Life in a Northern Town

By kagsy

Back Blip - Helicopter

We woke to grey skies and fog. It was our last day , and I had built the whole holiday around a helicopter trip  today - they told us it was unlikely to go ahead. 

But as luck would have it, there was a celebrity in the house that day - a famous musher, veteran of many Iditarods, and he really, really wanted to go up to the top of the glacier to see his dogs in their summer kennels. So we set off in the fog and rain, in a tiny helicopter, to fly to a glacier. As we approached the landing site we were in a complete whiteout so we had to be talked in to land by the 2 lads who stay up there for a week at a time with the dogs. 

The dogs were completely amazing. It's hard to pick a photo for today so I'll add a few in extras because I love dogs and how can you pick between dogs and glaciers? 

As it was time to return there was a problem - the helicopter couldn't get back for us - I looked at the tents that were home to the mushers for a week at a time, thought of our homeward flight departing the following morning and crossed my fingers. 

They had to tow us on a snowmobile part way down the glacier, and we eventually saw the helicopter in the whiteout. I put my trust in the skills of the pilot and off we went. We soon flew through the cloud and the return trip was out of this world. If you are interested enough, there's a video here.

An afternoon of exploring the area, vertiginous mountain passes, abandoned mines, mountains, glaciers and a Dairy Queen. Perfect. 

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