The epitome of a strike mission with Ethan Morgan.
Ethan arrived in New Zealand about 3 weeks ago and since then he and I have been planning a mission. We had been trying to get a day out with Mount Cook Heli for the past 10 days and nothing seemed to be lining up. Unfortunately for us, the weather patterns and conditions have been so unpredictable it has been extremely hard for us to lock anything in.
Until one random evening, the phone rang, it was Mount Cook Heli saying they had availability for the next morning. So in a split second, a decision was made and we had pulled the trigger on what would turn out to be a very chaotic strike mission.
Leaving Queenstown at 4am, arriving at Mount Cook National Park airport we were rushed straight to the helipad and given 10-15 minutes to get our gear together. We had to be quick as the pilot was concerned about some incoming weather.
As soon as we got up into the alpine, the winds were extreme, on the verge of gale force and the helicopter was getting knocked about. It was a crazy experience and the pilot was not stoked to be out there. We decided to attempt one run, as it allowed the pilot to park the machine in a sheltered position and assess the incoming weather.
Unfortunately, as soon as we had finished that one run, we had word on the radio that we needed to bug out like, RIGHT NOW! as there was a big dark cloud of weather and increasing winds imminent. The mission was abruptly cut short and we were out of there just as quickly as we flew in.
Regardless of it not being as successful as we had hoped for in terms of finding great snow and good lines, we still had an awesome experience and taking Ethan into the New Zealand backcountry to dip his toes into what was on offer around the Mount Cook National Park area I know for sure he’s hungry for more, and of course, we’re both really looking forward to next winter!
RMB
