Life is an Adventure.
FILMING FOR DISCOVERY CHANNEL'S 'RAGING PLANET - BLIZZARD'.
Upon arrival in Utah we were blown away by the stunning mountains that greeted us on the drive from the airport.
First up a recce of the filming location and problem solving from the off set - In Washington state we had to move location 6 hours south owing to not enough snow - in Utah we were greeted with too much snow! No pleasing us TV types.
With more snow due to fall that night there was no way were going to get the glassy looking lake that we wanted to film on - it was falling faster that we could shovel it.
And so it was time to think fast.....
I'd be talking to a man called Daryl Jane about his incredible near death experience when stuck in his car in a Blizzard for 14 days.
While I arranged to fly Daryl over from his new home in Hawaii the team got to work preparing the drama recon. By the time I turned up on location with the news that I had found us a Daryl lookalike to play him in the recon and he was booked on a flight over for an interview I found that my hire car had been driven in to a snow drift and buried and the filming had begun.
Utah was proving to be a great place to be filming, the Wasatch mountains are beautiful and we were based in a remote area almost cut off by the snowfall near the Strawberry Dam.
We were being well looked after by everyone at Daniels Summit lodge - incredible home cooked meals of an evening and chilling by a big open fire.
So with Daryl Jane in Utah we found ourselves filming two stories in the one location. First (and on hold while the lake was cleared and the snow stopped) was the story of a light aircraft crash on to a frozen lake in white out conditions and Daryl's story - trapped in his car for 14 days, an unbelievable tale of survival.
We decided to interview the plane crash rescuer Shaun and Daryl in the same location. For access we would need to head out on snowmobiles!
Next up was the drama recon of Daryl's experience.
I noticed early on that there was quite a resemblance of Daryl in Shaun Roundy our Utah search and rescue hero and so Shaun stepped up to the role!
It was odd making a trip out off of the mountain and in to town for a bank run.
The view of the mountains is incredible.
With the snow stopped it was time to get ready for the our plane crash story.
This story had always been problematic for me with it being so close to home in terms of my own life tragedy. Losing my boyfriend in a light aircraft crash just the year before meant that this was inevitably emotional.
Task 1 - buy a wrecked plane as the centre piece of the drama recon.
Off to the plane graveyard we went, possibly the most horrid place I've ever had to spend time.
And then with the SFX make up on our actors, the plane in place on the cleared ice, everyone in many many layers of clothing and a temperature of minus 15C it was time to begin.
After an initial cry and an order from my boss to go back to the lodge I took a deep breath and got on with it. Once I got used to seeing the plane I was ok - it was the initial shock.
The filming went well and the whole team were fantastic.
And eventually the time came to head back home.
Another fantastic trip to the states that put Utah firmly up there at the top of my favorite states visited to date.
