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The Ptarmigan Slam – Willow, Rock & White-Tailed

Hunt Dates: Feb 1 – March 30

The Ptarmigan Slam – The Ultimate Alaska Upland Challenge.   This hunt is for the serious collector that wants to harvest all three species of ptarmigan in one trip.   We have been working on this for the last three years and we are now confident in our locations and have experienced high rates of success.

This ptarmigan hunt takes you on a 400 mile tour of Alaska through 3 mountain ranges hunting  the tundra of  Interior Alaska to the lowland willows of Coastal Alaska.

We will spend 2 days in Interior Alaska hunting willow and  rock ptarmigan (with some ruffed grouse and spruce grouse possibilities) and  then travel 300 miles south to coastal Alaska.   Here we will hunt 3 days, first concentrating on white-tailed ptarmigan,  and  once successful, we will hunt willow ptarmigan.

In order to protect populations and to ensure high hunter success rates we are only offering two trips per year, with a 2 white-tailed ptarmigan  limit per hunter.  Hunters may harvest the legal limit of the remaining ptarmigan species. (Willow and Rock Ptarmigan limits range from 5 – 10 birds daily depending on location.)

We supply all winter travel gear that will be used on these  hunts including snowmobiles, boats, snowshoes, and trucks. You  can expect winter temperatures  from 10 –  40 degrees. I would rate this as a  moderately difficult to difficult hunt, depending on snow conditions. Some find the  walking in snowshoes very difficult the first time.  We have the highest quality Crescent Moon snowshoes  and will teach you how it is done!

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They are all white! So how do you tell the difference? 

Willow Ptarmigan –

When in  winter plumage, willow ptarmigan  are almost entirely white with black tail feathers that have a broad white strip at  the tip, similar to rock ptarmigan. Willows are distinguishable by their trademark feature: a thick, wide bill. Willow ptarmigan are also the largest of our three ptarmigan species.

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Rock Ptarmigan –

Rock ptarmigan are larger than  whitetails and smaller than willows. As is the  case in willow ptarmigan, rocks are almost entirely white with black tail feathers tipped with  white. One distinguishing factor is that cocks have a black  mask from bill to ear. Most hens have no mask, but some may have a partial black stripe near the eye. A more tell-tale characteristic would be the rock ptarmigan’s much narrower bill, which clearly distinguishes  it from the willow ptarmigan.

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White-Tailed Ptarmigan –

Unlike willow and rock ptarmigan, the whitetail’s   tail feathers are pure white. Whitetails retain these white tail feathers year-round since they only molt  once each year in  midsummer. Whitetails are almost entirely white in winter, even in the shafts of their  wing feathers which are pale instead of black as in the other ptarmigan species.