was. 100% of success. I do like just a shot today. Feet like my left foot, a foot and a half below my right, trying to gap it between trees, moving the bow around at full draw,

so make sure I have clearance on my cams. Like it's, you know, most of my practice is in the backyard on flat grass. Most of the arrows get into the target, a few go into the fence occasionally. But it gives you, you a different appreciation for sure the angles oh yeah what would where would you rate it i mean have

you ever done hunting like this in the u.s or hunting like this with your bow before oh yeah yeah i mean if you hunt out west there's areas where not necessarily where you have this type of atmosphere you know like full atmosphere of being in the alps i mean obviously if you're in the if you're in the heart of the rockies it's it's aggressive mountainous terrain um obviously places in alaska too where i've been in BC, I've certainly tackled hills that are every bit as tough. And yeah, depending on the area, the difference here is the conditions are really tough for footing, just being able to get a grip and walk up and down. And then obviously we're here in the middle of the winter. I haven't really, like I haven't done an elk hunt or a moose hunt or a black bear hunt in those types of

terrains where I'm there in December, like the middle of December when they're just as vicious as they're going to be. So it's just, I mean, it's tough. But yeah, I mean, when it comes to preparing for something like this, you can do your best. But the only people that are truly prepared are, you know, a good guide that literally is marching these steps every single day. It's just another day in the office for those guys but you know that's why i say i just don't feel like you can prepare yourself for a hunt like this by thinking you're going to go out and run for two weeks before you go on a hunt that's never i mean it's just not going to happen there's just so many more that's why my workouts i've just got to the point where i'm so much more sporadic with my workouts i mean there's

times where i'll do deadlifts occasionally i'll do bench and stuff but i'll just grab kettle bells and just look up like different kettlebell movements to where you're, you know, you're doing a windmill and you're having to do that, or I like to ride a bike. I really like to just, now I really like rucking with just plates on a ruck pack where you're just having to pick your feet up in different types of positions. You just can't do that if all you do is go to the gym and do leg day, bench, you know, chest, back, legs. If you do those in like the key, weightlifting type movements you're going to have power but you just don't have the range of motion and you'll end up pulling some stupid little muscle you never knew you had and i don't know i think you just

have to for these types of things it's just a different it's just a different demand on the body i think you have to expect that it's going to suck and you have to just pack your brain that's what i did yeah it's like 100% what was your training routine hunter uh worked out about once a week. The last three days before the trip I hit the treadmill pretty hard. Really just really just to finish it off. Yeah like you know what I'm young I can do anything I don't need to work out. Got up here and they're like yep you're my bitch today that happens I mean it uh I agree with you dud on the variance just crush yourself and I I try to go on days that I don't want to work out just like I don't want to hike up the thousand foot of vertical that we did yesterday

but yeah if you're if you're into a routine whatever as long as you're not on the couch eating Doritos I'm totally fine with what you're doing even if you want to eat Doritos I guess I'm okay with that I just don't want you to live your life like that so the next step would be get into the gym but yeah if you want to come out here and do stuff like this I agree I don't absent living here and making your job on the side of the mountain it's just gonna suck yep like my hip flexors right now I can feel them like if you I mean it again it's hard like a stair climber at the gym isn't going to replicate the the incredibly high knee drive up above your hip to what's, I think, getting me is the fact that it's like shale rock is one thing to walk on, but frozen dirt that you can't get purchased on your boot makes it substantially worse. Well, the other thing, too, is if you had a stair stepper where the stairs were continually changing angles where you're having to turn your foot. Oh, the side cuts. Because that's, see, that's what gets tough is you're trying to turn your foot to where you'll

actually get traction. So I mean, you're never, you're almost never pointing your toe straight forward. And that's where people really start to get hurt. And, you know, I don't know, I really felt like for me, this trip was just all about I wanted something that pushed a bar for me. I've had, I've actually had some trips in Idaho and in British Columbia. You know, I've had days where three guys shoot a moose and you're in the start of the Rockies in BC. And, I mean, moose packing is really hard. Are they big?

Yeah, it's tough. I'm joking. And you're going to experience it because me, I'm going to take you where I go. Can I shoot a small one? Yes. but a small moose quarter is going to still be way bigger in this chamois. Yeah, it'll be massive.

I mean, just the horns will way more, honestly, just the horns will way more. But, yeah, you just, I just really wanted to push the envelope. And I'm just, I'm not personally into running like a marathon or something like that. That's just, I mean, I don't like, I don't know, I can't get motivated to try. train for that and just continually run and run and run to prepare myself for that. But I will book myself into a hunt that I feel like is going to push me further than I've ever been pushed before. And then when I get there, I want to make sure that I don't say I could have

have an opportunity if I would have got there. So like for me that, for me that's a hundred percent. like when we are going that down that hill I'm just like don't miss the shot like make sure you're there when you need to be there because otherwise I'll think like I know myself well enough to know I'll be thinking about that more than anything so this was just this really wasn't a hunt that I that I booked from a trophy aspect or from a success aspect I I booked this as, you know, I wanted a new bar. And I thought it was, you know, because you and I are both kind of, you know, we both came here, you know, we were both talking about a hunt that we could do cool that involved Killcliff because Killcliff was something you introduced me to in Alberta, like probably when I needed it most.

I was friends. You and Jordan knew one. Yeah, I needed it bad. And then I've just really, I've grown to 100% organically like the company and the people there. And the product, I'm very picky with especially supplements that I have. You know, if I have supplements, you know, I'm an on-it supplement guy. I really, I had one bad habit with energy drinks. And when you first showed me a kill-cliff, I thought it was an energy drink.

And then you're like, no, that's the problem. Everyone thinks it's an energy drink because of the can. And then I'm like, well, what's in it? And then I'm a big label reader anyway. You know that. Me and my wife are label readers. And I'm like, holy cow, why haven't I heard of this? And then when I tried it, you know, I'm pretty much hooked.

And I wanted to do a hunt where I'm like, let's, you know, this has been a really cool company. And you and I both were part of a pretty cool campaign, you know, a social campaign. with the I-Kilcliff to get money for the Navy SEAL Foundation. Which, by the way, everybody helped us raise $10,000, which is not a small feet way to stretch the imagination. That was unbelievable. Yeah, that was awesome. And I thought, you know, if we're going to do a hunt to represent Killcliff in the hunting community,

let's kill ourselves. The endure we had last night and we got to the truck, I had one sitting in the truck, ice cold. I'm looking at the purple water right now. I'm assuming it's a great flavor. Chris can yell at me later for getting the flavor. Incorrect. But we wolf gang that thing in about 30 seconds and yeah, it was exactly

exactly what I needed. And even the pickiest eater on earth. I love Gilcliffe. Do you like cheese though? I hate cheese. Do you guys know what they eat a lot of in France? They eat a lot of cheese and bread and lamb and goat and a lot of things

I don't know what I ate, but What's tartar? Oh, it's like, I don't know. Camp food? So next time I come to France, I'm going to bring Kilcliffe and my own order of food. Which would be, what's the stuff you have? The mountain? Mountain house.

Try one first. You might not like them either. I trust me, it'll be a better option. So you don't like cheese. or fomage yeah no you don't I mean you're like

you're right no I don't like it but what about queso well I've learned that's another thing that'll learn that casso's cheese

that's just a Mexican term for it I guess Casey never what y'all you'll keep talking I'm just kind of chilling

I don't know no I don't like cheese though Keso is good cheese is bad cheese bad unbelievable there's a difference yeah we had um we had some really um amazing hosts actually

our guide philip had some friends here in the mountains that have a house that pretty much are at the end of a driveway that hunter white knuckling that was white knuckling going at that driveway he's not a fan of it for sure no Yeah, he does not like...

Not conditioned to roads like this. And they're really not that bad people. But, yeah, he literally thought he was going to die. We heard about every time we hit a corner, he would... We'd hear another reason why I can't believe I'm going to die just for one of these or... Yeah, so I didn't want to die in France today,

but I thought I was going to more than one time. Or hey guys, this is a good place to turn around. We could stop right here. Yeah, like, is this an ATV trail? Okay, let's take it. I can't see the bottom of this cliff, Let's drive on edge of it. Toyota Highlux, man.

No joke, for real. No joke vehicle, yeah. That Toyota, yeah, that Toyota Highlux impressed me. It did. But our guides driving was pretty impressive. Other than one, he had one laps where he... Taking the map. Yeah, he was...

I don't know, I thought he was trying to point down a road. Oh, yeah, yeah. Literally hits... Side track. Yeah, hits a piece of ice, slides into a ditch, crushes the side of the car, screams out a French four-letter American word.

Come on in here, and let's, why don't you do this for us? Here's how it goes. If you crash your car in France, it'll sound like... Yeah, go ahead. Tell us what it sounds like. What, crash a car?

Yeah. Yeah, what did you say, though? What do you say when you crash your car? No, I don't know if it's... It's appropriate. It's good to say that in a podcast. It's an internet. You're fine.

You say it to be on. Any sounds like it's good. I said, fack, fuck, fuck. But he said very loud and animated, and we all paused for a second, and then we busted up laughing. F-A-C-K, fack. Fack.

Oh, Hunter, you're going to remember this first stamp in your passport for the rest of your life. Yeah. Yeah, this has been a hunt like I've never experienced before. It definitely taught me what I was made of and what I need to train on. We're not done. Yeah, we have one day left, but I feel like I'm conditioned for it now.

After those three days. I think that I talk to guys on to go into the easiest mountain to hunt where we ended up this afternoon. It's not as steep in the rocket. Is that why you said we should go there? Yes, it's 100% why. He was telling me in the back of the car. That's why he wants to go back there. We are not going back there.

We're definitely going to the hogs on. So I agree it is a hunt like no other. But if you... How do you practice shooting? at the angles. If you don't have something, like if you live in a place that's flat, is there anything you because I'm trying to, I think from an audio only perspective, it's difficult to understand. Like you said today, when you took your shot, it was the longest arrow flight you've ever seen, mostly because of the angle that you were shooting at, coupled with the distance. So there's a lot of

other variables. Yeah, it was like a 15-yard cut. So it was 15 yards further than the shot. So it was actually the first time when I shot, I realized I didn't follow through properly because I'm normally kind of focused on my form. I'm always focused on my form. But I shot and I remember because of that, because we're in this massive valley, just this huge crevasse and this chamois standing on this little rock. my arrow literally looked like it was going into orbit. Like I'd shot towards the Mediterranean Sea or something. And then all of a sudden it turns and starts going down. And it was at that point where I thought, like, where is this even going?

But, I mean, if he wouldn't have moved, I think it was on the money. But it was just normally when I shoot at that distance, I'm seeing it on a flat trajectory. So you're looking at, you're so used to your arc just having a standard arc. But when you're aiming down and the arc comes over the top of your bow and then it, you can see that arrow turned down and then it's raining down. You're just like, what in the heck? But yeah, it was a vicious cut. And, you know, I learned to shoot on those from field archery.

And that's why I'm such an advocate of telling archers and especially hunters. 3D is a great way to learn, like, how to shoot silhouettes of animals. Like shot placement type stuff. Yeah, how to learn silhouettes. And sometimes how to judge distance. I think 3D is really practical for too. But when it comes to technicality, there's really some European 3D courses set them that way because they shot field first. They really like the technicality of archery in very steep terms.

rain. So the 3D courses over here, I've seen some that are pretty vicious. But, you know, there's times where we've been at world championships where you make a shot and there's literally ropes to like pull yourself to get all the way up to the target. Because it's just they put them that steep and the target faces are literally on a hinge, on a cliff, facing down so that you can be underneath shooting up and then you can pull the string and flip the target back up to get your arrow out those types of things that's the only thing that's going to prepare you for sheep country or i was going to say absent that there's no way to practice the angle mountain goat country you know certain types of mule deer terrain these are just very very technical places where

even some of the best rifle shooters in the world if you're they don't understand ballistics and you know true line of trajectory range versus what ballistic range is I think it's just different actually you know I know that I would have been just a little bit high on this the shammie that I shot at and I actually which I'm not totally happy about but I called the range finder company that I'm using today actually to say hey am I in the right mode because it has angle compensation and then they told me yes you're in the right mode but the mode only works to x agree degree and it was like which i remember my angle of degree was almost 40 so the angle of degree was very

steep and I think it maxed out at 30 so it would have been almost two and a half yards closer than what I shot it for which at that distance with the bow is a lot for cast so I really should have went back to having an inclinometer on the side of my range finder with my cut chart laminated on the other side of my range finder to where I could have ranged the animal checked the inclinometer degree and then looked at my cut percentage and then it's just really easy math and I probably would have shot that thing for

and that's what I did when I shot field that's how I taught myself I would have for surely had a better distance than just assuming the device was right is your cut chart based off of your jump

is running off the cough is your cut chart based off of your feet per second no it's just the cut charts are really just based off um kind of ballistic calibrations i've never known it to really change and it could change slightly depending on um i guess speed i've never went that deep into it if i'm honest um i'm trying to see if i can if you give me a little bit here i'll find i'll actually find i'm just trying to think because i know rifle wise ballistically it's going to, once you cite your rifle in, you can get the ballistic cut based off of that rifle. But I think with a caliber or hotter or slow around or a larger projectile flying through,

it's going to give you a difference. So I'm sure as long as you sighted in your bow, oh, there you go. This is an inclinometer that I normally would have on the side of my rangefinder. Looks like a very shallow U with the level. Yeah. So as you would tilt it, that would go down. and you can keep your range finder at that angle and then look to see okay I'm at a 37 degree and then I don't know if I have it on my phone but I used to have and I should have I normally always do but I have an actual chart that is just based off angle of degree and what the percentage of cut would be for uphill versus downhill and they're pretty

minimal the variance there's slight variance but it makes a huge difference. I mean, really doing that and practicing it, it's probably no different than good snipers. You can't just give them the math. They need to actually apply the math with real-world practicality to start to really understand it better. And, you know, there's probably small variations that ballistics do have that's different between one thing to another because I really feel like if I went out and practiced with one

bow and field all year, I learned it so well to where I wouldn't necessarily have to be totally as precise with one bow versus another because what I would learn was that my margin of error might have been a little bit better with one particular setup than the other setup. But yeah, it's definitely something people have to learn. If you come on a hunt like this, it's critical, you know, because like that shot that I would have had, if that Shammya would have came out tonight underneath us like that. That thing would have been. That's actually what made me call.

What angle do you think that would have been? I think it was like 43 degrees. Yeah, it was steep. So, I mean, that's a pretty dang big cut. But with that, too, though, there's the proper technique. And so absent people being able to go and practice the angles, I know one thing that I was thinking in my head today when I drew back was drawback level, like you were saying, and then bend at the waist as opposed to pointing down it

and then drawing back and having your body completely jankled up. Yeah, because a lot of times what happens is when people point their bow down and then draw back, a lot of people just try to pull the peep sight to their eye because they're trying to look through the rear peep. you know, which is in your string, you know, it would be a lot like a rifle shooter if they, you know, if they had front and back sites, but they kind of only, you know, as you cocked, you know, I don't know, as you pulled it up, you know, you're with a bow, your rear sight is being drawn towards you. And what happens is because people are wanting to properly center front sight in the rear site, they just pull the rear site to their eye, but there's more to archery

where you're having to focus on your anchor point. So when people shoot down, normally they pull that peep to their eye and their anchor position is much higher than if they were actually level. So, you know, and then it's the opposite for when you shoot up hell. A lot of people pull the peep to their eye.

They're trying to look through the peep and their anchor is very low. It's not even on their face. Really? So your lefts and rights can be completely different. So by learning to draw an anchor first, then adjust your head and the head. And what he's doing right now,

he's got his arm completely parallel to the ground and then get to the anchor point. Have you ever shot angles like this, Hunter? Are you a bow hunter? Oh, yeah. All right, I'm just checking. But Kentucky, we just hunt out of ladder stands. So 20 feet?

Yeah, 20 feet. Most of my angles are not that steep. It's a shot today. No. But, I mean, that's what I was telling myself today when I drew back, would just keep the bow level, pull back, and then make the adjustment. And I have never, until today, taking a shot in an angle like that with my bow yeah and the the shot you almost had at the end of the

night would have been a very technical shot yeah like i mean that for you to make a shot like that you're kind of you're really getting thrown in the deep end of you know these are things that you can you can read about and you can do and then you have 10 seconds when the shammie comes out yeah Yeah, you know, this kind of comes back to when, you know, when people, when hunters say, I've never missed an animal or I've never, you know, you haven't shown enough. Yeah, I've never, you know, I've never not hit where I aimed. It's because if you do things enough, those things will happen naturally, but then if you really start to bring more variables into that equation, well, now,

it's you have to be perfect you know there isn't room for error so you know you bring someone out here that's never missed a white tail that's hunted out of a ground blind in Texas his whole life oh god and you bring him out here and put an animal you know 57 yards away but is literally aiming down far enough to where the cam is between their legs. It's not a joke either. Yeah, it's just, it's like, you know, you're just, you're not going to hit that animal. And honestly, I've learned the most out of life by mistakes I've made. And I expected to make some mistakes here.

Yeah, I'd rather hang out at my margins than in the sweet spot for sure. Like, it's, yeah, it's been cool. The whole trip being out here, the terrain, the environments. Again, another new animal. no, not that I have enough experience with any animal in the six months I've been hunting or five months I've been hunting, but another completely unknown that just pops their head up and looks at you for a second and they just ghost you. Like awesome.

I was supposed to do everything we were just talking about in three seconds. I didn't even have an arrow knocked. The best part was when I asked you to come. I go, hey, do you want to go hunting Chamois in France? You're like, yeah. And I'm like, have you wanted to get one of those? you're like, what is it? I'm like, okay.

Yeah. I'm in. No, I think, I mean, yeah, it's the, in my opinion, at least you get that breath and depth of experience. And I bet you it'll help me with white tail hunting or elk hunting for next year. Just being, again, you know, for me, this trip, like I like the backpack I'm using, but I need to find a backpack that doesn't extend above my head. So maybe if we left this trip and the shot I got today was the only one I had, total success. Field test in my gear again.

Different environment, different angles, but just got to go through all that. And then that plus the experience will make me a better hunter the next time out of the gate. One thing I really want to do better of is really keeping better documentation of the do's and don'ts that I have with equipment. Because this was a really tough hunt because I knew what other people used with that wouldn't necessarily. mean that it worked for me because it's a lot like with the shoes certain shoes just don't keep my feet warm even if they're insulated right and a lot of the mountaineering boots because the positive side to them is they would have had more traction on the mountains than I had but I really feel like because I'm so tall and my circulation to my hands and feet is like that is poor you got

daddy long legs I feel like if I whenever I see sense shoes down or boots down tight that way or when I'm really encapsulated I feel like my feet don't stay as warm so I was trying to find an in-between which I actually am really really happy with what I brought and but there's other things where you know I'm I really think I would have done them just a little bit different like I definitely would have well originally when we came here we were expecting to do a pack-in hunt. Which drove the backpack that I have. Right. But they got, I think, like, three feet of snow.

Got demolished. Yeah, three feet of snow the day we landed. And they literally said, our starting point is shut down. Like, we're not, you know, we can snow shoe in, but there's four days of snow in the forecast. We're going to, you know, you're going to be in for good. So that's why we ended up coming to. and a half hours further south. So I literally came here with a pack frame pack loaded up with layers in a certain way based off what I thought I was, I thought I was going to have to stay

super warm at night because I didn't know how much fire we'd have. Whereas now that I've come down here, I've got a backpack that's way too big. So I'm really focusing on putting as much in my pockets as I can, which isn't the best. So I kind of wish, you know, I wish instead of bringing my, you know, my laptop backpack, I should have brought an 1800 and my pack frame. You know, I should have packed my kind of my travel computer and stuff in my, in just a smaller hunting pack. There's just a lot of little things like that. You know, I tried some, I actually bought three different types of socks just because I'm like, what is going to keep my feet warm when you're moving this much and then stopping when you know you're going to have sweat there? So I don't know, I think keeping

really good documentation on that is critical. And then I guess if you're out there wanting to do a hunt like that, you've got to reach out to people that you know hunt like that, which is what I did. I reached out to sheep hunters to say, like, if you had to hunt, I actually reached out to like Remy Warren said, hey, if you were having to be where you normally hunt in two weeks, what gear would you pack? And those people in that experience is going to be critical. But, you know, I took several, I took three different pairs of socks. I learned the first day, this is a really high-rated sock, and it'll keep my foot warm.

but the sock was at the end of my foot every single time I freaking took my boots off so I'm like okay that that brand of socks gone like that's that socks out of here but it might work for somebody else yeah and that's the point I would say is like you're going to have my hunting load out for this trip is going to be completely different than my hunting load out for other trips oh yeah and you're going to have to come and work it out one thing I learned more than anything was how important it is to layer up, like have a layering system. Because you think, you know, I'm going to need these heavy stuff, but once

you start walking all day and steep elevations, I was down to almost a long-sleeved shirt and a pair of pants. Do you know what happened if you didn't do that? Well, that's day one. Yeah. He had Oh, you would have almost died.

First day I walked in with five layers of cloth and they was looking behind them, wondering where I was because I was gassed out, sweat, sweating to death. Until you stopped. Until I stopped. And then we got back to the truck and I shed it about three layers.

And realize you were frozen to death. Yeah. Exactly. Sweat is your enemy in the cold terrain. It's one of the key points they hammer into you. So like I was telling you yesterday, like try to keep it at a pace where you're just below your threshold to sweat, which is tough in this environment, especially if you're trying to keep up with somebody.

Short legs. Yeah, if it's driven by somebody else's pace, but the rule, And my old job is like in the alpine environment, you go slow enough that you don't sweat. Because if you start feeling the sweat, you're cooked in the long run. Yeah, because then you got to dry up. Yeah, for sure. I want to know, this could be pretty motivational. One thing for you, like for you, Hunter, I mean, you said that you were worried about this place breaking you.

I mean, do you feel like you're going to be better with what you do because you've made, made through it 100% like I said yesterday I was sick and I went ahead and determined to go ahead I was sickly I was sickly but I decided to go back on the mountain you know because you guys were needing my help

with some things you like that don't you? I'm just curious what things we needed your help with you had to pack the team on my back anyways but I overcame all that and now I'm starting to get like conditions where I can handle these

mountains after a few days or half a trip in. Andy's over here shaking his head like he doesn't agree. You have no idea how much mountains can break you off. Yeah. But. We would have got there like an hour earlier just for how slow he had to drive on a thing. But by you saying that, I mean, I think I'm conditioned to where I could go on just about any other hunt now. Like this is about the top of the food chain when it comes to toughness.

Yeah, I think if someone asked you to come do a turkey. behind now. I said, yeah, when I grab my tennis shoes. Grab my shorts, sunglasses, I'm coming. You have to have that perspective, man. Without that difficult experience, you might have thought the 20-foot ladder stand, right, is like, and nothing against that. I've tried that now, and I think it's awesome as well.

But, yeah, the perspective of, okay, I'm sweating, but I'm cold, it's dark, but I have to move vertically. And being able to mentally push yourself through that, I think, yeah, it turns down the volume. on the rest of stuff in your life well i remember back in you know 10 or 12 years ago uh you know i left the company i was with had a severance pay and literally took half that check cashed it got a new truck put a caper on it put a little sleeping bed in the back and literally packed every hunting thing i had and said i'm going to go on the road for one month and just try to hunt

every single place I can find it over-the-counter tag and I remember I just my first stop was South Dakota and I was just doing like a DIY antelope hunt and then the next one I actually did a deer hunt in Montana because I had drawn a deer and elk combo but I just kind of went out and did my own thing I remember like for me that was it was intimidating the fact that you know you're you're living out of your vehicle you're going you got to put all your own stuff up you kind of you know and it it was it was fun because it was something that I hadn't done and it was you know it was like this new step it was a new door and it was nerve-racking at first and then one of my good buddies drew a mountain goat he drew a billy goat tag

a once-a-lifetime billy-goat tag and said you know hey I drew that tag and I'm like dude that's you know I'd love to come on it with you and then next thing I know man not much different than you I'm at like 12,000 well I think it was 10,000 feet on a single it was literally a goat path and I'm on and I wasn't even a dirt bike guy

but I'm on you know a frigging Yamaha 125 your heart would have stopped I've had my run as a dirt bike so you probably could imagine ripping up this hill yeah and ended up doing this high altitude hunt got altitude

sickness, um, ended up kind of missing the shop because I got up there, was so fired up about it. I was just trying to move everywhere as fast as I can and be the guy that got everywhere first. And then next thing by the end of the day, both my eyes are shut.

I'm blue in the face, yakking off the side of the mountain. And, you know, didn't realize what hydration meant. Didn't realize what altitude sickness was. Whereas now, you know, I learned from that. and I learn from skiing in high altitude. So, you know, every morning here, first thing I do is, you know, I take an aspirin just because it's a little bit different elevation.

You know, I'm trying to make sure I'm not gasping for air, so I take one aspirin. And, you know, it's just all those little things. But in the end, every single one of these steps has made me into where I'm at now. You know, one little step that you told me about was I was getting so exhausted, walking behind everyone. that I was eating snow off the ground because I was getting so dehydrated. And you said, hey man,

don't do that. You're really just hurting yourself more than your... Yeah, you're lowering your core body temperature down a bunch. If you're going to do that, I used to fill up like Naljean bottles, plastic Nalgae bottles with snow and then put them on the inside of my jacket

so they would melt. But like on the pocket and then it would come out and I would drink that and that way your body doesn't have to break down the snow and then digest it and all that's just taking energy from your body.

Or just pack a water bottle. Yeah, Take a water bottle. I was too exhausted to reach back then grab it this week. I was just scooping it up. Oh, man. You drank from the fire goes for sure. It's been to that limit this week.

I hope you guys don't witness everything that went on through Instagram. I feel like y'all are in for a treat. Behind the scenes. It's been good. Pulp Plus, speaking of behind the scenes, we have, Hunter is here to document the entire trip. And one thing, Dud, you were talking about, was doing it for Kilcliffe, right? Because we are out here.

They're picking up the tab, which is awesome, right? They were able to translate. Yeah. Well, they were able to translate my jump. You know, my career with them up to this point has been all completely jumping. But I think they saw the value in doing it. So they allowed me to utilize some of the jumping budget to come to France and not jump and hunt. And we are trying to jump, actually.

We were trying to line up a jump. I'm glad we didn't even waste. It would have been another bag that I wouldn't have had. So that would, yeah. So help me, you lose that American flag squirrel seat. Delta. I mean, there's reasons you can burn people and companies to the ground. And that would be one of them.

That's my, those are one of my special things. So we're going to keep close tabs. But, yeah, I mean, without that, yeah, without them being able to say, hey, this is what you're going to be able to do. I mean, well, when they said that and you said it, I'm like, I got the spot. because I know I'd wanted to come here and I was going to come here anyway so

it's a tough hunt I mean for two guys especially when you're trying to hunt together which to me I'm going to be I'll be probably more excited honestly I'll probably be more excited for you to get something than for me to get something

I've been fortunate with hunting and I mean just like today you know I I wanted you to have just as many opportunities as me. And I just thought this was the perfect place for us both to come together, even though if two guys are with one guide,

and especially we actually came on a short time period as it was because my schedule is pretty tight. I know yours was too. I mean, you literally flew here from a speaking engagement that you had. But I just thought. directly I thought this is the best place to try the to make sure that we represent honestly represent Kilcliffe because there are some hard core athletes some of which you've had on your podcast yeah that represent Killcliff and man I can tell you this place this place

pushed it I mean I've certainly have had I've had I've had more leg pumps here than I ever have with the trainer behind me. Yeah. So here's a good point we can end it because you're talking about the experience coming out here. Some people might listen to this and they might say, hey, I would want to try that too. Yeah. So not now, and I'm not sure when, but I bet you within the next month or two, maybe we'll get the chance to. It's hard to say.

Oh, I see what you. Maybe we'll do a contest. Ding and a, dangling a little carrot out there. Dangling a little carrot out there. Maybe we are already thinking about ways to change it from an audio-only format for somebody to, I've never shot a bow. Maybe I should get one of those. Maybe I should learn how to hunt. Well, she probably should learn how to shoot it first.

Then you should go hunt. So, yeah, if that's something you might be interested in, pay attention. You could learn cooking techniques, survival techniques. Navigation. Hunting care. Are you able for, like, layering? To do more of like... I'll show up and explain to everybody what to wear.

Are you going to do like a queso sampling as well? Yeah, yeah, for sure. No cheese. Just queso. Yep. And on that note, we're bringing a tune-in. We're here in France. That's all I got.

You got anything else? Hunter. You want to close that? That's a wrap. That's a wrap. Thanks for staying tuned to cleared hot. Stump and John Dudley. Stump.

Stump. Stump. Like a stump. Thanks everybody for listening. The feedback and the response I've gotten to the hats and the sweatshirts and all the cleared hot apparel. I don't know. I don't want to call it merchandise. Whatever you want to call it.

The stuff associated with the podcast, I am blown away. Very much like the podcast itself where I launched this thing and I had no idea where it was going to be going, wow. I have no idea. I had no idea where it was going to go. and I still have no idea where it is going. The apparel is exactly the same. I made a shirt because somebody said I should make a shirt. I made a sweatshirt because somebody said I should make a sweatshirt.

Made a hat for exactly the same reason. And people are buying those things and they're throwing them up on social media and they're spreading the word. And I can't thank you enough. It's awesome. I have really enjoyed this process. And I hope the people out there listening are enjoying the, final product if you do or if you don't do me a favor going to iTunes and write a review i still

truly don't know the importance of doing that other than everybody who has a podcast or is associated with it says that it is important but don't just do it if you have something nice to say if you think the podcast sucks sucks get on there and i don't care rip me a new ass it really doesn't bother me and i'll take the feedback objectively on board and if you have some suggestions for improvement i'm all ears i'll take it and do the best with it that i can so yeah thank you very much and I think that's it. We're going to do one more of these bad boys until 2018 and then we're going to go big in 2018. But until then, see you.