Ten minutes on snow
You will walk out of a hotel in a rainforest village at fifteen degrees and, twenty minutes later, stand on snow at around freezing in whatever you happened to put on. Nobody hires you a jacket for a scenic flight the way they do for a heli-hike. The list is short, it is the same in January as in July, and getting it wrong costs you the best ten minutes of the trip.
Quick answer
The short answer. Closed shoes, long trousers, a warm mid-layer and a windproof jacket, and sunglasses. That is the whole list. It is around freezing at the landing site in every month of the year, and the glare off fresh snow at two thousand metres is severe.
The list
Written for a scenic flight with a landing. A heli-hike is a different product with boots, crampons and a jacket supplied.
You will be standing in packed snow for ten minutes and kneeling in it for photographs. Trainers are perfectly adequate; the difference between a fabric trainer and a leather one is the difference between damp socks and dry ones on the drive back.
Not for warmth so much as for the snow. Everybody ends up crouching for the shot that gets the machine and the peaks in the same frame, and shorts make that a memorable decision.
The single most forgotten item. A fleece or a light down layer under whatever jacket you have. Ten minutes at freezing with wind is fine in two layers and genuinely unpleasant in one.
There is usually a light katabatic breeze coming down off the ice, and it is the wind rather than the temperature that ends the ten minutes early. Any shell will do; it does not need to be a mountaineering jacket.
Not optional. Fresh snow at two thousand metres on a clear morning reflects enough light to be painful within a couple of minutes, and you will spend those minutes squinting at the thing you paid to see.
What not to bring
A large bag. Cabin space in a five-seat machine is minimal and most operators will ask you to leave anything bigger than a small daypack in the terminal. Take a camera and a jacket; leave the rest.
A polarising filter on your lens. Shooting through curved perspex with a polariser produces rainbow banding across the frame that cannot be removed afterwards. Take it off before you board.
A hat you cannot hold on to. The rotors are shut down for the landing, but they are running when you board and disembark, and a loose sun hat becomes everybody’s problem very quickly. A beanie stays on; a wide brim does not.
Wondering exactly what those ten minutes on the snow involve?
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Common questions
Closed shoes, long trousers, a warm mid-layer, a windproof jacket and sunglasses. It is around freezing at the landing site in every month of the year, and you will be outside the machine for five to fifteen minutes.
Not on a scenic flight. Gear is supplied on a guided heli-hike, which is a different product. For a scenic flight with a landing you wear what you brought.
Around freezing, at fifteen hundred to two thousand metres or more, in every season. There is usually a light wind coming down off the ice, which is what people actually notice.
No. You stay on packed snow within a few metres of the machine. Trainers are fine, though something that keeps snow out of your socks is more comfortable on the drive afterwards.
Useful rather than necessary for ten minutes. A hat does more than gloves. Sunglasses matter more than either — snow glare at altitude is the thing people are unprepared for.
A small one at most. Cabin space in a five-seat machine is tight and larger bags are left in the terminal. Bring a camera and a jacket and leave the rest.
Go deeper
Twelve helicopter flights out of one village, from twenty minutes to ninety.
PricesTwelve flights priced per person and per minute, and where the money actually goes.
VerdictTwelve flights ranked for one decision, with a straight answer at the end.
LandingsWhich flights actually put the machine down, and what the difference is.
LengthThe only real variable, and how much country each length buys you.
Which oneTwo glaciers, twenty-five minutes apart, and the flights that show you both.
