Ed is joined for photos by GSCO board members (L-R) Mark Hampton, Dale Martin, and Keith hite.

Ed Yates has certainly set himself apart in recent years as one of the world’s premier mountain hunters. From GSCO’s records, we find that Ed began his mountain hunting career only some twenty-one years ago. However, once Ed got the mountain hunting bug, he has gone full tilt, as some might say. Amazingly, he has mixed in hunting on every huntable continent for every other type of big game, but there is no doubt he has concentrated on the wild sheep and goats of the world. Ed has the Ovis World Slam Super 30 as well as the Capra Super 30, as you would imagine. As for the Ovis sheep species, Ed has a total of fifty-four trophies, all documented and recorded with GSCO, and for the Capra goat trophies he is up to thirty-seven on that list.

Speaking of documentation, Ed has been very conscientious in that regard, and even with his busy schedule, he has closely worked with GSCO in the ever-important aspect of reporting, recording and documenting. Ed is seen in almost every issue of Slam Quest and does an outstanding job of writing very interesting and informative reports.

Ed has also distinguished himself as a conservationist. Ed has a very quiet demeanor, but he speaks loudly when it comes to his commitment to conservation. It is not just GSCO that Ed supports, but he is a Life Member of SCI, and has served on various important committees within SCI. There are too many other organizations and accomplishments to mention here, but suffice it to say he has certainly put back.

As you would expect, Ed has a Grand Slam, #1318, completed in 2006. In fact, he has gone on to a third Grand Slam. Ed has taken all of the huntable snow sheep, including the newly recognized Chukotka snow sheep. As for the argalis, he has spent a lot of time after those, including the Gobi, Hangay and Altay argalis from Mongolia. Ed has taken a Marco Polo from Tajikistan, and a Hume (HEWMEE) and Tian Shan argali both from Kyrgyzstan. Ed has taken a Chinese blue sheep and two Himalayan blue sheep, one taken in Pakistan and the other from Nepal. As for the mouflons, Ed has three European varieties from various locations, and he has also taken an Armenian mouflon, Konya mouflon and the very difficult new species on the Ovis list, the Corsican mouflon from France. Now, moving along to the urials, we find that Ed has all four of those, with his Transcaspian and Afghan urials from Turkmenistan, and the Blanford and Punjab from Pakistan. As for the turs, which are a transition species between Ovis and Capra, Ed has each of those three, so he did not shy away from the steep Caucasus Mountain hunting. As for his Capra hunts, he has two American mountain goats and all ten species of chamois. Ed traveled to Nepal and was able to collect the difficult and highly desirable Himalayan tahr. Moving along to the ibex, we find that Ed has all of those except the Nubian and Persian desert ibex, which have both been closed to hunting for some time now. Ed didn’t forget to add a markhor to his Capra list and was able to take the majestic Kashmir in Pakistan during 2008. There are of course some others Ed has, such as the Mallorcan wild goat and the bezoar (hybrid) ibex, as well as some feral goats from around the globe. Ed Yates is known among his peers as a man of highest integrity in all aspects of life. Ed was the 2011 Weatherby Award winner, he was inducted into the Pantheon the very first year in 2013, and yes, now he has reached another pinnacle as the recipient of the 2017 OVIS.

2017 OVIS recipient Ed Yates smiles for the camera with his OVIS bronze.

Ed Yates with a desert sheep taken in 2014.