Summer's Significance

A half-dozen years ago, I introduced my sweetheart to big game hunting. She nudged me into upland bird hunting and started me skiing – more specifically, alpine ski racing.

- Jack Ballard

At the conclusion of last winter, I’d sustained more significant injuries in the past five years than in the entirety of my previous life, all due to skiing. Yet there is something wildly euphoric about linking turns through a course of poles at 50 miles per hour on nothing but a slippery pair of skis.

Come summer, my recreational passions are similar to hordes of other all-around outdoorsmen. Fly fishing, hiking wilderness areas and steering a canoe down a crystalline river relegate skiing to the back recesses of my mind. Yet much of what affects skiing in the winter is brewing in the summer. Ocean currents, and the weather patterns they usher into fall and winter, bring snow (or not) to the Rockies – factors that are already developing by summer’s end.

Big-game hunting in the fall is similarly influenced by summer. In the areas I plan to hunt in the fall, both in and out of state, attention is given to several summer developments that might seriously impact prospects. Looking to make the most of advance preparation for the fall season? Here are some summer factors to consider.

Drought: Below-average precipitation and above-average temperatures during summer can have major consequences on fall hunting. Altered distribution of animals across their range is one of the primary results of drought. On the prairies, pronghorn, deer and elk often rely on the same water sources as livestock. These stock ponds often consist of earthen dams constructed to hold water from snowmelt and summer thunderstorms. Some have substantial capacity and cover a surface area of a dozen or more acres. Others are much smaller. Without replenishment, a single torrid summer can dry them completely.