Dry Valleys

Hey errrbody.  I had a great start to the day today. I was a little late to work, which is normal but my boss is cool. As long as we have our pager he's pretty laidback about where we are and what we're doing.  So I walked in and they said I had gotten a call that I was supposed to goto the helo pad. So I gave em a call and they said I was slated to go out on a flight in 30 minutes so I needed to get my gear and get my ass to the pad. So I hauled ass back to my room, changed into my ECW gear and hauled balls down there.  I had never flown in a helicopter before so I was pretty stoked.  It turns out I was going to be helping out the comms guys retrieve some radio repeaters off the top of a mountain near Mt. Aztec in the Dry Valleys.  The Dry Valleys are a pretty big deal to get to goto, there is even a special training you have to take before they'll let you go there. The funny thing is I took that training a couple weeks after I got here and I can't remember anything about it now, hahahaha!

Here is some info about the Dry Valleys if you're interested.

Waiting for the flight...

 Getting ready to take off...

 On our way out there I was sitting facing back so I had to take this one over my head, I still managed to get my helmet in the shot of course... 

During the flight the pilot was giving us the names of all these mountains and glaciers we were seeing. I can't remember a damn one of them though.

 Looking for the landing site...

 The bounty we came for. Those 2 antennas, and 2 of those oranges boxes that are full of batteries and radio repeater equipment...

Playing with the panorama setting again...

 Our chariot awaits... 

Antz and I taking one of the repeaters to the helo. 200lbs each!

 All done working, giving the whirley bird a little rub...

 I'm glad this pic turned out pretty good, beautiful!

 There was this ledge jutting out so we took pics on it, this isn't me...

However, this is me, peaking over the edge. It doesn't look that impressive from the pics but it was a pretty good drop. The area I'm standing on it all cracked and the edges all around were cut back so I didn't get too close to the edge.  My mother would not have approved. :)

 Foolishly standing there with my hands in my pockets.  Good thing I didn't need to catch my balance quickly...

Top of the world punk bitch!  Oh wait, Bottom of the world!

 We took all our pics and hoped back onboard.  One the way back I got to face forward and get a little better view of things. It was awesome!  I wish the windows had been a little cleaner though...

 That's "House Lake", or maybe it was "Lake House", whatever...

 

The dark spots are shadows from the clouds, its actually all white...

  We made a pit stop on the way back to grab something. I didn't take any pics but I did take a couple videos...

  It might me hard to make out but there is McMurdo, almost home...

 For some reason he didn't fly directly in, we kinda flew around that big open water spot.  Maybe he was never told that the shortest distance between 2 points is a straight line, hell if I know...

 It still blows my mind that all this was frozen solid, 6 to 8 feet thick just a couple months ago...

Almost home...

 Coming in for the landing...

Videosssssssss

Taking off, fly this bitch like you stole it...

McMurdo Sound...

Again, I'm taking this video from over my head so, you get whatcha get and like it...

Thats a handsome fella...

Looking for our landing site...

Landing on the mountain...

Here is the pit stop we made on the way home. They didn't even shut down, the helo tech just went out and got what they needed, stowed it in the back and we took off again...

Coming in for the landing. Safe and sound at home...