A Whitehorse man was honoured posthumously over the weekend with a prestigious hunting guide award.

Tanner Sinclair, 27, won the Wild Sheep Foundation’s G.C.F Dalziel Outstanding Guide Award, presented annually to a North American guide who’s esteemed in the hunting community, with a “deep commitment to high ethical standards and sportsmanship” and a willingess to “go the last mile” to ensure a good hunting experience for clients.

Sinclair died last summer, the victim of a stabbing in the Copper Ridge subdivision of Whitehorse.

Michael Macpherson is in custody facing a second-degree murder charge.

“There’s no words,” Tanner’s father, Brent, said this morning about the award, his voice full of emotion.

“Humbling doesn’t even come close to describing it. It makes you proud. It’s bittersweet, I guess, is the way to do it. It gives Tanner a place in history among the sheep-hunting world. He would be very humbled about it himself.”

Whitney Sandulak, Tanner’s widow, said this morning the experience left her feeling emotional and overwhelmed.

She, Brent and other members of Tanner’s family attended the foundation’s ceremony in Reno, Nevada, and accepted the award on his behalf.

Brent, an established hunter and guide who lives in Pincher Creek, Alta., won the same award in 2001.

He instilled a love of hunting in his son early on – he took Tanner on his first hunt when he just was eight months old. Brent placed the boy in his backpack.

“I packed all the diapers around him to keep him from falling out, and away we went,” he said.

It was a short trip – Tanner whined and cried – but it gave him his first taste of hunting and Brent was satisfied.

Tanner grew up an avid hunter, and worked as a guide in the Northwest Territories.

That’s where he met Sandulak, at an outfitter’s camp in 2008. She was working as a cook, and he a guide.

They didn’t hit it off at first, but the next year, something clicked and she drove back to Pincher Creek with him.

“He invited me out on a cougar hunt, which was his way of sealing the deal for us,” she said. He guided the hunt, she shot a cougar and “the rest is history.”

They moved to the Yukon in 2012 with their daughter Keele, named after an N.W.T. river that was Tanner’s favourite place to guide.

“That was what he lived for,” Brent said. “To be outside and be on the mountain, and be with the people in the hunting industry.”

It was the sheep hunt Tanner loved. Brent said the animal’s habitat is what appeals to many hunters – the mountainous terrain presents a challenge and climbing to a peak provides a sense of personal achievement.

It’s a passion Tanner passed along to Keele, now three. He’d watch YouTube videos of Dall sheep hunts with her, and Sandulak said she’s already eager to go on her first hunt.

When Tanner harvested his first ram and last in the Yukon, he was with his wife and his father. That was near Bennett Lake in 2013.

Sandulak, who was pregnant when Tanner died, gave birth to their second daughter in September 2014. She named her Bennett Hope.

She said she’s grateful to have their “two little angels” to raise.

“Obviously, we’re always going to always hurt from the situation, but he wouldn’t want us to stop living life,” she said.

“I do believe everything does happen for a reason. He’s left us with so much and is still continuing to do so in miraculous ways. It’s quite humbling and overwhelming.”

Brent said the family is doing as well as they can without Tanner. He still finds it hard to believe his son is gone.

“Tanner’s passion was to give to others and make others happy,” he said. “He was someone who was always there to help someone out. He didn’t expect anything in return. He lived life to the fullest. He was always smiling.”

The support the family has received from people in Whitehorse and from the sheep-hunting community has been “unreal,” Brent said.

At the awards ceremony, the Wild Sheep Foundation donated to Sandulak and her daughters the full proceeds from two 30-day Yukon sheep hunts that were auctioned off – a total of more than $100,000.