#Anexperienceofalifetime

My alarm rang in my ears at 5:30am. I sprung up, quickly dressed and soon we were on our way for our helicopter ride that we couldn’t do yesterday due to the weather. Fog and mist clouded our view of the mountains.
Ah oh! This is not looking good!

I checked my watch. We still had an hour and could see some of the clouds were already clearing above the mountain tops. What surprised me was the clouds on the ground. Huge, puffy balls gathered and spread across the bottom edges of the mountains and through the blades of grass that lined the bottom.

After a while the clouds at the top started to obediently clear and we could see the top of the glacier. We were feeling hopeful as we arrived at the check in. No mention of not flying, we got weighed (dread- must start slimming world!) and then got a coffee while we waited for our turn.

The morning sky was stunning, by now, the clouds had lifted completely leaving behind a fresh cool breeze and clear blue skies. We watched excitedly as a helicopter landed in the field ahead of us. The guy helped us all on and I was lucky enough to sit in the front seat. I thought he might ask me if I’d like a turn at flying it but he didn’t offer- selfish!
I put on my chunky green headphones like you see in the movies and listened as the captain introduced himself.
He clicked a few switches, grabbed his gear stick and suddenly we were wobbling off the ground!
“Eek!” I squealed excitedly as we rose higher into the air.

We soared over a forest of trees that littered the mountainside, at times the pilot flew us straight towards the rocks and I began to fear that despite his chipper demeanour he was having some sort of mental crisis and we would bear the brunt of it as we crashed dramatically into the cliffs! Turns out he was just kindly giving us a close up view of the scenery!

At the top my breath caught in my throat as we glided over the snowy mountain top. It was utterly breathtaking! I almost couldn’t believe that we had nearly decided against it as it was a bit of a pricey adventure. It was priceless. We landed in the snow and carefully stepped out onto the soft, white ground. Being so early, there was just us and one other chopper on the mountain top so we had the most incredible panoramic views. I felt quite emotional as I stood on top of the world and took in the sights. I wanted to revel in the excitement for longer but it was soon time to head back!

Back in the chopper I had expected it to go back the way we came but we left in the opposite direction. The glacier lit up with glistening ice and sparkled in the light as we flew over the top of it. Miles and tons of thick ice crammed between two mountains. Huge cracks created patterns and craters inside the glacier and fresh snow surrounded it like a blanket.

Not long after, we were dropping lower in the sky ready to make our descent back to solid ground.
The helicopter landed gently and I reluctantly hung my headphones back up and stepped onto the field. It was the most incredible experience I have had and my beaming smile stuck around all day to prove it!