First Sping Thermals - March 10

Great flying on Saturday and lots of pilots out!

After an hour and a half I get bored of bumbling around launch and go crosscountry (although there is some excitement when a pilot loses control of his wing and lands in a tree). Cloudbase isn't that high, but I find a lifty line towards Agassiz Mt and from there across to Bear. There I climb to 1200 meter and head across the Fraser River towards Ludwig. Although I know that my chances of arriving high enough to climb out are slim, I have more than enough altitude to safely cross the river and land on a gravel bar next to Pete and Kevin. Great scenery, nice flight and first time for me to cross from Bear Mt (though next time I should stay a little more upwind on the crossing).

Landing with Pete on a Fraser gravel bar. Very left skyline is Bear Mt, where we came from.

February Powder Goodness

Yeah, after 6 weeks without much snow to show for, the pineapple expresses just keep rolling in. With all the new snow the avalanche conditions will be touchy, but there are spots to enjoy the powder goodness without pushing the risk too high. Pete still did some destructive snowpack testing tweaking his knee in the process.

Staying in lower angle trees at Needle - sweet pow.

January Drought

This appears to be a recurring pattern over the last several years. Winter starts promising in November and December, but barely any precipitation arrives in January and the better half of February. This year was no exception. At least the road up to our Woodside paragliding launch was mostly snow-free, so we could drive up for sled-rides. For the non-paragliding reader, these sled-rides have nothing to do with sleds, instead they are what we call a glide without lift so we are back on the ground in just a few minutes. We also had a couple of hike&fly adventures from Elk Mountain.

Flight from Elk Mountain, American and Canadian Border Peaks in the back

Blanket Glacier: New Years 2013

Back from skiing and New Years at Blanket Glacier Chalet near Revelstoke. Sweet terrain with plenty of tree skiing (from steep to mellow; north, west and south exposure), great snow, stable avy conditions and an excellent crew. Several of our new skiing buddies were in their late 50s, but fit and keen. They dragged us lazy bums out of the cabin as soon as daylight broke (9 AM Alberta time) every day for a total of over 10.000 meter vertical for the week ... on a couple of days we did close to 1800 m. And that’s with extra 2 kg backpack weight of our new avy airbags. We haven't done this much vertical in a long time! Early starts combined with sweet pow and a great group did the trick. A good start to the New Year. Now we just have to keep the well earned fitness up, but its difficult to get motivated back in the Vancouver rain.

Pete below Pollux. Caribou Ridge across the valley.

Off to another powder day

Last run in evening light

Blanket Glacier Chalet

Between the layers