The Russell Incident

First View of Russell

Base Camp, Russell on the left

Tail Ski Issues
Duct Tape repair, that's a lot of duct tape.....
The Otter in the hangar as it looked the day we flew back to Talkeetna from Mt. Russell

Our Mount Russell trip had a lot of firsts for everyone on the trip (unfortunately for some). This trip marked the first guided climb on Mt. Russell (seventh expedition ever). Also, probably the first time a multi-million dollar DeHavilland Otter Wiped out a tail ski and rear end on the upper Yentna glacier. These pictures show the mountain on our flight in, and also the aftermath of our landing on the glacier. The deep snow, combined with a weak bungee cord affixing the front of the tail ski to the aircraft allowed the tail ski to catch sideways and rotate up and around into the fuselage of the aircraft. Paul (owner of TAT) was our pilot and he did a great job of recovering and dealing with the scenario. Another pilot/mechanic flew in in a Cessna 185, repaired the Otter while Paul flew back to Talkeetna in the 185 and Paul flew back in and flew the Otter out after repair. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the mechanic who fixed the plane, but the plane she fly's for TAT is known as "Foxy" because her 185 has an "F" in the N number, and also cause she's a babe who can fix airplanes in the middle of the Alaska range with duct tape.

Cheers,

josh