“It’s truly an expedition. I’d even say it’s the purest hunt on earth.”

This wasn’t the first time Trey Sperring and I had talked about hunting blue sheep in Nepal. It wasn’t even the second. The first was during our mutual friend and client, John Mark Prewitt’s, California Big Horn hunt in November 2024. Since then, we’ve texted about it, mentioned it on phone calls, and even discussed it during episode 74 of the Packmule Podcast. It is a conversational thread running through our friendship. 

Trey’s quote that opened this article is from our most recent conversation about Bharal and the pilgrimage a hunter undertakes to find them high in the Himalayas. He was driving us down a dusty ranch road in South Texas. German Shorthaired Pointers were darting through the mesquite, burning through their energy to find quail. John Mark and our quail guide, Darrel, cruised the road in front of us. We were all waiting for a dog to go on point in the hopes that we could swing our over-unders and drop some quail on the wing. It was the perfect setting for a meandering chat about a hunt I’d heard him call the greatest, the toughest, and now, the purest in the world. I've dreamed about going since that first conversation in a wall tent on a cold Utah evening. Now, he was dumping gas on the fire.

He talked about the Nepali people, about how kind and happy they are, about how incredible it is to be immersed in their culture in Kathmandu. As he talked about the voyage — and I don’t use that word lightly — from Kathmandu into sheep country, I did my best to put myself into his boots. I walked the tight ridgelines and narrow trails as he described them; I saw from lush temperate forests to sub-alpine juniper and meadows to the grassy slopes and rocky outcroppings above the treeline. My mind walked in the Himalayas while my body rode shotgun in South Texas. 

Greatest, toughest, and purest are bold adjective choices to describe a hunt. It’s tempting to chalk them up as exaggerated rambling or haphazard bullshitting. You might think, “Hell, this son of a bitch is just a big-talkin’ Texan.” I’ll assure that Trey is no big talker. He was a D1 baseball player — but you’d have to pry that out of him. He also has a kind, funny demeanor combined with a straight shooter brand of honesty that makes you immediately trust him. He doesn’t bullshit. And he has the experience to back up his claims.

Trey has traveled the world to hunt – for himself and as part of his work with his Neal&Brownlee clients. You know those images of the globe that airlines use to display all the places they fly? The ones with planes drawn with different colorful lines behind them to show starting points and destinations. The man could have his own to illustrate his hunting adventures. He’s hunted in Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan (he’s currently in Tajikistan, again, as I write this). His boots have trekked much of Africa. He’s hunted in South America, Mexico, Canada, and Alaska. Add France, Scotland, Spain, Hungary, and Austria to that list. I believe Antarctica is the only continent that hasn’t seen his presence. And, of course, he’s gone on a blue sheep hunt in Nepal, accompanying his friend Taylor and another client. He’s seen some things. So, know when he uses adjectives like greatest, toughest, and purest, he isn’t bullshitting and he has the experience to back up his words.

Now, the question we must answer is, why? Why is hunting blue sheep in Nepal all the things Trey says it is? Since our game is physical and mental preparation, let’s focus on why it’s the toughest. We’ll leave greatest and purest for another discussion.

“You wake up every morning and your boots are frozen solid. Your nalgene is frozen solid,” Trey said later that evening when we were back at JM’s hunting camp. (We roped JM in on the discussion. I’ll tell you why in just a bit.) That doesn’t sound so bad from the comfort of where you’re reading this — it might even sound adventurous. But if you truly pause to put yourself into the situation, you’ll realize the mental tax that kind of ice box can place on a person. Trey went on to describe what makes the hunt the toughest in the world and the hardest thing he’s ever done. I’ll take over and paraphrase it for you.

You walk for days, gaining elevation through varied and gnarly terrain before even making it into sheep country. Don’t let that statement slip by you. Pause to take it in. The entire expedition walks for several days before any hunting is done. You gain elevation, then trek back down the hill to sleep and acclimatize. Then up you go, again. Most hard hunts have spicy hikes, but there’s scouting, glassing, and hunting along the way. That keeps the mind fresh. Even as the body strains, the eyes search for targets. That’s not nothin’. 

There are narrow trails that don’t allow for missed steps. Mess up and you’ll have yourself a nice tumble into the afterlife. There are grassy slopes that make foot purchase damn near sisyphean. You trudge and you trudge, but your feet keep slipping as you make your way uphill. And then there is the elevation.

All of your trekking takes you nearly to the roof of the world…and you stay there. Mountain hunting of all sorts makes altitude a variable, but the Himalayas are a special kind of tall. You hunt very high the entire time. The hunting itself is also different from most other mountain hunts.

Instead of plopping down and glassing to spot critters, the hunters and the guides move, all day. No nice little warm-up jaunt to a knob and then a survey of the view. A hunter’s offered plenty of scenery, but it’s as they wear out the soles of their boots. There are no energy savings to be had. You burn calories and you suck gas as you deal with the altitude. 

I’ve not yet been on this hunt, so there are details I can’t give to you. But step back and take in the full scope of what I have provided. Really let it sink into you in comparison to your most difficult hunts. I believe you’ll see why Trey doesn’t lightly use the word toughest. 

There’s another why question to answer. Why are we even talking about it?

While we’re all friends, Trey and I share JM as a client. Trey books his hunts. I prepare him physically, nutritionally, and mentally for the hunts. We’re a heck of a team. Since we each work with JM, and he was the reason we were in South Texas, Trey and I started talking shit. I’m kidding. JM’s hunts naturally rose into our conversation. 

Earlier this year (2025), JM completed his North American Sheep Grand Slam, bringing it home with a beautiful, 14-year-old Dall ram. I was with him when he got ¾ of the way on a brawler of a Sierra Nevada bighorn (a subspecies of Rocky Mountain bighorn), and Trey’s been present for all of JM’s sheep. When a man completes one journey, he naturally casts his eyes toward the next horizon. JM had told me he needed his next thing. He has a mountain goat hunt lined up in 2026 and a return trip to Africa in 2027, but neither carries the weight of disembarking for unknown shores. From what Trey had described, I knew putting a blue sheep hunt on the books would drive JM to cast away the mooring lines. It would become the horizon motivating him to grow as a person and a hunter so that he may reach the Himalayas with both feet firmly planted and his head square on his shoulders. So, I tossed the idea to Trey.

“What do you think about JM hunting blue sheep?” Trey didn’t delay his answer.

“I think that’s a good hunt for him.” Trey would know. Not only has he hunted damn near everywhere, he also knows JM at depth. (Not, like, Biblically or anything. Just as a friend and a hunter.) That’s a benefit of being Trey’s client. He gets to know you well, and he sets you up for success. The man won’t send you on a journey you shouldn’t be on.

It was then that I mentioned my chat with JM about finding his next, big journey — that it was the first hunt I pictured when JM told me he wanted to find his next horizon. There isn’t a hunt in the Americas that grabbed him by the jollies, and he isn’t interested in most of Asia. On top of that, JM likes to do hard things. The man lives for a challenge. What better challenge than scaling the highest mountain range in the world — overcoming elevation, becoming a freezer-burnt chicken nugget, and walking endlessly — to hunt the same quarry as the snow leopard? As a hunter, you will find none.

With the idea settled between Trey and I, we brought it up to JM on a break to switch out dogs. He was in. There was only one thing left to find out. Could I tag along as an observer?

Many “sane” people would ask why in the hell I’d want to go along on such a hunt. Sanity, in some regards, is a stupid goal. Trey’s description of the hardships romanced me into wanting to hop the next jet to Kathmandu. Of course, I want to see the Himalayas the only way a person truly can — by walking among and up them. And I want to “shake hands” with the Nepali people. But the view from atop the world and the cultural immersion are second order benefits. I know I’ll have to become someone greater to approach the trial by ice in a way that meets my own standards. The hunt provides the opportunity for me to spend the next two years molding myself into a better man. If I have to choose between being sane and being better, I will always choose better.

It would be JM’s hunt, but I’d be there to walk alongside him as his coach. Something I can’t, and never would, take lightly. Now, JM is a tough bastard. But he’s also smart enough to know that it’s invaluable to have a trusted companion and coach at your side while doing something so challenging as hiking the Himalayas to hunt a high alpine critter. I have to be the man he can count on. To do that, I have to fully live out a value I wrote for myself years ago to guide my physical and mental training:

Create Excess — train my body and mind to have huge reserves so people can count on me when the chips are down. 

The chips may never be “down” for him in Nepal, but he’ll be a long way from home in a challenging environment doing, likely, the hardest thing he’s ever done. It would be invaluable to have a trusted coach and companion there to manage his mentality and physicality. I know I’m the man for the job. He’s already mentioned that I’m welcome on any of his hunts. The question was, would the outfitter allow me to support JM on this one?

I asked Trey, “I know you went on Taylor’s hunt, but you were the booking agent. Would the outfitter allow me to tag along on JM’s?”

“Yeah, they allow observers. You’d just have to pay an observer’s fee.”

I didn’t pump my fist in real life, but that son of a bitch hit the ceiling inside my head!

I am going to Nepal to accompany my friend and client on the toughest hunt in the world.

Our wheels leave the tarmac in November 2028. That’s a long but necessary runway to fully prepare for such an expedition. JM and I have a lot of work to do.

I’ll be documenting that work here and on the Packmule YouTube channel. If you want to follow along, you’ll see regular articles about what it takes to plan long training cycles to prepare for long-term physical and mental goals. And you’ll get a peak behind the curtain at how I manage my own training, nutrition, and mental skills development. It’ll be worth it even if you never plan to hunt outside your home state because you’ll learn what it truly takes to manage your mind and body over the long-term in pursuit of a big goal. That, friend, is a big part of what life is about.

I’m pumped to bring you the Prepping for the Toughest Hunt on Earth series. 

We’ll spend the next two years getting after it together.