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.