Never a dull moment for scientists doing field work in Alaska! Fortunately these folks were well prepared and kept their wits about them.

Stuck atop an Alaska mountain in a helicopter with ice-encrusted rotor blades

Alaska has a large number of active volcanoes. Anchorage has been dusted by ash several times in the years I have lived here. These eruptions have serious implications for air travel. In 1989 KLM Flight 867 had all four engines shut down, fell 14,000 ft, and almost crashed before the engines could be restarted, after flying through an ash cloud from Mt Redoubt. The Alaska Volcano Observatory in Anchorage, and the Geophysical Institute in Fairbanks do important work monitoring and researching these volcanoes.

Good people making wise choices!!! Altogether not an uncommon situation (except for the rescue) when doing field work in Alaska. Glad to see they were prepared (mentally and with the gear) to make it an break in the normal routine, not an emergency. I have seen too many crews leave the sleeping bags, etc. at a drop off point because it was only a few miles to the site.

Helicopters have a bad habit of getting you out there a --LONG-- way from home and not being able to get you back. I would not want to count the hours and days waiting for weather or for the helicopter to be able to come back to pick me up. (Although there were some beautiful times there as well.)

Respectfully,

Jerry

Great story of competent, seasoned people getting through a very tricky situation. Helicopters can engender a highly ambivalent attitude - wonderful when they work, and frustrating when they don't.

But tell us the rest of the story. Is that Jet Ranger still perched on Mount Magelik, a prize for future archaeologists? They are really good birds....

I'm sure the helo has been retrieved by now. That is a very expensive bit of kit to leave behind. The last thing I read said they had plans to get it back. That was back in September.

"Helicopters have a bad habit of getting you out there a --LONG-- way from home and not being able to get you back"
When I lived in Georgia, a friend expressed the opinion a four wheel drive truck would just get you stuck deeper in the boonies.

A slightly different, slightly more optimistic phrasing that I've heard is, " Four wheel drive is nice in that it allows you to get stuck much further away from help."

And bigger truck means deeper/further you get stuck in, a saying in the offroad community.

Wild stuff, and a great read. I saw the short version of this a while ago. Thanks for posting an in-depth link.

These folks obviously knew the risks and had "Plan B" ready to go. Good on 'em. The part about the improvised anchors for the chopper was particularly interesting -- and potentially a turning point in the story, considering what might have happened if this hadn't been done.

Given the choice between a blizzard and an ice storm, I'll take the blizzard.

"more optimistic phrasing"
Don't think I call that optimistic. Depressing, not optimistic.

The guy who really saved the day with the anchors is apparently a handyman/technician. He sure was handy to have around that day...

He didn't just tie down some tent or whatever - that's a very lightweight aircraft in high winds with a fair-sized cross-section to the wind. And his tie-downs worked like he'd been practicing for years....

I wonder if they should have called SAR sooner? They could have asked the people they called the first night to notify SAR. By waiting they wound up being rescued "at the last minute" before bad weather closed in for a week, they risked straining SAR resources had other rescues been needed at the same time.