The Bucket List and K2 Aviation

When people ask me about what's on my Bucket List it's hard for me to give a good answer. I'm blessed to have done some really cool things in my life.  If I had to put one thing on my Bucket List I think this just about covered it.

K2 Aviation, Talkeetna, AK.
After having a RV neighbor knock on the door of our trailer one evening to tell me "you gotta do this!" I took the plunge and signed up for a 1 1/2 hour flight to Denali with a landing on the Ruth Glacier.








I was with a group of high school kids and chaperones who were from, of all places, Allentown, PA. There were 9 passengers and the pilot in our group.

The pilot asked for a volunteer co-pilot and I had my hand up before the words were completely out of his mouth. Shotgun!
If you look reeeaaalll close you can see me waving from the tiny window just below the leading edge of the wing.








Off we go!
I was lucky enough to go up in a DeHavilland Otter, a plane I've always wanted to ride in.

The Susitna River with the airport and Talkeetna in the background.

Our pilot, Chris, flies around Denali during the summer and is a ski instructor at Vail in the winter and gets paid for it! Tough life!










Unfortunately the weather wasn't as clear as it had been the day before so Denali was obscured.

Some 4000 foot "foothills"

The Ruth Glacier. The ice here is about a thousand feet thick.

Jagged peaks everywhere.










Rather than blather on I'm just gonna put up a bunch of pics to share the breathtaking scenery.

In the middle of this flight we landed on Ruth Glacier in an area called Mountain House in The Sheldon Amphitheater. This spot is named after a pioneering glacier pilot named Don Sheldon who built Mountain House on a 5 acre rock and ice outcropping in the middle of the amphitheater.

Our landing spot is just left of the rocks at 11 o'clock in this pic. The left hand rock is where Mountain House is perched.









Me and the Otter.

Denali is above the glacial ice in the center of this pic.

There were several small snow slides while we were there.

This was so spectacular it was hard to comprehend, but I tried! 

Mountain House. Cabin to the right, outhouse to the left. Can be rented for the night.









When we left the glacier I took a 33 sec. video of our takeoff. You can tell when we lift off because the camera stops bouncing and things get smooth.

We were off the glacier safely and on our way back to the airport with storm clouds building.

Rain to the left....











Rain to the right....

But we made it home OK and before we knew it we were walking back to the office.

That's the story of the Bucket List item I didn't even know was there until I took the flight. What a fantastic experience!

P.S. Chris, our pilot was so relaxed that occasionally he took a nap while I flew...

NOT!