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The numbersHuntsFitnessGetting inInquireCall (555) 014-2010
Snow-dusted peaks of the Kestle Range under low storm cloud

No road goes into the Kestle Range.

A Beaver on floats does, and then you walk. Guided Dall sheep, moose and mountain goat hunts on 3,900 square miles of the Yukon, one guide per hunter, and five seasons of our real numbers on this page before you ever pick up the phone.

See five seasons of numbers (555) 014-2010

  • Dall sheep

    12 days, 68% over five seasons

    $28,500

  • Moose

    10 days, 81% over five seasons

    $19,800

  • Mountain goat

    8 days, 81% over five seasons

    $14,900

The numbers, unfiltered

Every hunter who got on the plane is counted. So is every one who went home empty.

Plenty of outfitters quote success on hunters who finished, or on the best year. We count everyone who flew out of Kestle Lake, including the client who turned back with a bad knee on day three. Pick a hunt and read the last five seasons.

Five-season success
68%
Hunters who got rams
30 of 44
Average ram age
9.6 yrs
Days lost to weather
11
Dall sheep hunt results for the last five seasons, every hunter counted
SeasonHuntersHarvestSuccessAvg ram ageWeather daysWhat happened
202596
67%
9.6 yrs3Fog grounded the Beaver for three days at pickup. Hunts ran long, nobody lost hunting days.
2024107
70%
9.8 yrs1Two clients turned back on day three with knee trouble. Both are counted here as unsuccessful.
202384
50%
8.9 yrs5Snow on August 14 pushed the rams into the cliffs. Four hunters went home without one.
202297
78%
10.1 yrs0High pressure from the first morning to the last. Our best sheep season in ten years.
202186
75%
9.4 yrs2Two hunters passed on legal eight-year-olds on day eleven, waiting for older rams. Neither found one.

Sample figures for this concept. Every hunter who flew in from Kestle Lake is counted, including clients who left early. Weather days are days nobody could hunt or fly.

Three hunts, one price each, and the list of what that price does not cover.

Two rams crossing a steep slope below the snowline

Dall sheep

$28,500

12 days on the mountain, per hunter, US dollars.

Full curl or eight years old, nothing younger. We age every ram through the spotting scope before you shoot, and we will walk away from a ram that is close.

Dates
Starts August 1, 13 and 25. Four hunters a season per start date, one guide each.
Camp
One night at Sheep Lake, then backpack spike camps wherever the rams are.
  • Floatplane in and out
  • Spike camp gear and food
  • Field care of meat and cape
  • Horn sealing appointment in Whitehorse
A bull moose feeding in a beaver pond

Moose

$19,800

10 days on the mountain, per hunter, US dollars.

Bulls with a 50 inch spread or four brow tines each side. The moose come to the call; the meat leaves on your back and ours.

Dates
Starts September 10 and 20, timed for the rut. Two hunters per guide on the river.
Camp
The Corbin River wall tent camp, with a canoe for glassing the oxbows.
  • Floatplane in and out
  • Wall tent, stove and cook
  • Meat flown out to Kestle Lake
  • Butchering arranged in Whitehorse
A mountain goat on a snowy cliff band

Mountain goat

$14,900

8 days on the mountain, per hunter, US dollars.

Billies only. We judge sex before every stalk, from underneath, and we have turned hunters around at 150 yards when a billy turned out to be a nanny.

Dates
Starts August 20 and September 5 and 20. Three hunters a season per start date.
Camp
Sheep Lake base, then day climbs and one or two nights out on the ridge.
  • Floatplane in and out
  • Base camp and spike camp food
  • Field care of hide and horns
  • Mandatory goat ID briefing

Not included on any hunt: Yukon hunting licence and seal fees (about $1,000, paid to the territory), your Whitehorse hotel, trophy export and shipping, gratuities, and cancellation insurance, which we require.

Tick what you can do this week, not what you could do in 2015.

We would rather lose a booking than watch you spend $28,500 to sit in a tent while your guide glasses rams you cannot reach. Nine things, and a straight answer for each hunt.

Tick what you can do this week

0 of 9 ticked

  • Dall sheep

    Not rated

    0 of 7 needed.

    Start ticking. Be honest with yourself, because the mountain will be.

  • Moose

    Not rated

    0 of 6 needed.

    Start ticking. Be honest with yourself, because the mountain will be.

  • Mountain goat

    Not rated

    0 of 6 needed.

    Start ticking. Be honest with yourself, because the mountain will be.

Nothing you tick is saved or sent.

A floatplane flying low over misty timber

Whitehorse to spike camp: one drive, one flight, then your legs.

  1. Day 0

    Whitehorse, 6pm

    Greta meets you at the hotel. We weigh your gear: 50 lb including rifle, because the Beaver does not negotiate. Then we check your zero at 300 yards before dark.

  2. Day 1

    Kestle Lake float base

    Four hours north by road, then 70 minutes in the Beaver to Sheep Lake if the ceiling is above 2,000 feet. If it is not, we wait in the float base bunkhouse.

  3. Day 2

    Packs on

    Sheep and goat hunters climb to spike camp above the lake. Moose hunters paddle down to the Corbin River camp. Nobody hunts the day they fly.

  4. Last day

    When the plane can come

    Pickup is set for the morning after your last hunting day. Book flights home with three spare days. The longest weather hold in 27 seasons was five.

The Beaver is flown by Kestle Air under charter, and the pilot has the last word on every flight. We have never argued with one.

Six things we will not promise you.

  1. 1 A 40 inch ram

    The five-season average ram here is 9.6 years old and full curl. Forty inch rams live in this range. We have guided hunters to three of them since 1998.

  2. 2 Good weather

    In 2023 it snowed on August 14 and the sheep season never recovered. It can snow on any day of any hunt.

  3. 3 Flying on the day your itinerary says

    The pilot decides, not us and not you. In 2025 fog held the plane for three days.

  4. 4 A refund because the animal won

    You pay for twelve days of hard hunting with a good guide, not for a ram. That is why we insist on cancellation insurance.

  5. 5 Cell signal

    There is none for 140 miles. Your guide carries an inReach and you get two texts home a day.

  6. 6 That you will enjoy every day

    Most days are wet, cold and steep. Most clients come back anyway. A few tell us once was enough, and we respect that.

And the one thing we will

Your guide will hunt as hard on day twelve as on day one, and tell you the truth about every animal in the scope, including the ones that are legal but not worth the climb.

A hooded hunter glassing through fog with binoculars

Greta Sorell took over this concession in 1998 with one tent and a borrowed canoe.

She still books every hunt herself and still does the fitness call. Five guides work the range now, most of them for longer than a decade, and Marguerite has cooked at Sheep Lake since 2006.

Base camp is two log cabins and a wall tent cook shack on the lake. Spike camps are a two-person tent, a stove for water, and whatever the guide can carry. Nobody is comfortable on day eight. Everybody is fed.

Seasons in the Kestle Range
27
Square miles of concession, no road into any of it
3,900
Guide to hunter on sheep and goat
1:1
Seasons, average, for our five guides
14
A lone orange tent pitched in a rocky basin below the peaks
Spike camp, day six of a sheep hunt
A hunter in blaze orange climbing loose rock below a cloud-capped peak
The last 800 feet to a goat ridge

Call our past hunters. They will tell you about the bad days too.

After your first call we send a list of twenty past clients with phone numbers, and at least five of them went home without an animal.

  • Dall sheep, 2023

    No ram

    It snowed on day four and the rams went into the cliffs and stayed there. Greta told me on the first call that it could happen, and it did. I have booked again for 2027.

    Mark T., Montana (sample review)

  • Moose, 2024

    61 inch bull

    Ten days, one bull, and three trips through the muskeg with meat. My guide Jonah carried twice what I did and still beat me back to the canoe.

    Andreas K., Bavaria (sample review)

  • Mountain goat, 2025

    9.5 inch billy

    The fitness list on their site is not a joke. The last pitch to that billy was hands and knees on shale, and I was glad I had done the stair training.

    Leah P., Colorado (sample review)

Tell us the hunt, the year, and how fit you are this week.

Greta reads every inquiry and calls you back within two days, from the lake by satellite in season. 2026 sheep is full. For 2027 there are two sheep, four moose and three goat starts left (sample).

(555) 014-2010

Deposit and cancellation

  • A 50% deposit holds your start date. The balance is due 90 days before you fly.
  • Cancel more than 12 months out and we return the deposit, less $500.
  • Inside 12 months we keep the deposit unless we resell the hunt, which we usually can for sheep.
  • We may decline a booking after the fitness call. If we do, the deposit comes back in full.

No deposit is taken until after the fitness call.