Record Temperatures and Flood Risk - June 24 - 29

 

Three days in a row the Canadian heat record was broken in the town of Lytton with 46, 47 and 49C.
Apparently this is also a record for any place north of 50 degree latitude worldwide. Disaster strikes on the 4^th day when most of the town burns down and inhabitants have only minutes to get out. Terrible to see this happen to a place we often visited on our Thompson paddle trips.

Meanwhile some Pemberton residents are evacuated because of flood risk. The unusual high temperatures cause much accelerated snow melt.

 https://www.nationalobserver.com/2021/07/01/news/fire-destroys-homes-buildings-lytton-bc-residents-missing

We had our own private record and measured 40oC at our place in South Burnaby - don't think it has ever been that hot in the almost almost 20 years we live here.

Pemby Under The Clouds - May 9

 

Never flown Pemby under a cloud cover like this. Forgot that my vario battery needs replacing... it was cold at altitude and the battery died halfway through the flight. On the way back I was very careful to keep my distance to the clouds. No vario = no compass.

 

April Pemberton Flying

Fantastic views over snow and glaciers and mountain ranges for the first flight of the year in Pemberton and very nice conditions! But it was so cold up high I had to turn around at North Creek. 84 km out and return. Flight track in XContest here. Pretty fast flight too, 27 km/h.

Nicole ahead of me at North Creek.

Canadian Paragliding Nationals, July 22-29

What a fantastic week in Pemberton! A big thanks to Guy and Ricardo and the many volunteers who worked so hard to make this happen!

We had 4 tasks, the 3 other days were canceled because of too much wind. Two of the tasks were over 80 km with lots of valley crossings, including some flying north of the Hurley Pass. 86 pilots came to Pemberton, many of them for the first time. Lots of happy pilots in goal each day, thanks to the good work by the task committee. I really enjoyed flying with so many other pilots in the air (except for the start gaggle) as the many wings provide lots of indication which lines work best and where to find lift. But it was an eagle who showed me where the nicest thermal was - apparently these birds don't like rough air either.

Although conditions were typical for Pemberton (rather rough at times), there were only two reserve tosses, no damage to pilots or gear and both pilots got themselves back to civilization (one with the help of comp volunteers).

Both Pete and I had good success in the competition, placing second in Sport's and Women's class respectively. In addition I won a fantastic raffle price, courtesy of Jim Reich/FlyBC.

For more information on each day check out Nicole's blog: here.

Results: here.

CBC report: here.  Cool video shows +85 pilots launching.

First task of Canadian Nationals. It took me some time to climb high enough so I was almost last to leave launch. Watched the gaggles ahead race into the ground on the ridge to Copper. I almost did the same heading low into the lee of Pauline. Slowly ridge-soared my way up again from way too low with Christian. Lots of wind from the northwest so I didn't feel motivated to tackle the last into-the-wind leg of the task. Should have… could have… but surprise... still placed 1st in Women's class.

Second task. Must have been my fastest run to Copper and back (1:39 for 46 km on the scoring sheet, average 27.5km/h ... included in the Leonardo track are an additional 35 minutes waiting for the start). My first goal in a comp, with 64/85 other happy pilots.

Third task. Never done some much zigzagging across the valley …  worked surprisingly well. From Camel straight across to Locomotive. Strong headwind and blown thermals themals there and not easy to get to Zorah (last one before the North Creek crossing). Back to Camel and then Owl and then back to goal at the bottom of Camel. Arrived a 'little' too high over goal... 1000 meters. Guess I have to work on my racing strategy.

Day 4… canceled: Hiked on river right of Lillooet river to a view point over the Capricorn slide. Very impressive. And a great blue berry crop! On the way back we rescue a young couple with a blown tire and no clue how to change it.

Day 5… canceled: hiked Miller Ridge with Nic, Alex and Christian. Great flowers and lots of mossis. We take a dip in a tarn next to the last snow patches. Surprisingly warm water.

Fourth task. Looks like the easy valley crossings of the last task lured me into not taking this serious... left too low. Too impatient when strangely no climbs were to be found along the ridge to Owl. Bombed out! But thanks to the scoring system the worst day doesn’t count and I'm finishing in Women's second place... out of 9 ladies.

Pemberton - Again - June 5th

Not quite as epic as 2 weeks ago but still a respectable 75 km out and return flight and this time I took some photos of the impressive scenery. So much snow and ice, so many peaks and glaciers. That we get to do/see this with just 4 kg of nylon and a few strings never ceases to put me in awe.

Coming up to the Hurley Pass Rd. Goat peak just left of centre.

Pemberton Epicness

The end of May finally brings nicer weather and a great weekend in Pemberton. Lots of XC flying was done. I managed a new PB (personal best) - distance and time wise. 110 km and 5.5h. Could have done without the first 50 min I needed to get away from launch. I was going to turn around at North Creek (for an 80km out and return flight) but met Pete on his way back from Spindrift and he encouraged me to fly on. Great flight with Pete and Mike. Up at Spindrift the Lillooet valley is very narrow and almost everything one sees from above all the peaks is snow, ice and glaciers. What an amazing sight!

Unfortunately I didn't reset my camera from the star photo session the night before. No photos!

The track log instead:

100 Kilometer! (June 21)

My first flight over 100km! First time all the way to Spindrift and the Meager Valley. Almost all of it I flew alone. Air was a bit rough in spots and I never got over 3000 meter. It took me 5 hours (4:58) of flying and seemed a lot of work!

Frozen Beauty - Gates Lake

Finally southwest BC is getting some of the cold much of Canada had to put up with all winter. Cold arctic outflow air is reaching our area. Lakes in the mountains around Whistler and Pemberton are solidly frozen and thanks to the lack of snow in prime skating conditions! I have only ever been on skates maybe half a dozen times and haven't been on a frozen lake since I was a teenager. In addition the views and conditions were simply spectacular. Pete and other paraglider friends played with different sorts of kites. I worked on my skating technique, first pushing a chair around, later with a hockey stick for balance.

The ice on some of the lakes was polished by wind and clear as glass. Amazing to glide over the dark water and near shore see green water plants and sunken trees under the ice. Even more mysterious are the occasional eerie creaking sounds from the ice. A totally new experience.

We also tried out another new activity: a friend took us ice climbing. Since the main ice climbing area was crowded with people we found our own mini cliff with a sunny belay spot. A belay spot in the sun must be very unusual for serious ice climbing but made our first foray into the sport extremely pleasant.

Frozen Gates Lake

Glass clear ice

Pete making lines on Brohm Lake

Bears!

When I first came to Canada I kept a list of yearly bear sightings, with numbers around 12 or 15 each year. I haven’t kept record lately, but this year it seems worth starting up again.

On a drive up to Pemberton in spring I saw four bears grazing on the fresh grass along the highway. That’s where the snow melts first and the grass grows early, so the hungry bears come to the table. There were several more road-side sightings over the next few weeks.

But I had the best (and longest) bear watch experience while para-waiting (for better flying conditions) on launch in Pemberton. First one and then a second bear showed up, doing their best to keep the grass short. Elsewhere people have goats to do this. The second, smaller bear was rather skittish and kept its distance. Pretty cool to watch them feed and interact. At one point Pete came in on his paraglider for a top landing. He didn’t want to spook the bears and yelled. The yelling didn’t faze the bears, but when the fabric thing flew close over their heads they scrambled off.

A few days later while retrieving the car after a Rainbow Mountain hike&fly in Whistler we watched a bear mum and her three cups inspecting driveways in search of food. We even ‘rescued’ a woman who was walking her dog in the neighborhood. The two had just run into yet another bear. The dog got rather excited and the woman thought it wise to avoid another bear encounter, especially with a mum and her cups, and we loaded dog and lady in the car and drove them to safety.

Vegetarian Bear

Supervising the lawn mowing crew

Bear on landing strip

Whistler bear family

Capricorn Slide

A couple of pictures from the site of the 2010 Capricorn slide (possibly the biggest slide recorded in Canada). Prior to the slide we had been in the area several times, checking out the hot springs and hiking. I have also seen the slide from the distance, but to stand on the huge debris field where before there was a forest of tall trees and see how the mud flow had scrubbed everything off hillsides up Meager Creek was, well… mind boggling.

Looking down the Lillooet Valley. This was covered by forest 3 years ago.

Looking upstream Lillooet River (comes from the right). Meager Creek joins from left of center. The hillsides scrubbed by the slide are visible up into Capricorn creek valley.

Canadian Paragliding Nationals: August 4-12

I hadn’t planned to sign up for the Canadian National Paragliding Championships (or to participate in any serious competition for that matter), but it looked as if I would have some spare time on my hands, Pete and a bunch of friends were keen to go, and joining the comp seemed a good way to support the organizers. So in early August we went for a week to Pemberton and here is the story.

Day 1: I decided to launch late, as my success rate of staying up in light lift wasn’t that great. On my best flights in Pemby earlier this year I had launched late, often after sinking out on the first flight. Conditions usually get stronger as the day goes on. But today this strategy didn’t work. The northwest wind picked up (just like once a couple of weeks ago…) producing rough thermals and making it hard work to push out along the ridge to Owl, where I finally flew out to land in the valley. Well, it wasn’t just me having trouble with the rough air. Four pilots tossed their reserves and one crashed into a tree (I watched one toss, Pete saw and called ‘reserve’ for two). Fortunately (and miraculously) nobody was hurt. The helicopter made rounds to pick everybody off the mountain. I bet the good SAR people must have wondered what the rest of the week would bring. Summary day 1: learned a lot about my new vario/GPS. Should have practiced with the new technology ahead of the comp. Should have launched earlier.

Day 2: Launched earlier. This didn’t work either…landed even before the start time. By the time I landed the first puffs of the Whistler Express arrived at the Pemberton LZ. Two other pilots coming in just after me were parked (no forward speed) in the strong wind. Fortunately there was little wind or turbulence near the ground and both touched down nicely. Did I say that it was crazy hot in Pemberton? A dip in Mosquito Lake sounded like an excellent idea for the afternoon. But when I left the Black Squirrel campground, the weather forecast started to materialize and big black clouds appeared over Pemberton. On to plan B and off to see if I could pick up a few pilots before the rain started. Pete had already found a ride and I returned with two other flyers. On the way back to Pemberton, we had a full view of big black clouds accentuated by the occasional flash of lightening. To my surprise there were still four wings in the air, three over Owl Peak directly under the scary black clouds and one in the middle of the valley. The conditions looked well past the point when I wanted to be on the ground with my wing in its bag. The pilot in valley spiraled down and we watched him land OK. The other three were also heading away from the clouds. Later we learned that unfortunately only two of the three pilots made it down safely. The third may have encountered turbulence at low elevation and crashed into the river. Being attached to a big piece of fabric and moving water are a deadly mix. The pilot drowned. The comp was cancelled on the next day. Everybody is sad and shocked.

No flying weather on the next day. Pete, Paddy and I had our kayaks along and went to paddle the Birkenhead River at a nice juicy level. Class 3+ felt like the right level for me with less than 10 whitewater days this year so far.

Day 3: After 2 days off, it was time to get in the air again. I had a slow but nice flight to Owl, climbed with Mags at Barbour, did a low run to Copper, then a sweet thermaling session with Brad there. Crossed to Goat and got to almost 3000 meter flying circles with Greg. Mighty cold up there! Tagged the Tender waypoint and glided across to Camelhump. Though I almost could have pushed over the pass, I thought better of it and tried to find a climb on the shaded valley side. No success and I landed with many other pilots at the bottom of the hump. Nice flight and only my second time over the Hurley Pass Road. Need to keep an eye on maximizing my glide and should have gone back for a climb at Goat or Copper, where I knew where the thermals are.

Day 4: Scratched in the heat at lower launch for ages and still sunk out. But ‘for ages' is relative. While I gave up after 30 minutes or so, another pilot worked valiantly for 2 hour before successfully climbing out and getting away. Lesson of the day: re-define 'for ages'.

Day 5: Increased my scratching threshold to +1 hr and was rewarded. More scratching along the ridge to Owl, where I arrived low but got finally above the peak with Tonya, followed by a sweet glide in the evening sun side by side with her to Miller Ridge. Not far, but a nice last flight for the week.

And the summary of my first competition? Not too bad in the women’s rating: 4th place of 8. Not quite as good overall; Sport: 34/48. Learned many new things about flying. Met lots of people. Had two nice flights, but didn’t fly as well as I would have liked on the other three days. Can’t say that this experience got me motivated to sign up for more of these 'serious' competitions. Just too many things I did not like: para-waiting in the hot sun until the per-determined start time. Being tied down for a week if conditions are iffy for flying but perfectly fine for other activities (paddling, hiking, mountain biking). Bombing out and watching the rest of the show from the ground. And I'd rather not be around again when people push their limits, and some push too far.