Duffey Powder Day, Dec 26

Best snow we ever had on the Duffy Lake Road!

Knee-deep freshies made trail breaking hard work, but the runs were sweet with face shots and snow flying over the head.

Who would have thought? Now that we finally get some nice weather, we are off to Hawaii - but I'm sure we will have some excellent adventures there too!

Rain, rain and more rain

The weather forecast is becoming a bit repetitive (Environment Canada source). For a couple of weeks now we have seen nothing but rain. Green Christmas in Vancouver.

Since no good skiing trip came up, we booked flights for a week long trip to Hawaii!

Coquihalla Skiing, Dec 19

We have been up the Coquihalla a few times now but snow coverage is still a bit on the thin side, much less than we had last year around this time. What's going on with La Nina?

But good fun to get out anyway. And the not quite epic conditions give me a chance to get my skiing legs back at a leisurely pace.

Light was wonderful, almost eerie. So as usual, I had a hard time putting my camera back in its case.

Harrison River Eagle, Dec 18

Eagles are out in full force at Harrison River, over 5000 last weekend. According to the Fraser River Bald Eagle Festival website that’s more than the chief 'eagle biologist' has seen in his life-time.

We paddled down the river on Saturday and saw between 150 to 200, in the trees, on shore, in the water, in the air. 40 or 50 were soaring in the strong outflow over a northwest ridge of Mt Woodside. At least someone is getting airtime!

Pretty neat and fitting that after watching the record Sockeye run on the Adams River we now get to see this record eagle congregation!

First pow of the season, Nov 21

A week later than last year and with less coverage, but a good way to spend half a day in Vancouver, we did the first turns of the season at Mt Seymour and joined quite the crowd of people enjoying the sunshine and the snow.


Looking across Indian Arm from the first pump

Woodside, last day of October

October 31st seems to be a good day for flying! Last year I had an excellent flight at Blanchard. This year, we got to play in ridge lift with the eagles, I bagged unexpected airtime of over an hour and, although it wasn't exactly a spot landing, touched down smoothly for my first top landing at Mount Woodside!

It was too windy at first but when we came back from a short hike things looked much better. After a fast sled-ride for me lift turned on and Pete made good use it, playing around with the eagles and then top-landing. Then it was my turn for a +1h flight to 150 m above launch with a small gaggle of eagles and fellow human flyers. It took me a couple of tries (and a low save) but I managed a smooth top landing so Pete could take off for a second flight too.

Mt Cheam across the valley looked distinctly wintery!



Wind was too strong east on Saturday (too strong for flying, that is) so we used the break from the rain for a hike up Stawamus Chief - haven't been up there for a while. A couple of years a friend discovered this exciting photo op (so we have to came here and take a picture every time we hike the Chief):

First Snow on Northshore, Oct 27

First substantial dusting of snow yesterday morning on the Northshore Mountains. And a beautiful fall day.

Evolution in Action - Adams River Sockeye, Oct. 23/24

What an incredible spectacle! Amazing colors. The river red with salmon, working their way upstream, resting in the eddies or already dead on shore (where the red fades away).



This year’s Sockeye run is a dominant run occurring every 4 years. But it’s also the largest run in almost 100 years (since 1913 when a man-made rock slide at Hells Gate put a temporary stop to the migration of fish on the Fraser). 9 million fish are expected to return to the Adams River this year.



We checked out the viewing points at Roderick Haig-Brown Provincial Park, watched the fish mill around in the spawning channels and walked down to Shuswap Lake, where the shore was covered with rows of dead fish (and some divers were getting ready to push their way through floating carcasses for a dive with the living fish).



The piles of carcasses are less disturbing when one considers that this is evolution in action: the salmon's strategy of survival to produce an enormous amount of biomass for a short period of time - more than predators could possibly consume.

Before we left, we paddled our kayaks down a section of the Adams a ways above the viewing area. We found an never-ending stream of fish, fish darting away as we floated down the drops and the eddies were red with them. It occurred to me then that our salmon runs really are one of nature’s big spectacles, comparable to the big animal herds of the Serengeti and the arctic caribou.

Surf-Lions at Skookumchuck, Oct. 15

What a beautiful October weekend! Sunshine and blue sky for our Skookumchuk trip. But it wasn't only us who had the idea to come for some surfing. Quite a few other paddlers showed up. And a couple of sea-lions, but they waited with their surf session until we kayakers got off the water.

Dolomiti Moments

Two magic moments of the Dolomites trip: The last flight from Pordoi Pass when the rest of the gang had already flown out to land but Pete and I stayed and played some more in the smooth ridge lift. Cloud level was just above us and the rising air was condensing at our altitude. Wisps of cloud streamed by as we were flying in and out of them.

The last day of our trip did not look promising for flying. Low clouds were hanging just above Pordoi Pass. For lack of better things to do (and since our pass was still good for one more day - compared to BC lift prices are an amazing deal: 35 euros for 3 days), we took the gondola up to Sass Pordoi into the coulds and fog. Magically, we popped out into blue sky and bright sunshine about 200 meters below the top station. What a sight! Like islands from the ocean, Dolomiti Kofels and Spitzen peaked out of the thick layer of clouds. Marmnolada, Langkofel, Rosgarten and in the distance even see the summits of the Ortler Alps and the Grossglockner.

Dolomiti, Italy - Oct 4 - 9

October 4 to 9 we flew in the Dolomite Mountains (Italian Alps). We went with Blue Sky Flugschule from Sillian, Austria. IMO money well spent, since lodging, food (lots of it, including delicious 5 course Tyrolean dinners), shuttles and site briefings were all taken care of.

In summer the Dolomites are a bit too full on but this time of year the flying is still good and the weather usually better than elsewhere in the Alps. The Dolomites are renowned for the dramatic limestone mountains, spires and walls. There are paved roads up to 2200m and lots of ski lifts, some going to over 3000m. The valley bottoms are around 1400m with lots of large fields available to land in. We flew from several launches, including Col Rodella and Belvedere in the Fassa Valley, with the impressive backdrop of the Sella Group, Marmolada and Langkofel.

The weather only let us fly four of the six days but we still managed to do 10 flights. I had 7 hours airtime, Pete had 11 hrs. He spent lots of time flying around the Langkofel with its dramatic 400m high vertical walls and spires. Unfortunately the cloud base was right around the top of the cliffs which made it hard to go any further (Pete's best flight). Interesting note - during our first day at Col Rodella there were 2 reserve tosses and during the second day 3 paraglider crashes, 2 of them lead to severe injuries requiring heli rescues (one rotored in and the other did a 360 that intersected the cliff). Although the air wasn’t particularly rough where we flew, care must be taken not to blunder into rotor from strong valley winds or convergence points of valleys (this can be a problem at Col Rodella launch – see picture of a dusty having its way with 4 wings on the SE launch).

We had hoped to get to fly over the Marmolada (one of the turn point in the X-Alps). It turned out that Max Fanderl (of X-alp fame) and 4 other pilots from Calgary had gone with Blue Sky the previous week. Max had had to climb the Marmolada on foot during the X-alps but managed to fly over this time.

There were lots of pilots flying here. Most of the time the lift was good enough to stay up but not good enough to get away easily. This made for some very busy air space complicated by the fact that a few pilots seemed to have forgotten the air rules. When it got to be too much we headed to some alternate launches to escape the crowds. One in particular stood out – Belvedere, right across from the Marmolada. The launch was a grassy knoll that rolled off into a steep cliff. A frontal would likely have been fatal. Quite focusing!

This was our first flying trip in Europe. It was interesting to see that the majority of pilots were flying DHV1-2 even with 10+ years of experience. The most popular gliders were the Swing Mistral, the Nova Mentor and the Sky Atis.

Pictures here (will add some to blog soon)

Europe bound

Off to Europe tomorrow, family visit and hopefully some flying in the Dolomites. Will have to see what the weather brings, but maybe we get lucky and get some flights like these guys had just 2 weeks ago?

Baldy, WA - Sept 25/26

Baldy Butte and Mt Adams and Rainier on the horizon

One of the great things about Vancouver is that if it’s wet on this site of the mountains, you just have to drive a couple of hours east to find sunshine and warmer temperatures. Works most of the time and did work last weekend.


Setting up a wing with the LZ below in Yakima River Canyon

It was the weekend of the Baldy Fly-in in central Washington and it was like turning back time to summer. Temps to 27oC, sunny, blue skies. Not the greatest conditions for long cross country flights, but we made up with quantity. Both Pete and I did 6 more or less extended sled rides over sagebrush country and the scenic Yakima River canyon. About 60 pilots showed, among them 15 canucks. Great work by the people who put on the fly-in, tasty food at the pot-luck and excellent entertainment (drumming around the fire, a preacher flying in his wedding suit and a very long rattlesnake crawling out from underneath a wing on launch – thankfully not mine) made for an excellent weekend. I even landed right on the spot-landing cone (although not in best style – almost face-planted).

It got windier on Sunday but I squeezed in a morning flight. Pete flew a second time in much stronger conditions. So did another pilot who wasn't quite up to it. After getting dragged off the ridge and after a couple of collapses he flew out fine. Here is a video of a similar incident last year, thankfully our friend had not that many collapses (the wind in the vid is from the NE, while we had SW all weekend).

Publications - but no Science Stuff

A skiing friend (from Florida of all places!) just sent an email congratulating me to my article published in the latest issue of the American Whitewater Journal. I had sent in the article for the Wilderness Issue a while ago, about our Tuya trip (one of the first multi-day trips for me back in 2001 or 2002, and more adventurous than most of the following trips since it is very rarely navigated) but hadn’t heard anything back. In the same issue appeared an article of a Vancouver friend and of three other people I know. Small world!

Looking through the list of contents makes me appreciate our home stomping grounds: 4 of the 10 stories are set in British Columbia (AW is based south of the border in the US)! Two of the trips are within (relatively) easy reach from Vancouver (Clendenning and Taseko-Chilcotin-Fraser). The latter does not require a plane shuttle and is of moderate difficulty (I highly recommend the upper part of the trip taking out just above Lillooeet or Gang Ranch – trip report here ).

More Mt. Woodside, Sept 11

Despite the bad forecast for the weekend, Saturday brought nice flying weather with 3 hours airtime for me and 4 hours for Pete. My best flight was the third with good lift just after launch to cloudbase (which was low at around 1200 meter) and later smooth ridge soaring at the knoll. For a change I flew over the back to land a bit beyond Harvest Market. It was nice finish of the day to venture away from the hill after the soaring fest. Pete who had top landed earlier picked me up on the way back.

Bear(s) Watching, Sept 6

On the way back from Lillooet Lake we stopped for food in Pemberton and got a gratis bear watching session in the middle of town. A mum and her two cubs were enjoying ripe plumbs until too many bear watchers scared them away.

Over Lillooet Lake - Sept 6

I had given up hope of airtime on the long weekend, but after hiking to Tenquille Lake we dropped by Ted’s towing camp at Lillooet Lake. Although I had tow-launched before, it’s a very strange feeling being pulled up by the harness while the wing hangs back. But pretty cool to climb higher and higher, above the sub peaks and the lowest cloud layers near them. The angle of the tow line increased so much that at the downwind leg I was looking down at a very small tow boat almost directly below me. My tow to about 1000 m AGL was apparently the highest of the day.


No, that's not us, its one of the Pemby acro guys

I made good use of the altitude with SIV maneuvers I had been too chicken to try over land, including accelerated collapses, 180 degree spins, B-line stalls and a long, deep spiral. My spiral gave Pete a bit of a scare since I didn’t pull out when prompted over the radio. I had a good time cranking it and just didn’t hear it – hope it was due to the wind noise and not to a G-force induced slowed reaction. New things learned: it’s best to induce spins with a fast, hard pull (instead of slow and gradual) and to constantly monitor altitude even when having lots of fun.

Tenquille Lake, Sept 4/5

The forecast wasn’t looking great for the long weekend (and hasn’t looked good for weekends lately), so we bailed on the Interior flying trip and went to Pemberton in hope of some towing with Ted. We arrived at Lillooet Lake to strong gusts. Since even after chilling and chatting for a while things didn’t improve, plan B was enacted. Hiking! I always wanted to check out Tenquille Lake but I only discovered on the drive up that there was a short way in, along the Birkenhead River. Matt’s trusty guidebook revealed the hike-in was only 1.5 hrs, so Pete thought it would be neat to camp at the lake. We had brought just the day-packs, but Pete shouldered one of the huge paraglider bags filled to the brim with our car camping stuff (thick thermarests, heavy tent, but only the thin sleeping bag?). Oh well, next time we’ll prepare better! We met a couple of people on the trail, but amazingly, we had Tenquille Lake all to ourselves for the next two days.

We had a late start for the hike-in, but there was still enough daylight left for a short stint up the slope above our camp site … and the slope above that … and then the last short climb up to a pass. Excellent views down into Pemberton Valley on the other side of the pass, of Owl Ridge and the Microwave Tower (where we had our aerial adventures), but also of ominous looking dark clouds approaching from the north. Of course we hadn’t brought anything for the short stint and now it was hailing and I was in shorts. Behind a big boulder we waited out the worst of the wind and then made our way back to lake and tent through a wintery landscape.

The night was cold (summer is definitely over), but after some hot water (we left the coffee in the car) we were ready to bag Copper Mound, an easy scramble 1.5 hr from the Lake. Nice route to the peak, zigzagging up the east and north face, than we were on top, marveling at the views of the peaks around, up to the recent slide at Capricorn/Meager Creeks, and down into the Pemberton Valley. Back at the car we made several stops to gorge on the many huge blueberries. Mosquitoes were plenty too, but it took them a while to congregate on us, so we had about 10 minutes to collect berries, before we had to retreat to the car and drive to the next good spot.

Woodside Flying, August 28/29

An excellent Woodside weekend! Nice flying but no pictures – must remember to get the camera out again. Saturday we had nice lift at Woodside launch, some cloud surfing, followed by my first Woodside cross country with Pete and Andrew. Got enough height over launch but on the way east along the ridge between Mt Woodside and Agassiz Mt nothing but sink, and I was sinking a lot more than Pete cause I was hesitant to step on the bar (when on glide the speedbar is your friend!). I couldn’t remember how high the sealing was above Kent Prison (no landing there!) and almost turned back, but with Pete’s encouragement I made it to Agassiz Mt and climbed up to the level of the sub peak and almost to where Pete was. Unfortunately the north wind blew apart all thermals above peak elevation and we couldn’t climb any higher. Didn’t want to fight the wind coming out of the Harrison gap and went southeast where it had space to fan out and mellow out, landing in a nice big field in Agassiz. When we packed up a fellow from across the street came over and asked many questions – he had often seen wings in the air at Woodside and now took advantage to find out more about flying them.

Sunday saw us back at Woodside, with the first flight ridge soaring just above launch. The second flight was even better. Winds were stronger (not student-friendly anymore), but nice launches for all of us. After half an hour soaring north of launch with Gab on tandem and Pete we went over to the south knoll. We saw an eagle sky-rocket up in a thermal and in seconds later 4 fabric wings congregated below the eagle and got on his elevator in the sky. Never had that much lift over the knoll before! Lots more thermaling before we landed at Harvest Market.

Taku, July 28 - Aug 13

The red line is the Taku and our route from the Nahlin/Sheslay confluence down the Inklin and Taku to Taku Inlet. The blue line is the Tuya River north of Dease Lake. We paddled it in 2003, our first self-supported multi-day into the 'unknown'.

Thormanby Islands, Aug 14-15

The weekend forecast was for crazy hot temperatures. We decided this would only be tolerable close to the water, so we loaded the sea kayaks on the car and set off for the Sunshine Coast. The objective was the Thormanby Islands. We launched at a small Marina in Secret Cove. With many stops to cool down in the ocean we found a camp spot in our own private cove on the south side of South Thormanby (a provincial park). On Sunday we completed our circumnavigation of both South and North Thormanby (somewhat unavoidable as the two islands are actually connected by a sandbar in all but the highest flood).



After 2 weeks on the silty Taku I was thoroughly impressed by the crystal clear ocean water. Along the southern half of our route we encountered many seals (most of them moms with babies) and only few humans. This changed as soon as we passed Buccaneer Bay, a place Pete remembered from his childhood sailboat trips. Lots of sailboats anchored and people enjoying the beach when we came by.



It was hot even on the water, but whenever we got to a nice cove or sandy beach we stopped for dips in the ocean to cool down. Great to get out in the sea kayaks and escape the heat.

Back to Pemby - July 17

Another nice flight in Pemberton. I pushed on a bit further than last week and went all the way to Owl Mt. Along the way I watched another pilot hit some exciting air causing him to spin/spiral low above the ridge (but he got away with a scare) so I opted to fly out into the smooth air over the valley. I had already picked an LZ when my vario started chirping. Sweet 500 meter climb in one thermal in the middle of the valley!



In the evening there was talk of glass-off flights and we went up to Lower Launch. It was pretty windy, but launch went very smooth. The first half of the flight was nice, but later the air turned a bit rowdy. I used the lift to get up to microwave tower height, but should have stayed with the rest of the local gang who hang out near lower launch (as I heard later the valley can go off with a big boom on evenings like this - better to stay low). We landed east and away from the venturi and rough air and turbulence at the school LZ. Barely a stir in the air where we landed, but myriads of mosquitoes (but hey, I'll take the bugs over a turbulent landing anytime).

Pemberton, July 10

During last week conditions were great in Pemberton and people reported big XC flights (including a repetition of Denis’ Pembi to Harrison Lake flight). We were lucky that the nice weather did hold for Saturday when we finally made it up there. As an added bonus, we also got to launch for the first time from Mackenzie upper launch since there was a wedding on the lower launch.

Pete had already left before I got up high, so I spent some time taking in the view and cruising around over Mt. Mackenzie. Amazing views of the snow-covered peaks and snowfields all around. After climbing to over 2600 meter I thought that despite being alone (well, not really alone, there were lots of other pilots around) I should make use of the altitude and set out along the ridge towards Owl Mt. I always thought it would be very cool to fly high along a chain of mountains, and it was (see picture). Didn’t want to push it too much, so I turned around when I got low at the end of the ridge. The big bowl on the way back was a bit of a concern, but I never dropped below launch height, so it wasn’t really a problem.


Looking up valley towards Meager Creek, Pemberton is outside the frame in the lower left corner, Owl Lakes on the right, Owl Peak just left of centre (from 2600 meters ASL, above Upper Mackenzie Launch)


Near launch there was lots of lift again and I flew out over the valley towards the airport. But man, was it hot! It had been nice and cool at 2600 m, but lower down temps was definitely summery. After a couple of tries I found the tube of my water container and in the excitement drank too much to stay much longer in the air. Nevertheless, another nice XC flight (my second) of 24 km and 2.5 hrs.

Bridal – Elk – Butterfly and back, June 30

Distance between the end points of the GPS track is about 20 km. Bridal Launch is above the landing spot (where the blue line ends), Elk is on the right and Butterfly on the left. Mt Cheam is in the middle of the image and has snowy patches on its flanks.


The first real XC flight! My goal for the day was to do a XC flight, but I really hadn’t set my hopes that high. But why not go big when the opportunity arises? Go big or go home (not really my motto, Carpe Diem is better...).

So after Pete had guided me on my first Elk flight (I was in front a couple of times too and showed Pete some thermals) where we looked down on the hiking trail we had been on just a couple of weeks ago, I would have been quite happy to bob around launch a bit longer and then call it a day and land. But there was Pete on the radio “Don’t fly out yet”. Since I didn’t feel too tired, but instead rather excited about how well things went so far, curiosity kicked in (wonder what’s around that next ridge?) and I followed. We found some lift along Mt. Cheam, then at Laura’s ridge (a reliable performer, as Pete pointed out), and finally at another bump before gliding over to Butterfly. Cool how after every ridge a new view opened up; the main gulley that leads up to the summit of Mt Cheam – last year a young lad climbed this chute full of snow, rubble and debris; three dark, small lakes behind Laura’s ridge and finally Jones Lake behind Butterfly. I flew a bit past Butterfly, but then turned around – LZs are scarce at this end of the ridge. Pete went on the Ludwig for another kilometer or so.

Interesting how well things worked out on the way back – at first I thought I’d barely make it to the Cloverleaf LZ. Then there was some lift and Bridal LZ was within glide. The next patch of lift got me up and within reach of Bridal Launch. Finally back at Bridal Launch, I wondered if I could make it to Upper Launch again and found nice thermals at Allan’s ridge. I watched Pete ‘riding’ the ridge between Upper Launch and Gloria for a second Elk lap, but I started to feel tired and was just happy to fly out into the buoyant and smooth air – what a difference to the bumpy thermal ride, it felt almost as if I was dreaming… (For the paddlers: just like paddling back on the quiet water after the roar at Skooks). I had to kick my legs a few times to get back to reality and to get the landing gear ready.

What an amazing flight! And personal best of 46 km xc and over 3 hours in the air. Wouldn’t have done it without Pete in front and his encouragement - figuring this out on my own would have taken me many more flights!

http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/ 347476

PS: Just realized that it's almost exactly two years since my first high flight (June 28, 2008) and also very close to flight # 200. How is this for a celebration!

Victoria, June 26/27

But wait, it’s not quite summer yet. Weather forecast wasn’t good for flying so Pete suggested a long due visit in Victoria. And despite the not so great forecast we got to fly Mt. Prevost, even spending most of an hour well above it (I was on top of the stack and flying longer than Pete – a rare event up to now).

I also got my hands on the rudder of Tsonoqua, the trimaran, steered a few tacks and getting up to 11 knots (that's pretty fast for a pleasure sailboat). Yet another form of locomotion powered by nature, just like floating down a river, skiing a slope or flying in thermals.

But most importantly (and the priority of the visit), we got to spend time with the family, catch up with news and play with the kids (and dogs and chickens and horses) – a very nice weekend.

Start of summer - June 23

Finally summer! I do like cooler temperatures, but this May and June were a touch too cold.

Apparently a record – this year is the latest ever to reach 75oF (sorry about the old-style temperature units but the data are from Seattle according to Cliff Mass’ very interesting weather blog). Runner up was June 9th (still have to find out which year that was)!

Wenatchee Paddling, June 19/20

Sun, warm weather (at least for our current wetcoast pattern) and lots of wave time at 6,500 and 7,500 cfs on the Wenatchee this weekend! Good conditions for Trestle/Rodeo/Turkey Shoot/Snowblind/Suffocator on one or both days. Grannies is different - much more of a hole. With the strange weather this year the river is still running at a good level and may keep going for another couple of weeks.

Strange also that there were only few other paddlers, but plenty of rafts. In the end we met all the usual WA paddlers and friends and a few new ones – nice meeting everybody again!

Getting back on the water is a nice change after too much weather 'guestimates' and 'parawaiting'. Although my 'parawaiting' percentage has significantly decreased this year, there are still too many days when the conditions are just OK and not stellar and too many of those 'you should have been here yesterday' days. But that will probably never change. It's the nature of paragliding - it's very weather-dependent and weather is just not that predictable. If you want to be there on the stellar days you just have to put the time in.

Lumby Air Races - June 12/13

Too many to count!

One flying day, one day blown-out and one day of sled rides (but I didn't take an extra day off for this) ... well, this is paragliding (if I wanted guarantees I would check river levels and go paddling… right?).

Thermals were not quite as nice as for our Lumby visit two weeks ago, despite this I managed to fly over to Lumby Ridge for a micro cross country flight (an improvement from last visit). Later in the evening I got an extended sled ride from Saddle right across from Coopers launch. The guys were gentlemen and waited to help me launch, and got in the air after I had used up the last of the thermals…


Launching my Sport 4 at Coopers

Selway Hummingbirds

Don't seem to get around to editing videos these days (it's summer after all!), so here are a couple of frame grabs.

It's well known that hummingbirds like all things red (or is it the beer he is after?).



But what about Pete's ears? Is it the red color or the flower shape that makes them so attractive?


Approach


Insert


Retract

Pemberton Air - June 5

Saturday brought finally a break in the not very May/June-like weather and a good flying day in Pemberton. After a couple of short flights I had a nice one with good climbs but stayed near the launch (see track log), while Pete flew XC towards Hurley Pass Road (twice), on route experiencing his biggest frontal - ever.

Pretty sweet to climb high enough to see Lillooett Lake and the snowcovered peaks to the east, maybe some of them on the Duffy Lake Road? Focus on thermalling didn't leave me time to ID any of them.

Idaho Rivers: Selway May 10 -- 14

Paradise Put-in

This year a last minute opportunity for a pre-season trip on the Selway worked out. The Selway is one of the great multi-day trips in Idaho. A permit is difficult to get, so river runners try to get a run in before May 15th, when the permit season starts. Pre-season trips can pose a few problems: snow on Nez Perc pass may require an expensive shuttle with balloon-tired vehicles and river levels could be too low or too high (trips in early permit season have the same problems). Luckily, we didn’t encounter any of them. The pass was plowed a couple of days before our trip and water levels were fine for us kayakers – albeit a bit bony for the raft on the first day.


"You are here"


Typical River Scene

It was the first time I put on for a multi-day trip when there were no leaves on bushes and trees. As we moved downriver spring arrived at time-lapse speed. Hummingbirds checked out our camping equipment every time we set up camp (and Pete’s ears!) Seems the little birds are starved for the color red in the green forest of Idaho. Not sure Pete’s ears look like flowers? Maybe we should take a feeder next time? Whitetail deer wandered through our camp. When startled they disappeared flicking their tails. Most impressive wild encounter was a big sand-colored wolf on shore. As we floated by, she/he watched closely, put her ears back, then grabbed the fish she was eating and moved into some bushes. Just to drop the fish and roll in it.

Despite the low water level (1.7 – 2 at the paradise gauge) I would have preferred my bigger boat on day 4, when we hit the more interesting rapids. After a prime session of side-surfing in Double Drop (I was sure I was on line… until I saw the hole), I had some problems keeping tops up and bottoms down. The positive outcome of this little rodeo session was easy decision at Ladle - the high and dry line. After all the excitement I didn’t think my shoulder was up for paddling on the last day, so I hopped on the raft and got some excellent rafting instructions for John on the easier drops.


Double Drop. The green tongue and the hole.


Start of Ladle

The take-out weather was Idaho style: sunny and hot enough to change into shorts and Ts. After we de-rigged and packed all our gear in my trusty Patriot Pete and Ben run the Lochsa above Pipeline. This looked a lot more exciting than when we did it in 1999 (checking the records, we had half the water). Karen and I opted for being on the photo and beta crew. In the evening we started the long drive back for a nice run close to home on the Wenatchee the next day.

Bridal Falls - May 8

Everything was packed for our Selway trip so we decided to take a detour through the Fraser Valley for a flying day. An excellent choice!

Seems that getting an ENB (1/2) wing has made a big change in my flying (or maybe I was just ready for it after all the floating and bobbing around). I got the Sport 4 in April and the second flight on it lasted 2 hours, with quite a bit of thermalling on a ridge of Cheam to gain enough altitude to make it back to launch.

On the flight today, I explored Upper Launch and Archibald, getting to over 1800 meters (see my google earth track above). Lift was still excellent but Pete was waiting and anxious to start the long drive to Idaho/Montana - so I had to actually work and do some spirals to get down.

While I did two flights (one at Woodside and one at Bridal, see above) Pete did his first Woodside to Bridal (and Elk) flight and second Fraser crossing.

Fairy Meadows Spell

Got these pictures from Gunnar - I think they deserve a separate post. They are taken on our last evening at Fairy Meadows. What a wonderful night! Full moon and powder. Seeing the pictures now I almost regret that I didn't take any photos myself. But than I would not have been skiing under the full moon. Guess sometimes you just can't have it all - and I'm happy with what I got. (All pictures by Gunnar O.)


Skiers on top of the Practice Slopes just right of Gunar's shoulder


Pete is starting down


First skier down, one more to go


That's me skiing in the moonlight


Cabin light and ski tracks

Snopril - April 10/11

Work is somewhere down there

First Snovember, now Snopril! Cypress reports 127 cm fresh in the last 7 days. And what a weekend: Saturday beautiful pow (waist-deep on foot, over knee-deep on ski) at Needle Peak, even with the sun out it stayed cold and fluffy all day. Sunday, for a total change we went climbing. The moves feels still OK on 5.7s, even after climbing only once a year for the last three.


Just can't stop taking pictures

Pow at Needle Peak