Our last day and more excitement planned. A Heliboarding day!
I've never been in a helicopter before so this was to be a new experience and an exciting one at that. We drove down to Switzerland as Heliskiing is illegal in Chamonix, and we pulled over in a layby off the road near some power lines. A fuel hose was lying across the car park from a pickup with some fuel tanks. It looked an unliekly spot for a helipad!
A few minutes later in came a black shiny heli landed in front of us and picked some skiers up. It seemed ages before it came back to collect us and I was in the first group to go up. We piled our snowboards on one side of its landing patch and Ralph pinned them down as it landed, then we bowed our heads and ran under the rotors and clambered in having dropped our rucksacks outside, Neil passed them into us closed the door and we were up and swopping away into the mountains before I could even gasp.
I thought it would frighten me or make me feel queasy but not at all I could see right out of the windows and it was exciting. We went higher and higher and could feel the mountain winds swaying the chopper. Ralph got the pilot to swing us over the galcier wwe were to descend it looked vast and steep. Then we swang up through the peaks and suddenly I could feel the speed of the heli as it got caught in the winds- butt clenching stuff!
We dropped into the Trieste Plateau and skirted the cliffs to land and then we were out kneeling on the ground in the snow with the blades rotating above our heads and immense noise as it took off swiftly and was suddenly a dot in the distance.
I've never been in a helicopter before so this was to be a new experience and an exciting one at that. We drove down to Switzerland as Heliskiing is illegal in Chamonix, and we pulled over in a layby off the road near some power lines. A fuel hose was lying across the car park from a pickup with some fuel tanks. It looked an unliekly spot for a helipad!
A few minutes later in came a black shiny heli landed in front of us and picked some skiers up. It seemed ages before it came back to collect us and I was in the first group to go up. We piled our snowboards on one side of its landing patch and Ralph pinned them down as it landed, then we bowed our heads and ran under the rotors and clambered in having dropped our rucksacks outside, Neil passed them into us closed the door and we were up and swopping away into the mountains before I could even gasp.
I thought it would frighten me or make me feel queasy but not at all I could see right out of the windows and it was exciting. We went higher and higher and could feel the mountain winds swaying the chopper. Ralph got the pilot to swing us over the galcier wwe were to descend it looked vast and steep. Then we swang up through the peaks and suddenly I could feel the speed of the heli as it got caught in the winds- butt clenching stuff!
We dropped into the Trieste Plateau and skirted the cliffs to land and then we were out kneeling on the ground in the snow with the blades rotating above our heads and immense noise as it took off swiftly and was suddenly a dot in the distance.
We watched as the others flew in and then we all boarded up and set off across the plateau for the snowshoe hike. We hiked for about an hour or so up about 300m vertical. Then we had a quick lunch stop and strapped our boards on and snowshoes back on our packs for the descent.
The snow was pretty wind scoured and had a hard crust on it to break through but the riding was good with fresh tracks for all as we skirted below the blue ice of the glacier. Then we hit a soft powdery section which was sweet turns all the way and the guys left me the first tracks, even though we could all get freshies as there was so much powder.
At one point my heart rate shot into overtime as Ralph scouted the Couloir which looked narrow to me! He deceided against and isnatedad we had a sweet bowl to ride. Suddenly we were through the wide open expanses and into a rocky shallow and bumpy traverse to get out. The bit I hate sitting in tracks and speeding along with barely an opportunity to control speed without using your bum brake!
We crossed a bridge and hiked for a while then hit an icy road which was more like a luge run down to the car park. Excitement over and last day survived! What a fun week.
The bus was quiet on the way back- everyone contemplating the great week and new friends and the return to work next week.
That evening we got the taste for the Kamchatka trip to Russia - it would be so g0od to do that- and Neil issued our McNab sweatshirts a medium blue for me, no T-shirts in my size though so will have to email Neil for one when he gets the new ones in.
No comments:
Post a Comment