El-Nido July 19, 2021

 Most of the southern part of the province east of Vancouver is on fire, and with the winds, we didn't have a lot of flying options.  Clearwater looked to be the least windy, although smokey, so the BCXC group headed there for the day.

Clearwater RASP for July 19

Hot hot hot as usual in Clearwater in mid-July :) and the wind was crossing from the west as per usual, making thermalling in the smoke difficult.  I stayed up for 30 min before calling it a day and landing for a swim at Dutch Lake.  Peter and James flew to Clearwater to land closer to the lake ;)  Too smokey to be really enjoyable, but it was nice to get away from the coast for a few days!

Short flight at El Nido.

A smokey and dry (look at the dormant grass!) El Nido launch. 
Photo courtesy of Richard Bruneau.

Upper MacKenzie Pemberton July 18, 2021

I have always wanted to do the Pemberton to Goldbridge run, but due to the fact the retrieve is a bit inconvenient, haven't actually done it.  It actually wasn't the *best* day to do it, there was quite a bit of wind about, but the advanced members of our group decided it was still doable so we alerted our retrieval team of our plans!

Hurley Pass RASP for July 18

There was quite a bit of cloud about, too much to really feel comfortable going over the back at Goat into the backcountry, so most pilots top-landed below Copperdome to wait out the sun.  I opted to stay in the air and enjoy the abundant lift and watch the sky.  Once the skies cleared a bit more everyone relaunched and off to Goat we went, where we eventually got to 3000m and committed to going over the back to Chipmunk Mountain.

Our LZ is the Gunn Creek river delta where it spills into Carpenter Lake.

It was windy up high, and with the Hurley FSR below us in the venturi, we figured it would be very windy on the ground too.  A bit scary, frankly, especially since there are essentially zero landings (at least nice ones) for the entire trip to Goldbridge.  There are cutblocks, and wide areas of the Hurley FSR, but nothing that would be entirely comfortable to land in, especially in wind.  However the terrain behind Goat is spectacular!

Looking west to Downton Lake.  Carpenter Lake is behind me. 
Our flight path from Chipmunk Mountain was on the left side of this photo.

Basically to get to Goldbridge you just have to follow the Hurley FSR, but you can either follow more-or-less right next to it, or go deeper into the higher peaks.  Most of us opted for the deeper line over the Waterfall peak complex, but Tyler opted for the next-to-the-Hurley line, and got shot down midway through the flight, landing on the road in not-that-nice conditions, and eventually getting a ride back to Pemberton via a returning car back down the Hurley road.  I actually returned to the vicinity of the road after getting to Mt. Noel since it was obvious we were going to make Goldbridge no problem, and I wanted to get some photos of Downton, Gunn, and Carpenter lakes, as well as see what was available for LZ's if you landed short.

Downton Lake with the dam, Lajoie Lake, and Gunn Lake

As you approach Bralorne and Goldbridge you have to pass over/by Brexton Dome, and in the amount of wind we were experiencing (we were doing 60+kph downwind at this point), you definitely don't want to be in the lee of that chunk of mountain!  I veered well west of Brexton Dome, leaving Mt. Noel at 3000m, which incidentally puts you over the marshland between Downton and Carpenter lakes, a nice emergency bailout zone if you are having issues reaching the LZ.  I estimate you can actually leave Mt. Noel around 2000m and still reach the river delta LZ since you are approaching continuously-descending terrain to the lake.

Packing up in the 30+kph winds was difficult, so we had to use this tree to hide behind.

The LZ in this case was the river delta on Carpenter Lake, about 10km past Goldbridge where Gunn Creek empties into Carpenter Lake.  Here is the best-looking LZ, plenty of sand and also plenty of room if you get dragged in the wind, and it's right next to the main road leading from Goldbridge to Lilloet.  We actually had oodles of height and could have continued flying east, but there are no/not much LZ's further along Carpenter Lake, and we wanted to have a safe and happy landing!

James and Peter and Richard were already ahead of Bill and I, had landed already, and were reporting 30+ winds, so setup my approach well upwind and landed with lots of dragback room (but didn't need it).  The LZ is actually a bit soft with the piles of sand which was a bit unexpected...if you land here, prepare for some sinking in!

Celebrating our flight at the Gunn Creek LZ!

It was definitely windy in the LZ, and we all agreed that the flight was spectacular but quite burley.  Doing the flight on a less-windy day would definitely be more fun and allow you more time to enjoy the scenery and relax a bit more.  But I think Goldbridge/Carpenter Lake is always going to be windy, so choose your day wisely!

76 km flight Pemberton to Goldbridge.

Upper MacKenzie July 17, 2021

  I am part of the BCXC tour group, and due to the widespread fires in BC, we have limited areas to fly, so today we started in Pemberton.

Mostly cloudy skies and some Whistler Express coming in, so it was an extended sled run to the Beer Farm.  We did it mostly for the lulz and some of the BCXC folks don't get to fly Pemberton that often, so it was a treat for them.

Tomorrow is another Pemberton day with much sunnier skies forecast for the afternoon, so we may try the run to Goldbridge!

Pemberton Upper MacKenzie July 11

 Today was looking like quite a nice day with cu's reported yesterday and (compared to yesterday) lighter wind forecasted.  LOTS of pilots on launch today, great to see!

I launched a bit earlier than usual as it looked to be working around the corner to the SE, and after a few minutes of scratching around the corner from the Telus Towers I was able to get to 2700m and crossed to the Miller valley.  Tom Kitto and Dave A. were with me.  Over on the Miller side it was windier from the west than expected, so the entire mountain range over there was in rotor, making for very rough flying!  Lots of active flying, lots of weighlessness, and one big frontal blowout which I was able to control for the excitement of Dave who was watching ;)

Not wanting a repeat of the Mt. Morrison debacle of a few days ago, after enjoying the glacier scenery of the Miller valley I crossed to Mt. Barbour, where, despite it being more into-the-wind, it was still rough and generally not-nice air.  I wasn't feeling like getting beat up for the next 4 hours so I turned around and landed back in Pemberton, where pretty much everyone else who landed said the same thing "it was shit".

The group who went down to Lilloet Lake were saying the same thing, and 3 or 4 of them landed either at the snowshed on the Duffy Lake road, or at the south end of Duffy Lake.  I believe one of them was under reserve (but was OK).  All in all, a very rough, unpleasant day, a "Type 2" fun sort of day.

50km FAI triangle on a rough day.

Pemberton Miller Ridge July 6

 The forecast was looking quite light for the Pemberton Valley so we arranged a crew to drive and hike-n-fly from Miller Ridge.

Bring your bug net!  I brought mine and used it immediately.  Wear long sleeves and long pants!  Otherwise you will be eaten alive during the entire 45 minute to 1 hour hike, and the only relief will be when you arrive on launch and there (hopefully) cycles to keep them off!  For some reason the Miller side of the vallye is worse than the MacKenzie side for bugs, it may be because the Miller side has more water/late-season snow/glacier melt nearby to nurture the mosquito larvae.

Most of the group on launch were planning to go to Whistler and them perhaps the Wedge-Lilloet Lake jump, but I wanted to fly to Athelstan via the Miller side of the mountains and return via the MacKenzie side of things.  Getting up was a bit of a chore since there was quite a bit of south wind scrubbing along the side of the ridge, but I eventually got high and then set off to the NW.

Things were going great until I crossed the Ryan Valley to Mt. Morrison.  The south wind was manifesting as a SE and sucking into the Ryan Valley (usually is is blowing from the NW) so my plan to get up on Morrison was foiled by the wrong wind direction and I was flushed down (quite violently, I might add!) to the Camel's Hump.

Not wanting to land out so early, and in so crappy a spot, I recrossed the valley the base of Copperdome and arrived *very* low, basically over the bridge that crosses the Lilloet River to the Hurley Pass, and proceeded to spend the next 55 minutes scratching in the heat and stability a few hundred feet above the ground.  It was not fun!  But I was able to eventually scratch my way up to Copper Mountain, and when I had enough height to get back to the Beer Farm, I flew back immediately so I could land, have a cold drink, have a swim, and get out of my sweaty flying clothes!

Meanwhile the boys who had headed to Whistler were experiencing some scratching conditions as well and some south wind, but were able to make it work and eventually get to Wedge, where they were able to get high enough (3500+m) to make the jump over the Wedge pass and down to Lilloet Lake.  It did sound a bit hairy in spots with lots of south wind down low and scratching in not-very-nice spots.  By the end of the day I think there were a bunch of 150+ km triangles by the Whistler-Wedge-Lilloet lake crowd, good for them for sticking it out on a rougher-than-forecast day!

Aborted Athelstan flight.

Pemberton Upper MacKenzie July 5

Today was my first flight on my new Phi Allegro X-Alps.  This is a lightweight EN-C and I decided to get it in traffic-cone orange for the best visibility in the skies and also contrasting against trees and mountains.

Weather was quite unstable with towering cu's in the neighbouring valleys so it wasn't going to be a big day, and we were going to have to keep an eye on escape routes in case a cell developed in the vicinity.  But initially the cells were behaving themselves so we estimated we had several hours before they would mature into cu-nims.

My new glider!  Photo courtesy of Alex Raymont

When kiting it a few days ago Alex and I discovered the risers are rather long for my short-ish arms, so instead of grabbing the A's at the ends, like for most risers, it's actually better to grab them at the base, in order to not "overpull" the leading edge when reverse launching.  They are listed as 570mm rather than Phi's technical specs of 540mm, but when I inquired, Phi confirmed they are the correct length for this size of glider and the technical specs page was out-of-date.

The first thing I noticed about this glider vs. my Lynx is that this glider is much "softer" vs. the Lynx.  I think that's partly a function of the fact that I'm in the weight range of this glider, whereas on the Lynx I was 2-4kg over the top of the weight range.  The turning is "softer" as well but quite nice, and the C-handles provide a good place to lever your hands when flying on speedbar.  I also noticed the Ronstad pulleys on this glider are a bit smoother vs. the Lynx Harken pulleys, although that may be because these pulleys are brand-new and no grit inside!

After a few minutes of thermalling to get familiar with the glider, I headed downrange to Goat Peak where I met up with Alex and we crossed the Hurley Pass together to Zorah Peak.

The 3 sets of towering cu's we were keeping an eye on

Meanwhile there was a group of 3 towering cu's on the Miller side of the valley which were threatening to coalesce into one giant cloud, but they seemed to be stopping just at that critical stage where they either go "kablooie" or fizzle.  However there was a rather threatening cloud over Mt. Currie which was dropping virga out and looked to be getting rather large in the distance, so we opted to return back to Pemberton and land at the Beer Farm rather than in windy Pemberton.  Turns out the cloud over Mt. Currie fizzled in the end as well, but rather safe than sorry!

Flying to the Beer Farm with the large cloud over Mt. Currie

All in all I'm quite pleased with my new glider and hope to get many hours and XC km's on this one!  And I'm glad it's a bit larger than my previous glider, as it will allow me to bring some vol-bivy gear and not feel 10kg overloaded which can be problematic when top-landing at 2000+m!

Short XC to Zorah Peak and return.

Pemberton vol bivy June 20-21, 2021

 The forecast was looking pretty average for XC flying, but perfect for vol-bivy flying, and with it being the summer solstice, we would be able to sky-camp on the shortest night of the year!  With the usual spot just coming out of the snow, there would be lots of water available (so less to tote ourselves) and less bugs to contend with as well.

Our usual sky camping spot near Copper Mound

Alex and I didn't actually launch until around 5 or 6pm, prior to that pilots were reporting it to be "spicy" and rather rough.  James Elliot who was planning on sky-camping with us was in the air already so it was just a matter of going down to Copper and meeting up with him there.  However the climb out was a bit slow and tedious, but once I got high I was able to get to Owl, the gap, and Barbour no problem, and then it was just an issue of top landing at the bivy spot.

The usual camping spot is still under snow (right) so we have to use the secondary spot to the south.

The bivy site itself was mostly still snow with a few exposed places, and the mine pits were also mostly snowed in, as was the amphitheatre down below.  So after doing a bunch of passes over the site, I chose to land in the snowfield just north of the bivy site and walk over.

Short flight to Copper bivy site.

This time of year the usual tenting spots are still under snow, so we used the secondary spot just to the south...I also saw another 1-tent spot to the north that will be useful if it's a busy night with lots of other tents in the usual spots ;)

Searching for cell signal...only in certain spots!

It was just the 3 of us (Alex, myself, and James) after Scott relaunched to fly back to Pemberton and work the following day.  We had a beautiful sunset which lasted for 2+ hours.  Going to bed around 11:30pm it was still red in the skies to the NNW, and when waking up at 3:30am, the skies were already red to the NNE.  Shortest night indeed!

Enjoying the shortest night of the year.  Photo courtesy of James Elliot.

Of course with the shortest night comes the longest days, so we were up way too early to actually fly, so waited until around 9:30am or so before launching.  The plan was to get back to the Beer Farm at least, and maybe even all the way back to the LZ.  It was beautiful morning thermals on the SW faces between Copper and Barbour, and we took differing paths after that...Alex and I crossed to the Miller side of the valley, while James stuck to the Owl side of the valley.  Alex and I got nada on the Miller side, and James also got nada on the Owl side....he only made it back since he was able to get higher at Barbour before continuing on, and flying an EN-D he had a better glide.  Alex and I made it to the Beer Farm where it was far too hot, that early in the morning, to do much more than pack up and wait in the shade for Jame to come pick us up :)

The snow is barely gone and already the alpine flowers are coming out!

When we got back to the LZ there were several groups going up MacKenzie but it was way too hot so off to Gates Lake for a swim and then North Arm Farms for some goodies!

Extended sled ride from Copper bivy site back to the Beer Farm.

Lower McKenzie Pemberton May 29-30

 The upper launch is now open, however we have been asked to stay off the grass up there in order to let it grow and re-establish after a hard winter.  It's still early enough in the season to get away from Lower launch, so after chucking our bags in a truck heading to Lower, a group of around 12 of us hiked up to Lower via the Cloudbase Grind trail.  Hiking without the bag is so nice!

A nice crowd of pilots on launch and we could see some Igor and Vlad in the air already on the SE corner of McKenzie, having launched from Upper launch in order to have the altitude to get around the corner to the morning side.  However they were not getting away so it looked to not be an early, or fast, or big day.  That meant that our tentative plans to fly to Whister and then back via Wedge and over the back of Wedget to Lilloet Lake and returning that way would have to wait for another day with higher base.  We had also heard reports that pilots launching from Rainbow launch in Whistler had sunk out, so yet another data point that it was going to be slow-ish day.

Note to pilots leaving paraglider bags on launch unattended: Don't do this, especially if you have food/smelly items inside!  We had one pilot's bag ripped open by the local black bear after he left it in the bushes while he was taking his retrieve vehicle back down and then hiking back up (a period of ~2 hours).  Patches of repair tape later and a working glider and harness again.  The helmet will probably need to replaced though.  We think it was the scented sunscreen in the paraglider bag the bear was going after.

Looking up Pemberton meadows to the lenticulars beginning to form

After fighting to get high for a bit between Lower and Upper launch, I said forget it and started heading for Owl low...I figured I only needed to get past the gap and onto Barbour, and then I'd be home free.  But that didn't happen, and I scunged along until Copper where I finally found a good climb which took me to 2800m and a comfortable altitude for the Hurley Pass crossing.

Once west of Hurley Pass it was indeed a bit easier, but you had to take care not to get too low, sink into the stable-zone, and have to fight your way back out.  The going to Spindrift was a bit slow with all the sink around, and it was only on the return, after re-crossing North Creek, that things felt "easy".

While re-crossing Hurley Pass we heard reports that Slava had gotten too low and deep behind Goat Mountain and had landed somewhere near Chipmunk Mountain at around 1400m.  At this altitude it's still winter and snowy, so we were initially concerned for Slava's wellbeing, but he was OK and found a snowmobile trail, and shortly thereafter was rescued by some passing snowmobilers on their way back to civilization.  He was dropped off a the Beer Farm later that evening :)

All in all, a rather difficult day and good training for staying up and high above the stability!

111km OR in Pemberton.

Sprucing up the safety hut!

The following day was not really flyable, but a good work day.  A crew of us went to Upper launch to spread more grass seed and also to do some upgrades to the safety hut.  Most drove down after finishing work but a few tandems flew before it got too cross and windy.

Opening weekend for paragliding @ Grouse Mountain May 15

 Grouse Mountain recently opened up and this weekend was looking pretty nice, a bit stable on the front mountains but more unstable even a little way back.

Grouse Mountain has plowed a tunnel to the Grizzly Bear enclosure,
but after that, it's hiking in the snow!  Photo courtesy of Alex Raymont.

The gondola was pretty quiet, since the mountain is "between seasons" for the regular tourists, and with Covid, only a few people are allowed on the gondola in the first place.

After a *very* hot hike up (the snow reflects all the heat directly onto you, like foil in an oven!) we arrived on launch with light cycles and Tom and Paddy already set up.  The cycles were actually quite anaemic and it was a tossup between a forward or a running reverse, not easy in the snow!

Looking at Grouse Mountain from Crown Mountain.  Photo courtesy of Alex Raymont.

Once in the air it was indeed a bit stable down low, but most of us went for the spine just to the west of launch (rather than the bailout cliffs) and that was working enough to get us high enough to jump back to Dam, and then Crown, Mountains.  Once back there it was easier to stay up and we actually got high enough to think about encountering airspace at 6500', but we were able to stay below that :)

There is still oodles of snow on the Coast Range mountains, which makes the scenery even more beautiful.

Lower MacKenzie Pemberton May 9-11

 The forecast was calling for a period of sunny and unstable weather in Pemberton, and coincidentally both Alex and I were able to take full advantage of the weather window, going to Pemberton for 3 days.

Saturday was looking like a light-wind, high-base day so I wanted to do the 100km out-and-return "milkrun" to Spindrift and back.  Several other pilots were chasing me while some other pilots went down Lilloet Lake instead.

RASP for MacKenzie May 9

The going to Hurley Pass was uneventful except for some rough air in the Owl-Barbour gap where I had a nice blowout on 2/3 bar.  Fortunately it was symmetrical so not too much required to fix and onwards I went ;)

Cloudbase was around 2700m at this point and there was ~15 kph of west wind, accelerating through the Hurley Pass, so crossing was slow and I had to do the usual "skip the first thermal on the other side, and use the next one away from the gap instead" trick.  Lots of lift on the other side and the same slow progress over North Creek as well.

Re-crossing the Hurley Pass after tagging Spindrift and the 50 km mark.

Getting around the corner of Spindrift and to the 50km mark was actually OK considering the headwind and clouds were forming all over the place, with big clouds starting to form around Birkenhead Peak and along the Duffy Lake stretch and down to Lilloet Lake.  It was time to return home before getting caught on the wrong side of one of those clouds!

The return was quick (!) and cloudbase had risen to around 3000m and pilots were starting to report strong suck and rain behind Mt. Barbour.  So it was quite easy to ride the leading edge of the cloudstreet all the way to Owl Ridge with few top-ups required.  The gaggle which had gone to Lilloet Lake had returned and were starting to go to the Hurley Pass but I believe most turned around early so as to not get caught up behind any late-day overdevelopment.

Back in Pemberton it was mini-Whistler Expressing so most pilots were landing at the Beer Farm and the taco truck that was also parked there.  I had parked at the new sportsfield so landed there instead to save the retrieve issues later on, and was able to tack on another 10km of distance to make a 111 km out and return flight.  The general consensus was of a fantastic flying day with some OD at the end to make things interesting and lots of smiling faces at the Beer Farm!

Socially-distanced camping after a fun day of flying.

111 km OR return in Pemberton.            

The following day looked a bit windier, and after the great flights of the day before, Alex and I decided to take the day off from flying and hike the Mile One Lake to Nairn Falls trail instead.  The trail was deserted (it was a Monday) and the campground at Nairn was still closed so we pretty much the entire Nairn waterfalls to ourselves!

Tuesday was looking like a slightly more-stable day vs. the previous 2 days, which was good from a flying deep point of view, but it made the MacKenzie basin climbout a bit slow.  But we were able to get to 2600m over the antennas and glide over Lil'wat Mountain.  I've always found the Lil'wat to Cassiope to Duffy Lake Pass stretch to be a bit of a "washing machine" with lots of turbulence and generally rough air, and today was no different!  It took me a while to get high enough for the glide across the Duffy Lake Pass to Duffy Peak on the other side; Peter and Alex were ahead by then, with Dave and Tom Furst below me.

Rasp for Twin Goat Tuesday May 11.  We actually got much higher than forecast!

Going down Lilloet Lake was pretty easy and I skipped one bump further than I'd been before, landing on Twin 2 Peak.  T2P was not working when I arrived so I had to hang out for about 15 minutes before I found a climb to 3200m which was plenty to get me back to Duffy Peak.  Alex and Pete had gone 5km further, to Priory Peak, but I was happy to get high enough at my peak to get back to "friendly" LZ's with no issues.

At Duffy Peak, heading SE along Lilloet Lake

Crossing back to Cassiope was easier than I thought it would be (getting to 3300m at Duffy Peak probably had something to do with it!) but there was a shelf of cloud forming between Lil'wat and the MacKenzie basin area, shading the area out.  I was already on the Lil'wat side so decided to try to run the clouds along to the Coyote launch and the Industrial Park, and try to reconnect with MacKenzie that way, while other pilots tried the direct over-Ivey-Lake route, and others tried via Mt. Currie.

Alex at Priory Peak, looking NW towards Mt. Currie.  Photo courtesy of Alex Raymont.

My route did not work and I landed at the new sportsfield and where the car was parked, so I wasn't too upset, especially since many other pilots who had recrossed successfully were reporting rough conditions on Owl Ridge and not having too much fun.  Fortunately the shelf of clouds over MacKenzie basin were depressing any tendency for Whistler Express so the landings at the schoolbus LZ were actually quite mild, and in fact the wind there was from Meager instead of Pemberton.

61km OR down Lilloet Lake and return in Pemberton.