2024
Alaska Caribou Hunt Gear List
Caribou hunting in Alaska requires planning and preparation due to the fact all your equipment needs to be flown in. This makes it essential to have all your gear
calculated down to the ounce.
Garth's Full Alaska Caribou Gear List
Work Down the List
- First on my mind for this hunt is how many people are going and how much shared equipment can we get away with? Items like stoves, water filters, small pot and pan, food, spotting scope, etc. can be shared amongst the group or in twos and can cut weight down across the board. I always figure this out prior to diving into my own list so I can cross items off my list that someone else is bringing. This is honestly a hunt where a bigger group (within a limit of six is my preference) is better as you start to cut down on the weight per person the more gear assignments you split up.
- Another aspect to consider when going down through this list is the remoteness of where we are going to be dropped. Location trumps weight in regards to safety, for the most part. My suture kit is an item that I typically throw in that will add a little extra weight but could be very important if needed.
- Doubling up on certain items is helpful. I’ll bring two larger power banks instead of one, that way if the sun is sticky coming out which can often be the case in Alaska I am not as reliant on using my solar panel. I will also throw in at least 2 regular size blue tarps for protecting the meat from getting saturated from rain. These are just a few items that fit into this category but following those guidelines you will notice more items that fit this criteria throughout the list.
Garth's Gear List
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Clothing Specifics for Caribou
In Alaska annual rainfall is far greater than the lower 48. Although I primarily use merino-based clothing on lower 48 hunts, I tend to gear my clothing more towards synthetics when hunting Alaska. This is for extra protection when trying to dry out layers that have become wet either from rain or condensation. Synthetics dry out faster and will be much more comfortable for the duration of the hunt.
Layer Up
Although the temps in northern Alaska in August aren’t exactly freezing, with high humidity and constant rain and variable winds, 40-degree temps can often feel like 30 degrees. For this reason, I typically pack what I consider to be an extra mid layer to account for high humidity cold temps. I also bring my down puffy top and bottom layers but these rarely come out unless absolutely necessary.
Prepare for Rain
I always take a heavier rain pant in lieu of regular hunt pants. The Stone Glacier M7 Rain Pants have a fleece lining and I have found that wearing these as my primary pant is better than pulling rain pants off and on a dozen times over the course of a day or wearing rain pants over your regular hunting pants all day. When I know I will be in any environment where most likely I will be wet from rain or walking through brush most of the day, wearing a heavier pair of rain pants with a lightweight base layer is far more comfortable for all day use.
There Will Be Bugs
Most early season hunts in Alaska will have ALL the bugs out. Mosquitos, White Socks (Black Flies), Biting Midges, etc., will be swarming your head anytime the wind isn’t blowing. Bug spray only does so much and even if you repeat bug spray every hour on the hour, they will still get you. I have found simple, lightweight head nets, like the Sea to Summit Mosquito Head Net, are a no brainer and are very effective AND you won’t be tasting deet the entire day, which can’t be good for anyone.
Food Considerations
One thing I like about hunting Alaska is the availability of water and because you have so much at your disposal, I take a heavy number of freeze-dried meals to save weight for the flight in. With great tasting meals like Peak and Alpen I honestly look forward to breakfast and dinner every day that I am out there. Don’t get me wrong, I will throw some snacks in as well like almonds, jerky, and cheese, but with breakfast and dinner making up most of my calories, you can shave some serious ounces and take a few more luxury items by utilizing the abundance of water.
Camp Arrangements
Caribou typically live in wide open tundra slopes so a high quality, stout built, rigid tent is a must. Adding a lightweight chair for just being able to relax snd go over your day and enjoy some dinner and be comfortable is worth the extra 16 ounces. And for remote hunts of this nature, it is absolutely necessary to have reliable satellite communication with your pilot/transporter.
Tent & Sleeping Arrangements
Caribou typically live in wide open tundra slopes so a high quality, stout built, rigid tent is a must. I always take a bombproof, 2 person sleeping tent when hunting Alaska. When I say bombproof, I mean a solid 4 season tent that has a rigid pole system that won’t act as a wind catch. I have learned the hard way that a cylinder design or center pole tipi design will catch more wind than allow it to flow over and around it. Even if your tent stays standing and together the racket and clattering coming from the vibrating walls will keep you up all night.
A Little Comfort
The Helinox Chair Zero is an item I will leave at home most of the time on true backpack hunts, but when I am flying into remote parts of Alaska for a drop camp type hunt this is a must for me. Just being able to relax and sit in a chair and go over your day and enjoy some dinner and be comfortable is worth the extra 16 ounces.
The Safety of Satellite Communication
For remote hunts of this nature, it is absolutely necessary to have reliable communication with your pilot/transporter. I use Garmin's inReach. This is your lifeline to relaying weather information to your pilot for pickup as well as reading the weather forecast to prepare for future storms.
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Additional Gear Considerations
I use a backpacking mentality when it comes to weight consciousness because of the flights required for this hunt. I have my standard items that make it into my pack regardless of the area or season I am packing for. I will touch on a few others that didn’t quite fit into any of the other categories.
I always throw in a small digital scale on any hunt that requires a bush plane flight. Although not always required by the pilot, everything gets weighed going out and it only makes sense to provide accurate weights when heading back in. Trust me, the pilots will appreciate it.
You can never have too many tarps. Blue tarps will make it onto my gear list for every caribou hunt to protect the meat from getting saturated and growing bacteria. You never know how long you will have to keep your meat dry with the uncertain nature of relying on a plane for transportation in an environment that is unpredictable at best.
Although not actually gear I thought I would throw in the Transfer of Possession form. This is a printed form from ADFG. If your pilot has the opportunity to take meat out of the field for you, you will need to have this form filled out. Otherwise, the hunter will have to travel with the meat. It’s not absolutely necessary but it weighs less than an ounce and it can be the difference in staying out in the field and having to fly back early.
Key Take Aways
It's a balancing act. For this hunt I took 2 blue tarps and could’ve used 1 more. With 5 caribou harvested, keeping the meat and velvet antlers dry was a challenge. We ran out of tarp space and I had to use my Stone Glacier Sky Tarp to cover some of it. I hate to depend on harvesting an animal as part of my food but for this hunt I should have. Once we had a caribou down, we ate it for dinner and wound up with quite a bit more food than needed. On the other hand, if we had been stuck in the field due to weather, I would have needed that food for sure.
Using heavy duty rain pants for my daily pants was instrumental. I did not have to pack separate rain pants and did not need to stop and put them on every time a shower came through (which was somewhere between 3-4 times a day on average). The synthetic layers came in handy too. When they would get a little damp from either perspiration or sprinkling rain that I didn’t want to pull my rain jacket out for, they would dry out in about 20 minutes of light hiking then back to normal.
A good frame pack with a decent size bag for spiking out for a few nights was great. The Stone Glacier Sky 5900 had enough room to load up a spike camp and venture out of base camp for a few days. It also has a good enough frame and load shelf system to handle heavy loads of meat for miles back to base camp.
The only thing I would really swap out is the filtering system. The MSR Guardian was great at base camp, but I would have liked a Katadyn Hiker Pro pump filter for day hikes as well as spiking out. There were a fair number of small pools of water that were harder to get water out of with a bag filter that would have been easy to suck up with a pump. So next time I may take both.