You guys are exactly right. I am thankful I didn't get hurt or was so fatigued that we couldn't get out. My hip flexors were SHOT by the end and I was stumbling along at the end there. My wife had to help me out of bed the next day, and I could hardly walk up steps, haha. Brutal.
So we got the sleds out yesterday. It was sooo good to get my sled back into the shop and warming up, and even to see them leave the snow has the AStar lifted them out. Having a heli at your disposal has got to be one of the awesomest things in the world.
We had to come in for a hover landing (me and another buddy) while Aaron - my original partner in crime - brought us in through this TIGHT break in the trees. We were all a little shaky after we bailed and he pulled out. So intense! There must have been no more than 10 feet clearance from the trees/rotors on each side. Snow flying everywhere like mad too! I GENTLY stepped onto each step and then finally the skid where I hopped off into the deep stuff and almost dissappeared. We had to move slowly so that he could correct for the weight transfer. Then my buddy handed me all our gear including slings, shovels, snowshoes, etc. before hoping out himself. Each time I took something from him we both got an insane shock (we were warned this would happen). It felt very close to a 120v shock from a house outlet, really. But we were friggin giving er as the rotors were right above us
thunderingly loud and we both knew he was having trouble holding the hover in such a tight place. More blizzard action through-out this all - sooo crazy. He took off and we celebrated being alive! We couldn't even take photos or video properly because our hands were shaking so bad! We aren't pansies but that was so intense. Props to my buddy for his piloting skill.
We shoed up and started walking towards where the sleds would be. Over the 2 days we were away there had been 4.5 feet of fresh snow! I expected a lot but to see it in person is insane. We saw mine first - there was only the handlebars sticking out! Good thing we had GPS waypoints. The dig was not too bad but we were rushed because the AStar was airborn and burning fuel fast. (= CA$H) We had to get him to land because they we just so far buried and frozen down that it took longer to find the a-arms, etc. for the slings. We dug mine out and I rigged it up while my buddy hiked further up through this insanely deep powder to start on the second 163 which would be buried worse. Mine at least was not stuck when I left it but his was trenched down deep, right to the ground and was frozen hard. Check the pics below for what it looked like. Good memories!
We got them both rigged and the heli came back with a 100ft longline. The propwash was so intense! It was an insane blizzard under there and trying to watch for the incoming hook (while trying to avoid getting taken out or having it impact the sled as it swayed) was very difficult. Any exposed skin instantly became unbearable. My buddy and I are both northern-raised and endure (and work outside in) -40C/-40F winters every year but we both knew nothing that cold. It was all you could do to not turtle. I finally hooked the sled and radioed him to lift (not that I could hear a THING) and watched in awsomeness as the sled lifted up and past me homeward bound. It was a little frightening as the sled got higher than me as it was directly above me and I knew that if it somehow dropped (after all, I had done the rigging lol) I would be toast. My buddy tried to take some snaps be could hardly see a thing. I was so stoked to see it out!! Nothing better. We were both having a blast at that point! Who does stuff like that afterall? Awesome.
The second sled came out must the same, with a little wrinkle. The slings got tangled in a nearby tree and I was panicing as I raced to untangle it before he lifted. The radio was pretty ineffective at that point - I doubted he could hear me with all the noise and wind. It worked and my buddy piloted it expertly out of the trench we dug and kept it off the immediately nearby trees. Done! All that remained was the hike out. Fortuantely a more open clearing was spotted further down the creek so we snowshoed our way down .3 of a km through the deep stuff. My hip flexors started acting up again but we were given a half hour to make it. We did and the heli was able to touch the from of its skids on the snow to help stablize the hover and we reversed the process. No shocks here thank goodness.
I'll post some pics too. We had lots of fun with the rescue and only a little damage to the sleds, done as we rode up that day. We certainly won't be doing that again but the experience was something else I tell you. You have no idea (or maybe some of you do) how sweet it feels to see the sleds lift out of the snow as if by magic, with all the effort at manual recovery would have taken now suddenly gone. The sleds sit in my shop happy and warm. I hope they forgive us for leaving them in the hills for 2 nights!
Hope you enjoyed the story - at our expense.
