Flying Revelstoke

On our way home from Chilliwack, we stopped in Revelstoke for the night and hoped to finish off the road trip with one last flight. Despite afternoon and evening thunderstorms and rain showers, the mornings were reasonably clear and calm.

Revelstoke Mountain Resort has the highest vertical of any ski resort in North America and, fortunately, is one of the few ski resorts that allows paragliding.

There were way more pilots around than usual; many of them making a stop on their way home from the annual Willi XC Challenge held in Golden. In other words, pilots with far and away more experience that we have! It was a bit intimidating to say the least.

The launch area was gorgeously covered with wildflowers. But it meant uneven terrain and I stepped in a couple holes just getting my wing laid out. My nervousness (between the crowd of other pilots and the rough ground) meant it took me a second try to get a good launch but once in the air it was pretty smooth sailing. There wasn't much for thermals and even the pilots who were fully geared up for some cross-country flights landed not long after I did.

Beautiful wildflowers cover the launch area.

Joining the queue at launch.

Mt. Begbie on the other side of the valley.

Looking down valley (south) from Revelstoke.

Looking up valley towards the airport runway and the city of Revelstoke. 

There are a couple gliders in this photo but they are all but impossible to see!

There is one glider in this photo and it is much easier to see than those in the photo above.

There was virtually no wind in the LZ and what wind there was, seemed to be coming in sideways from the river rather than up or down the valley. I saw the pilot in the above photo landing far short of the LZ and thought he might end up in the marshy area but it looked like he at least landed on dry ground. 

After several passes over the LZ and much indecision, trying to figure out what the wind sock was doing, I chose a direction and landed just a few feet long and into the uncut grass. I was very annoyed with myself as I had lots of time to plan it out, if only I'd made a decision sooner! 

I didn't feel quite so bad after watching others though. Everyone was having a tough time deciding which direction to land and out of about a dozen pilots who landed while Andrew and I were still there, only two of them (locals) actually landed in the mowed area of the LZ. 

Andrew coming in to the LZ. Clouds starting to pile up!

Andrew landed about the same place I did, just a few feet into the longer grass. Unfortunately, he fell forward after he landed and tweaked his thumb back. However, by the time we got home the next afternoon it was swollen and quite sore. He self-diagnosed, like everyone does, by googling it! After a visit to a medi-clinic, diagnosis was confirmed as a chipped bone on his thumb (known as skier's thumb) but more worrisome was possible ligament damage. The surgeon he was referred to determined that surgery was not necessary but a cast and a few weeks recovery time is what the immediate future holds.

Humorously, this is the exact same injury I had about 30 years ago when I fell skiing and ended with my hand in a cast!

Fly British Columbia

Over the past couple weeks, Andrew and I were out in the mountains on a paragliding and climbing trip. Unfortunately, neither of us think we can also fit scuba diving gear in the car!

Since our training course in Santa Barbara in March (where we were able to do just one mountain flight) we'd only done a bit of kiting around home and a few small flights off a local hill. Therefore, one of our goals was to get a bit more time with an instructor and to get feeling more comfortable in our skills and longer flights.

We first headed to Vernon due to its close proximity to climbing at Skaha Bluffs in Penticton. After three long days with two or three flights per day, I'm not sure if I was feeling better about things or not! Both of us were having really crappy luck with launches (obviously more kiting practice is in our future!) but thankfully the launch areas were mostly forgiving. (The newest rip in my pant leg and scratches and bruises on my leg not withstanding.)

Flying at Baldy, near Vernon, BC. Four gliders in the air and cows in the landing zone!

Andrew doing "big ears" to lose some altitude.

Andrew coming in for a landing. Watch out for the cow in the zone!

On my very first flight I came much closer to a tree than I would have liked which put some healthy fear into me! We were learning more about thermals and what to look and listen for to find them and what to do to try to stay in them to gain some altitude. On one flight the tight turns made Andrew a bit nauseous but he recovered quickly.

After the second day of three flights and very hot weather, I had a splitting headache!  I finally took an Ibuprofen in the morning and was somewhat better before our flight at a new and higher launch but obviously not better enough. I never felt nauseous but just feeling "off."

We got some great thermals that morning but after a few 360's I soared back & forth (with a head that was still spinning 360's) toward the landing zone and after 55 minutes was more than ready for the flight to end.

When Andrew got down after an hour and 20 minute flight, including some cross country, he was so excited about flying! I felt bad that I didn't share his enthusiasm. A conversation at supper one evening shortly after this demonstrated the difference in our comfort levels. "What I really like is that it's sort of like a game of hide & seek. You know, trying to find the thermals," said Andrew. "Ya," I replied, "I just wanna not crash."

Panorama from Cooper's launch near Lumby, BC.

Andrew coming in for landing after a long flight.

Ready to touch down!

We then headed to Skaha. After the stress of paragliding, we were pretty mellow and climbed nothing but sport routes that we'd done before and were quite comfortable on.

Andrew rappelling off "Plum Line" -- a beautiful 10a at Skaha and one of my all-time favourite routes.

We were (unusually) social butterflies during this trip and had great visits with climbing friends Ian Marsh and Murray Hainer in Vernon (who we hadn't seen in years!) and Ellen Woodd in Summerland; with Andrew's work crew (Pete, Joanne, Irwin and Irwin's wife, Christine) in Penticton; and then made a quick detour to Kamloops to see my niece Julie and her new beau, Bryce.

As we headed back in the direction of home we stopped in Revelstoke and got two flights at Revelstoke Mountain Resort (RMR). The ski hill boasts the highest vertical in North America. This was by far my favourite two flights. Mostly because I easily had 1/2 hour flights without doing too many 360's. Even going straight to the landing zone, it's still a 15-20 minute flight! And being surrounded by snow-capped peaks was amazing!

Laying out the gliders at highest launch point at Revelstoke Mountain Resort. 

Andrew just after takeoff from the launch at Revelstoke Mountain Resort. Love the snow-capped peaks!

Ski runs and the town of Revelstoke. 

I love the colour of my wing! That's the most important thing, right?  :-) 

My first in-flight selfie!

Our final stop was Golden. We did just one flight at Mount 7 on Friday morning -- a 15 minute sled ride down to the landing zone but again, it was a really great flight. We purposely planned this for Friday as we thought it might be busy on the weekend and, sure enough, we learned there were approximately 20 student pilots expected, several tandem flights and of course many other visiting pilots. We just don't feel experienced enough yet to be in the air with too many other people.

Andrew getting ready for forward launch (almost no wind) at Mount 7.

Golden, BC.

There were a lot of these little guys in the landing zone.

Loving the air! (Photo by Andrew)

Me coming in for landing. Launch point is the peak on the left. (Photo by Andrew)

After this, the heat (high 30's) and holiday crowds, not to mention simply being very tired from travel and activities, made the decision to head home an easy one. We'll continue to keep an eye on wind conditions at home, get in more kiting practice and look forward to our next get-away!

Andrew is much better at doing blog posts on the road than I am. Here are several of his with more flying as well as some "down time" activities.

- Flying at Vernon
- Climbing, butterflies, flowers and birds at Skaha
- Okanagan rest day -- wineries, birds, coffee shops and more!
- Flying at Revelstoke and Golden