Helicopter Patrol

Today I returned to Pincher Creek for work and immediately hopped in a helicopter at the Blairmore Ranger Station and headed out to patrol the front ranges south of Highway #3 to Waterton National Park.

My ride; an Aerostar belonging to Great Slave Helicopter's, based out of the N.W.T.

My pilot, Ryan from Claresholm.

Looking across the top of the mountain down onto the prairie; that's Pincher Creek down there! Not much for snow left up here, a combination of wind and warm weather, we hit +12 on the weekend.

Prairie Bluff Mountain with the Livingston Range off in the distance.

A small glacier way up in a remote canyon.

There be sheep up there, believe it or not! We seen a few lone ewes with lambs, one herd of 6-8 ewes & lambs and one huge ram with a ewe. All were way up there, one was standing almost right on top of a mountain!

A herd of approximately 300 elk laying in a meadow in Waterton National Park. A few miles north of here, in the foothills we seen 4 huge bulls with a herd of 20 cows & calves, all inside the National Park.

Waterton National Park.

Turtle Mountain on the left and the aftermath of the slide of 1903. Crowsnest Pass & Highway #3 with Crowsnest Mountain in the background.

Coming into Blairmore over Powder Keg ski hill, Crowsnest Mountain in the distance.

I couldn't of asked for a better day to fly, it was so clear, which I have been yet to see since I've been here. My only complaint was the wind, it threw us around pretty good in some of the valleys, my stomach was telling me we were done after only an hour and a half! This is the way to do a patrol, my first time flying in the mountains, we covered areas that it will probably take me the rest of my career to see on the ground if ever.