Awesome flight at Bridal in light NE outflow wind. My favored flight of the year so far! We went to Woodside first but after a launch-able window it started blowing over the back for the next hour. We did our duty with some patient parawaiting and sunbathing before deciding that moving over to Bridal would be a better bet. Peter had gone directly to Bridal but waited there for almost an hour for conditions to improve. Just as we arrived he was working hard to stay up in a flush cycle. Luckily he found a thermal out front and east of launch. Just as Bridal guru Alan says… on NE days look for lift to the east of launch.
By the time I got in the air things were working much better. I found the thermal elevator immediately and got up to 1700 meter right from launch. Found a second nice climb and flew over to the west ridge of Mt Cheam and then along the snow covered north face. Following Nicole I made it over the first spur coming of the main peak to the northwest and passed around the outside of the rock pyramid on the second spur. Thermals went even higher over the Lakes and Butterfly where I got to 2300 meter, higher than Mt Cheam by good 200 meters.
First time for me to get so high in the Fraser Valley. Views of Tomihoy and Baker through the Cheam/Lady gap were stunning and I had to take some pictures, but lost over 100 meters getting the camera out with my gloved hands and frozen fingers. What a very different perspective looking over to the other side of the valley (and down to the tops of Bear, Agassiz and Harrison Lake). On the way back from Ludwig thermals were often further out and not too close to the mountain.
For a while I thermalled with a curious juvenile Bald Eagle. S/he flew with me for a few minutes, cocking her head one way and then the other maybe to figure what this weird contraption of fabric and strings was. Later she came straight at me until I yelled and she turned away (maybe playing chicken the eagle-way).
Coming down to land was like being in a time lapse video from winter at 2000 meters to spring in a field yellow with dandelion flowers.
