In August we went for a week to the Canadian Rockies. There
are so many mountain ranges to explore closer to Vancouver
that we haven’t made the long trip to the Rockies
for over 10 years.
But the Canada Parks pass I have won in a photo competition
two years in a row begged to be used. There are only very few National Parks on the Westcoast, so we had to venture further east. And
the spectacular flying in Golden was tempting too. Pete competed in the Willi
Mueller XC Challenge and I joined for flying along. We had some fantastic
flights over the long jagged ridge of mountains, but also plenty of
parawaiting.
The last weekend of the competition looked un-flyable so we left
with Pete in 2nd place. After checking out stunning Blaeberry Valley
north of Golden, we drove on to join friends from the Vancouver Kayak Club
for a couple of runs on the Clearwater
under spectacularly overdeveloped Cumulonimbus clouds and car-denting
cherry-sized hail. Good we were wearing helmets on the river!
Turns out that in
Golden despite thunderstorms everywhere else some pilots managed to get another
flight in between big dark clouds, leaving Pete behind in place 5. Shows again
that it can be rather challenging to maintain ones safety standards during
competitions.
