You’ve probably never heard of me or where I’m from. I’m Jake Smith, a local surfer, fisherman, and hunter from Tofino, Canada. Tofino is a small district on Vancouver Island, off Canada’s west coast. We are known for our surfing and sunsets, and some people say Tofino is the most tropical place in Canada, which if you ask me isn’t saying much. My family owns a local hunting shop right off the northern part of the great and mighty Pacific Ocean. The shop is mostly run by my parents, my brother Lucky, my sister Ella, and a couple of close family friends. The shop had been passed down to my father Ryan from his father or my grandpa Rob.

My father was always a very outgoing man so a couple of years back when he told the whole family he was going east to the Rocky Mountains to hunt the greatest mammal of all times, the elk, we thought it would be another one of his crazy adventures. He left with high hopes and told us he’d be back in a week. He had gone on hundreds of crazy adventures ranging from hunting the next animal in season or going to a different country to catch a huge wave for 10 seconds. Most of these trips only lasted a few days, and some trips lasted one or two days more if he had some problems, but when 2 weeks passed without a word from our father, the family got worried, we tried calling and calling, but we didn’t know if he had service or not. We later found out a huge snowstorm hit the area our dad was hunting, and temperatures dropped below freezing. A search team was sent out to find him and a few other missing men that were on a different trip, then they found his campsite but no sign of him. He was pronounced missing person case , but they stopped looking, pretty much saying he was dead. But we don’t believe he just died from a snowstorm, I believe something bigger will happen, but we will never know. After that, my mom was always very cautious of what Lucky and I did, probably because she always said I had all the same traits as my father, courageous, athletic, adventurous, and we both had a big ego.

One day when I was working in the shop with my brother, a man came in talking about how crazy the Elk in the mountains are. He told me how there are elk taking over his town of Golden, in the British Columbia part of Canada. At that very moment, something inside of me came alive, I needed to go. The only problem was I had to convince my mom to let me go. 

That night I came home from the shop, and I could smell my mom's famous chicken and rice dish for dinner, which always tasted like a calm cool fall night. When supper started to get quieter I decided to bring up my great idea. 

“So mom, today when Lucky and I were working.” 

“It’s Lucky and I,” mom said as she rudely interrupted me 

“Whatever,” I said back.

I started my story again “So the guy was telling us about the Elk in the Rocky Mountains moving like crazy, so I was wondering if I could go hunting for...”

“NO END OF STORY!” mom yelled before I could finish. 

“What if I go with, and Jim could go with us to” said Lucky

Jim has been Luckys and I’s best friend since childhood. He was an amazing hunter and had lots of experience. 

“I’ll think about it.” mom said and left the table, and started snapping her fingers, which was a habit she started when dad died, it shows she’s not in a good mood.

As soon as she left the room Ella screamed at us and told us how stupid we were for even thinking about going to the Rockies.

The next night at dinner, mom shocked the whole family when she said “ It’s not fair if I banned you from going to the Rocky Mountains forever, so I’m letting you guys go.” Lucky and I cheered and high-fived each other.

“But there will be some rules.” mom stated. 

“ I will not be involved with this at all, so you guys have to pay for everything, and buy all the gear you need, and don’t buy cheap gear, and the last thing is safe, if there is a storm coming, get out of the mountains, and get close to anything that could kill,” she stated.

“Ok,” said Lucky

“Thank you, thank you, thank you a million times.” I said.

The next day we asked Jim and he agreed to go. We all started planning and buying a couple of things we still need.

A couple of days later on the first day of fall at 6:00 am, we left for the mountains. We landed at Jasper Airport at 10:00 am in Jasper, Alberta. We then shuttled to Golden, British Columbia. We arrived at a cattle ranch where they rented three mules to go up the mountain. After we finished the paperwork we packed up the mules and headed up the mountains. 

When we got the perfect campsite we set up a huge tent, portable stove, heater, and a lot more camping equipment to get us through the trip Then we went glassing over the valley looking for elk. 

“EEEEEEEEEEW!” We saw a herd of elk about a mile away, but we only had an hour of light left, so we let them be. A couple of days went by and we only saw some bulls, with cows, but nothing we could chase down. 

On the fourth day we woke with chills, and frost all over the tent. Lucky immediately yelled, “Check the weather!” 

I looked at my weather app right away, “Everything looks fine, nothing that's going to hit us today.” Then all of a sudden my weather app exploded with snowstorms.

 “No, No, No, this isn’t good, we are in the middle of a snowstorm!” We all ran out of the tent into the pitch white skies. We couldn’t even see 10 feet in front of us, and to make matters worse, our mules were gone. We quickly all got packed up, and left a tent and equipment we couldn’t carry for behind.

We start our way down the mountain but it wasn’t looking good, they were up to our ankles in snow and I could only see a foot ahead, as we walk further and further, I start to feel like Lucky and Joe's voices were drifting away and then all of a sudden “WOOOSSSHHH” a gust a wind blew me over, I hit the ground, and everything went black.

I woke up with the sun shining in my eyes. I slowly got up and looked around. I didn’t know how far I fell, how long I was out, or where I was. I tried walking but there was so much snow, plus I was pretty bruised up. I then remembered I had a pair of snowshoes in a bag, which luckily stayed on my back. I put on the shoes and I started walking hoping to find something or someone who could help me. 

I walked and walked for hours until I couldn't anymore, and I lay down. I had no water or food. I always wondered how my dad got stuck in the snowstorms and died. Now I realized, it’s pretty easy because those storms can be as sneaky as a cat. So I decided to lay down and take a nap not knowing if I would wake up. When I heard the most beautiful sound ever, the sound of a bull grunting. I looked to my left and I saw a whole herd of elk. They had found a lake and were drinking from it only had ½ inch of ice so I could easily break it. Unfortunately, I had left my bow at camp, but at least I found some water. I used every last bit of energy I had in my body to crawl over to the water, I didn’t care that I was in so much pain. As I crawled closer the bulls ran off into woods nearby. I dove my head into the water and tucked a nice long drink. For the first time water had a taste, it tasted like everything but also at the same time nothing. I kept on drinking until I remembered I had to do something called breath. I then filled my water pack and headed to the cave, to make some MRE’s. On my way I collected the driest wood I could find, I started a fire and heated up some water. I have to say that's the best meal I’ve ever had, which was saying something because the military meals aren’t that good. I then started hiking again, I saw the highest point on the mountain and decided to try to get up there from a good point of view, but I still wasn’t all there after the fall, so this was a terrible idea.

I got about halfway up the mountain when I had to stop and rest. As I rested I looked at the sun and thought how beautiful it looked. When something started moving, it came closer and closer, and then darkness.

I woke up, in the hospital, they said I had a broken arm and very severe frostbite. A couple of minutes later Lucky and Jim rushed into the room and talked to me for an hour, but I wasn’t all there so all I remember is I was lost on the mountain for 3 days, mostly knocked out for 2. As I started to come back to earth more, and more, they told me mom was on her way here. The next day in the middle of getting my daily shots for my frostbites. My mom rushed acting like she didn’t even know if I was going to be alive. She gave me the biggest hug ever, and said something I would never forget, “Never do something like that again Ryan.”

In my opinion, I believe that I failed my mission. I never got an elk, but I knew deep down I would have many more chances because my mom was wrong. I was going to do it again and I understand my dad’s death more and more now. Understanding how the mountains and weather is its own challenge.