Getting High in the Fraser Valley - June 14

Light outflow winds in the Fraser Valley. Sometimes that means not the best flying conditions and bumpy air, sometimes its epic. Sunday was one of the epic days, getting a ways above Mt Cheam summit elevation (though for me not directly over the peak). Pretty amazing nevertheless, flying and looking down at the Cheam range.

Cheam Range: Mt Cheam, Lady Peak, Knight, and Welch.

Looking south Mt Baker, McGuire (middle ground), Tomyhoi, Shuksan and the Border Peaks, Mt Slesse.

East view Fraser Valley and Harrison Lake upper left.

Bridal Awesomeness

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.


 

Bridal Crosscountry: Elk - Butterfly and back, May 18

After exploring the back and beyond of Woodside for the last couple of months, we are back at Bridal! The weather hasn’t been great lately with week-long forecasts of rain. Just like the carrot on a stick, “Wunderground” always dangles a forecast of nice weather at the end of their 7-day predictions. But as the promised nice days come closer, the good weather gets postponed and slides off into the future. This repetitive pattern and lack of good conditions on weekends necessitated desperate measures (like taking an afternoon off).


Desperate conditions call for desperate measures!

In the afternoon Woodside is often blown out, so we headed to Bridal. It took me two tries to get away from the launch area and by the time I got up to Upper Launch Pete was long gone. There was another pilot on his way west below me, installing confidence to go over to Gloria – where Pete zoomed by returning from his Elk run already. Found a good climb at Gloria. On Elk waves were exchanged with hikers plus some fumbling around looking for lift (which I found a little further east than expected). Wind was pushing into the gap between Elk and Gloria. At Gloria I thermaled shortly with Alex who was on triangle mission. Lift was pretty skookum at Gloria and I had to pull in a bit of wing to stay out off the fluffies. Got back to launch with nice altitude, then high along Mt Cheam, over to Laura’s Ridge (aka The Lakes). Here I met Pete again, now coming back from Butterfly. Still big lift in lots of places so I pushed further east to the flat spot and on to Butterfly. Pete came along for company.

Pete hit an elevator ride up near the rocky chute on Butterfly and I headed over to hop on it too. Not sure what exactly hit me, but I suddenly dropped and got a good look at my wing folded up like I had never seen it before, at least not while being suspended from it. A big fat frontal? The few frontals I have had usually had already popped out by the time I look up. But it also didn’t take long this time and within less than a second my wing opened with a reassuring popping sound. No surge, no other funny business. I like my Sport 4 (forget the Mentor 2!). Soon I found another more friendly thermal to top up for the flight back to Laura’s Lakes. The wind in the valley had gotten stronger so I skirted the gullies on Mt Cheam with extra safety distance. By the time I got back to Bridal Launch I was somewhat tired and didn’t follow Pete who sailed off on his second Elk lap. One last climb over Bridal Launch and then I flew out high over Rosedale to enjoy a few minutes of smooth air before landing. Nice cross-country flight (just a touch shy of 40 km) and my second Elk – Butterfly “Sammy”. The first one was a little less than a year ago – and my very first real cross-country flight.

Flight on Leonardo




On my way back from Butterfly. Mt Cheam in the clouds and Lady Peak to the left. On close inspection Pete's wing is visible as small white speck just a touch right and below the center of the picture (above the ridge of dark green trees).

Fraser Valley Flying, April 30/May 1

I must have been getting too much airtime this spring, flying with eagles, in breathtaking scenery and exploring some new corners I haven't been to before (f.e. two Fraser Valley crossings), that even these spectacular flights blur into a big haze. The flight this Saturday was different. I wasn’t too excited about it at first, but looking back it certainly stands out. There were low clouds across the valley from Bridal to Woodside. Pete and two others launched earlier, but then the cycles had shut down and we were waiting.

When I finally launched it was as if I got on an elevator, and an industrial strength one! Over 100 meter straight up in +6 m/s lift…. Yehaa! After I got off the elevator and settled on my bucking bronco (ehmm.. into my harness I mean) I followed Pete, Tom and Tonya who were heading west. Quite a different flying experience, cruising just under the clouds which were hiding the top of the ridge and trying to identify the hidden peaks by the snowfields and gaps below. Occasionally the lift got so strong that we had to turn out to the valley and even resort to speed bar and big ears to stay out of the white room. When getting too close to the clouds previously, I usually made the mistake of getting too low and then had a difficult time reconnecting with lift. But this time, I managed to stay just at the right elevation.

There was so much consistent lift that I didn’t have to turn a single time all the way to Elk. But flying into the strong west wind was rather painful. It took me 40 minutes to get to Elk. On the bright side, when I turned around my GPS showed +60 km/h max speed and I was back at launch in 10 minutes. I will remember this flight for some time, cruising under clouds along the ridge with its peaks hidden. After we returned, Pete ventured further east, but couldn’t make it back in the strengthening wind, so he landed near Popkum Road coming straight down without forward movement. Meanwhile I flew out over the valley and then back to Bridal LZ were it was a lot less windy.


Turn-around point is marked by obvious change in flying speed at 14:58

Sunday looked quite promising, but it didn’t turn out to be as spectacular as it looked. Still, I pushed a bit beyond where I had been before, flying with Pete to Agassiz Mt, then across to Bear Mt. During the crossing on speedbar my glider took an interesting whack out of the blue (at least for me), sharply turned 90 degrees and dived maybe 45 degrees. That woke me up, but was very manageable and just what a 1/2 wing is supposed to do… made me appreciate my docile Sport4. I arrived a little below the top of Bear, scratched for a while but never got up and landed at Seabird Island. Pete arrived higher, scratched for another hour only to land on the other side of Green Hill. Next time I should land closer to the main road or call for a retrieve earlier. I decided to walk to the highway to make it easier for pick-up, but gave up after 30 minutes - it would have taken a mere 3 minutes to cover this distance by car. I called and lucked out as I managed to piggy-back on a retrieve that was in progress already. Guess I owe a few retrieves and drives up to launch with all these cross country adventures ...

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!

Bridal Falls, March 6/7

How is this for a rational: rivers too low for paddling, no fresh snow for skiing in the last couple of months and a crappy weather forecast – so lets do the most weather sensitive activity and go flying?!

Guess after the reports of excellent conditions during the week the need for airtime for us weekend warriors was too great, and we did a couple of sled rides before and after rain showers. And I finally succeeded in capturing some more footage with my wing-cam (both the Mino and Vado have intermittent problems with freezing and not recording when left to themselves for longer periods of time).

Big Weekend at Bridal, May 9/10

Big air, big clouds, exciting flying. I opted for shorter flights and quantity - 4 flights each day. Pete did some nice cross-country to Butterfly and Elk and has it all on Google Earth.



Gaggleling up


Development starting over Woodside


Deimos Gang at Launch


Bridal LZ in yellow