El Nido, Clearwater July 27-30

This weekend there were 3 events to choose from: the Willi Muller XC Challenge, the WCSC Pemberton fly-in, and the Clearwater El-Nido fly-in.  Alex and I opted for the El-Nido fly-in since we've never flown Clearwater, and with the various smoke and fires around the province, it seemed like the best option.

Looking east at El-Nido with the North Thompson River below.

Willi Rens and his wife, Sigi, run the local PG tandem operation and do most of the upkeep of the launch and maintaining public relations.  You can see XSky Paragliding signs all over Clearwater :) The launch is an old, now-groomed clearcut, accessed by a high-clearance 2-wheel drive, very-well maintained McCorvie Lakes Forest Service Road.  And the LZ is the huge hay field just across the road from Dee's General Store at Birch Island, a perfect spot to grab a cold drink or ice cream after landing and packing up!

XSky Paragliding website

Looking at the El-Nido ridge with Raft Mountain in the background.

The launch faces almost due south, so it starts to work pretty early.  It's not high (1000m ASL, about 500m AGL) but plenty for getting up and seeing the potential of the area.  If you get high enough, you can easily cross north to Raft Mountain, or south to Dunn Peak.  And if you were feeling adventurous enough, you could continue north into Wells Gray Provincial Park or south to Sun Peaks Resort!

Sigi coming in to land at the El-Nido LZ.  Photo courtesy of Alex Raymont.

We had around 20 pilots for the fly-in this year (some came as far as from Smithers!), and much better weather than last year (when it was so smokey they couldn't see across the valley).  Lots of happy HG and PG pilots each night as we camped out at Willi and Sigi's place or swam in Dutch Lake or braved the colder waters of the North Thompson River.  Many thanks to Sigi and Willi for hosting us, and we'll definitely be back!

Sample flight at El-Nido.

Moul Falls, one of the many waterfalls in Wells Gray Provincial Park.  Photo courtesy of Alex Raymont.

Pemberton July 26

I originally wanted to try flying to the Rutherford Valley since I haven't yet done this, but I had to change my plans after flying over to Handcar and discovering a lot of north wind and not much lift.  In fact, the whole Miller side of the valley wasn't great, I couldn't really get high, so I bailed back to the Owl Ridge side of things where it was *much* better!  So much in fact, that airspace was going to be an issue!

Cloudbase was somewhere around 4200m, although we are only allowed to 3810m.  I suspect many pilots flew higher than that today ;)

Out to Goat Mountain and back to MacKenzie was a breeze with the cloud base and it was COLD, since we weren't planning on getting that high and so hadn't dressed properly ;)

Lots of haze in the air from BC forest fire smoke!

Pemberton July 23

After yesterday's epicness both Alex and I were feeling a bit tired, and given that today's forecast was calling for possible thunderstorms in the evening we didn't feel like doing a huge flight.

Building cu's on Owl Ridge after most people had landed.

The winds were light again, but with a bit of south rather than north, and by mid-morning the cu's were already forming and getting a bit tall.  So it was time to launch early, fly, and land early before it got too good!  Once in the air it was definitely industrial-feeling with lots of abundant lift, but sharp and rough thermals on Owl Ridge, and it was feeling a bit on the edge since it was *so* easy to get high, and with the building cu's it would be easy to get sucked into one.

I wasn't impressed with the conditions at Owl Ridge so I crossed over to Miller Ridge with Alex, since usually that side of the valley feels "nicer" than Owl.  But not today...it was just as rough and industrial over there as at Owl.  So I decided I had enough and flew out to land.

Most everyone in the air also landed early and I don't think many people who launched from Mackenzie flew very far, since we were so leery about getting stuck on the wrong side of a cloud if it went big while on XC.  After landing we watched as the many small cu's coalesced into several large cu's...the air was showing lots of energy today.  Definitely felt like a day where you wanted to give yourself plenty of outs and not tempt fate too much!

Epic Pemberton July 22

Today was one of those rare days where Pemberton gets a combination of high cloud base and very light (almost no) winds, and it fell on a weekend too, so lots of pilots were out enjoying it!

No wind and high lift!

As you can see from the day's RASP, it was light and variable winds with a touch of north, and the lift was going to be through the roof!

I dropped Alex off at the Rainbow hike-n-fly launch in Whistler (he had his own XC plans for the day) and I then continued on to Pemberton to meet with the scheduled 10am shuttle to upper MacKenzie launch.  My day was not starting off well...I forgot my instrument and radio at home as well as my extra clothes and sunscreen at the LZ (in part because we left the house so early and I was still tired from the day before)!  Fortunately I was able to use my backup setup...XC Track on my phone and my helmet beeper vario, and I was able to scrounge a spare radio from Guy.

I didn't actually launch until around 1pm but I think I could have launched around 12:30pm...the clouds were looking delicious but the earlier launchers were sinking out and the pilots at Rainbow were just barely climbing out (and they were at an earlier site).  But once in the air it was clear it was ON.  I beamed out to 2800m and then it was time to decide what I was going to do...I had previously decided I wanted to fly down Lilloet Lake and return, before doing the usual Spindrift-and-return run, but at launch Stefan had suggested flying to Whistler instead.

Wedgemount Lake coming into view.  Armchair Glacier on the left.

I have never flown to Whistler before since I have always been leery of the route with few good LZ's, and the horror stories I've heard of those who have landed in that valley mid-day when it's thermic and windy.  But once in the air it was clear there was practically no wind and base was high, so I decided to at least fly over to Handcar to see what the potential looked like, and decide from there.

Oodles of lift at Handcar and it was light north, so I decided I was going to get outside my comfort zone (!) and go for it.  Stefan and Miguel and I crossed over to Currie, where it was actually significant north and the thermals were scrubbing alongside the rocks, and we committed to flying south.  This part was slightly scary since the only places to land to the south of Currie are not that great: boulder fields, the riverbank next to the Rutherford River, or in random clearings next to high tension power lines, not the most comforting places to set down into!

After the first few climbs I was able to get to cloud base around 3200m, the north wind died, and then I was feeling good about my options since I was just so high and I could actually make the glide to safe landing spots near Green Lake in Whistler, even from this far out.  The scenery between Mt. Currie and Wedge Mountain was spectacular with many overhanging lakes and glaciers all over the place, all topped with puffy cu's.

Wedge Lake and Wedge Glacier.

I was continuing to see single-digit wind speeds even at 3000+m, which is extremely rare in the Whistler/Pemberton area, and I was staying high as I crossed above Blackcomb and Whistler and the Peak-to-Peak gondola CYR between the two mountains.  I could see Black Tusk (the remains of an old volcanic plug, the rest of the volcano has eroded away) on the next mountain south but this is a tough one to reach normally (so I've heard!) since it's a long glide out and there are zero LZs...just a sea of trees and volcanic boulders and canyons all the way to the highway and Daisy Lake.  In fact Stefan had just reached it and turned around, and Simon and Miguel had previously turned back at Whistler.  But I was feeling confident and continued to push south under the big clouds forming directly over the actual Tusk, overflying the Tusk at 3100m.

Crossing from Blackcomb to Whistler Mountain.  Black Tusk and Daisy Lake in the distance.

I could see Howe Sound and the ocean, and there were much less clouds in Squamish, so I decided now would be a good time to turn around.  Once again the negligible wind at altitude was my friend as I recrossed to Whistler and Blackcomb, and continuing back to Pemberton was easy-peasy, and Wedge and the Armchair Glacier were doing their usual spectacular routine :)  I briefly considered crossing east to Lilloet Lake via Wedge (we've looked at this route before on a map), but there were actually quite a few clouds on that route and it was looking a bit shady, and I didn't want to push my luck by flying into a shady spot on my own.  So I continued on to Currie where I beamed up to 3700m and was shivering with cold.

Crossing to Black Tusk under a cloud street.  Mount Garibaldi and Howe Sound in the distance.

Up until now the thermals had been broad, silky smooth, and a joy to fly in.  Not the case back at Owl Ridge!  It was rough, sharp, and all of a sudden the almost-zero wind turned into 15 kph of west wind...WTF?!  I could still fly in it no problem, but it was like night and day compared to the Whistler route, and very much less enjoyable that what I had just flown.  But I continued on to Hurley Pass to get some more distance in and there will still a couple of hours of usable daylight left.

It was getting late, around 7:30pm, the sun angle was very low on the slopes past Hurley Pass and many of the ridges out towards North Creek were in shade. Given the time of day and slowness of the climbs, and the fact that I've never landed out at Hurley Pass and I wasn't about to start now (!), I decided to turn around and run back to Pemberton in the fading daylight.  As I overflew Copper Dome I could see a group of pilots who had landed for an overnight vol bivy on the ridge.

The Pemberton valley was starting to get dark, so even though I was in sun, the lower slopes were in shade, so if I got low I was unlikely to get high again.  Fortunately the slopes felt much like Bridal at the end of the day, where you can just contour along and there is enough light lift that you don't really need to turn.  I started my final glide from Copper Dome at 2300m, 20 km out, and arrived at the LZ with 1100m to spare :)

About to pass over Black Tusk.  Panorama Ridge, Garibaldi Lake, and Mount Garibaldi in the background.

The LZ was actually in shade when I landed just after 8pm so I had used up most of the flyable day, which is always a nice feeling to have.  I had flown 140km in around 7 hours (the first hour or so I spent climbing out and feeling out the conditions above MacKenzie so it more like 6 hours of actual distance-flying) and I was tired!  But my day was not over yet...Alex had just landed back at Rainbow after closing his 212 km FAI triangle and was needing a pickup!  Two happy pilots that night as we camped out at the base of Mt. Currie to sleep off our flights ;)

140 km out and return.

Mt. St. Benedict July 21

Some north wind up high but not enough to really worry about.

Tom Gregg was heading out to help Al install the new outhouse on the lower launch so I tagged along, the day was looking good for a local flight!

A weekend so lots of boats on Stave Lake!

The actual flying was quite nice and cloud base was around 1800m in spots, so after tanking up at Gregory I headed over to the Steelhead to cruise around over there.  There was some west wind coming through and I did get low (I thought I would have to land at the Durieu school) but I found a scrappy lee side thermal which got me back to cloud base and back to launch where Al's students were still doing laps.

Making the base for the outhouse between 2 stumps.

Greg had launched and we flew north to MacKay lake and then the front side of the Davis lake bump (there was lots of lift around Davis bump!) before it was time to land and then get to work installing the outhouse.

View from the outhouse!

Lots of black flies and we also discovered a nest of nighthawk fledglings as we were creating the trail to the outhouse.  But in the end we got it installed and it has a nice view of Davis and Stave Lake.  Many thanks to Al, Tom, and WCSC for the donation of the outhouse!

Just need to put the roof on!

Chelan Nationals July 14

The final day of the US/Canadian Nationals!

I had noticed the day before that this was supposed to be a significant north wind day, and I had suggested to the comp organizers that they perhaps explore the option of moving the comp to Saddle Mountain for the day, since Saddle Mountain is a north-wind site and Chelan isn't.  However we ended up going to the Butte anyways...apparently the comp's liability insurance didn't cover Saddle Mountain (nor the north side of Chelan Butte since that's near the cell towers).

So anyhoo we were stuck at Chelan and it was blowing pretty significantly from the north, and we weren't allowed to launch near the towers.  So that left us with either trying to launch from Lakeside (NW) or wait for it some thermal activity to overcome things on the south side.

The task committee set a provisional task to Withrow-Entiat-Withrow-Waterville, pretty short at 51 km, and essentially zigzagging cross- and downwind.  So now we just had to wait for the north wind to abate...3pm and we were still on hold, so the organization decided to cancel the task, at which point a bunch of pilots launched from Lakeside.

It was stay-upable on the NW side and some pilots were able to get up high over the towers by flying to the north side and getting up over the Chelan Falls waterfall, but I don't think anyone got high enough to make the crossing to the flats to attempt the task.  I chose to get a ride down since my glider was already nicely packed from yesterday's landing at the soccer field, and I didn't really feel like landing at the junkyard or Lone Pine and packing up in sagebrush (yes I know it's not a particularly good reason!).

One of the first fires of the season, this one is near Wenatchee.

So the comp was officially over and the awards ceremony was later that same evening!  We ended up with 4 tasks which is pretty average for a Chelan comp, and this year we didn't have to worry about thunderstorms or fires.  However we didn't get to go far distance-wise which I think was a big reason why many international pilots showed up, after the last 2 comps where we've set the site/world record for a comp task.  I believe next year the organization is going to aim for a full-blown PWC which means it will potentially fill up quickly, so make sure to register early when the 2019 PWC season reg opens!

The 2018 Canadian Paragliding Championship winners are:

1.  JP Robert Vandenbegine
2. Andrew Berkley
3. Christian Grenier

1. Nicole McLearn
2. Kaylyn Gervais
3. Marina Lang

If you are looking for the US-specific or overall results you can find them here!

US winners.  Photo courtesy of Eric Ams.

Chelan Nationals July 13

When I saw the forecast for today I was pretty sure we weren’t going to have a task due to the winds (30-40 kph on the flats later this afternoon), but we tried!  The problem was stability, low top of lift, wind, and trying to fit 130 pilots in the air over the Butte in such conditions.

Initially on the Butte it wasn’t that windy but I suspected that was because the morning inversion hadn’t yet broken, and the task was called to Hartline, around 75 km away.  But the wind technicians weren’t staying up, or getting high, and we had to wait until it became more obvious that it was soarable (a couple of comp pilots actually launched to demonstrate it was stay-upable, and then top-landed for the final task briefing), at which point the inversion was starting to break.

You can see today's wind as well as the north wind tomorrow.

I suspected that once the inversion fully broke it would become very windy on launch and I was keen to be in the air already when that happened, so I launched very early in the sequence and got away from the hill and started slowly climbing in the broken lift out front.  It wasn’t too windy…maybe 15 kph in the compression zone, but I could see it becoming worse on launch as gliders were going all over the place and lots of blown launches.

As the inversion broke it became windier in the air as well, I was getting 25 kph now and thinking it was time to head out to land as it was becoming clear that it wasn’t safe to have a task, although free-flying was still OK.  At this point Eric got on the radio and said the task was stopped, at which point most of us in the air went out to land at the soccer field LZ, while those still on launch packed up, and a few in-air pilots decided to at least try the task for fun.

The wind was picking up steadily and I was getting 33 kph on the way into the LZ so I was glad to be on the ground as I saw the later landers coming in straight down or even slightly backwards in the gusts.  I could see a handful of pilots gale-dangling on the edge of the Rim as they ridge soared and waited for a thermal to come through so they could get on course line.  But most pilots ended up on the nice green grass and shade to pack up in!

Tomorrow is looking like north wind and I suggested to the organization and task committee to at least consider Saddle Mountain if it was going to be too north for the Butte.  However the logistics of moving 130 pilots to a new site 2 hours away, on the final day of the comp, is problematic and we may end up staying at the Butte and hoping the north isn’t too much to launch in (since the comp doesn’t have permit-access to the north side of the Butte with the cell towers).  

Chelan Nationals July 12

Wow such a different day than yesterday!  If you were watching XC Find you would have noticed a whole lot of gliders landing at the first turn point...the task committee didn't want us attempting the crossing of the Rim too early, so they put a turn point at Forest Mountain, to the west of the Butte, and this ended up flushing a good percentage of the field!

It was a bit stable-feeling in the air over the Butte and I watched some free flyers head over towards the first turn point and get nothing and barely make it back, which didn't bode well for us.  And in fact when the start happened, I was too low to even attempt going over there (although a bunch of pilots went anyways, super-low, which I thought was a bad idea), so I decided to ignore the start and keep climbing before making the trek.  A group of like-minded pilots stayed with me and we all climbed to 2500m, well above our previous climbs where we had been getting to 2200m or so, and then we started the slow into-wind glide to the entry start and turn point.

The actual turn point edge of the cylinder was on the OTHER side of the highway 97 canyon into Chelan, and I saw many of the earlier pilots scratching low on the ridges, landing out partway down the mountain, landing out on the golf course, and landing out on Lakeside.  It didn't look good.  I guess I could have turned back and tried to get more altitude at the Butte, more than 2500m, and try this again, but I also didn't want to get too far behind and then have zero pilots to fly with.  The lead gaggle had managed to make it across the canyon to the other side and were at the turn point and turning in what looked like very weak lift, but were too low to make the crossing back without landing out, so I actually hadn't lost anything by waiting the extra 25 minutes before even starting the task.

You can see all the pilots who landed in the canyon where highway 97 goes through to Chelan.

The lead gaggle passed underneath me as I reached the turn point and then it was time to find lift, any kind of lift, as the wind was venturi-ing through the canyon and blowing apart all the thermals.  Pilots were falling out of the sky as I joined them in one of the several fields in the canyon, where it was actually not too bad for landing conditions so long as you were smart about keeping your glider in control as you came down between the canyon walls.

There must have been around 30 pilots who landed in the canyon while another 10 or so side-hill landed on the nearby hills and had to hike up/down to get to a road, or landed next to the lake or the golf course.  While I was bummed to have landed so early, I was also glad to have had a safe uneventful landing, and I felt better after hearing that some of the top names at this comp had landed out in the very same field only moments before.

Meanwhile, if you made it out of the canyon, you were pretty much assured of goal!

Oh well, an early finish to my day which meant I actually had time to go swimming and catch up on some other things!

Meanwhile those who managed to make it back from the Forest turn point were back at the Butte and crossing to the Rim to fly the rest of the task which was a giant triangle-shape to the edge of Banks Lake and then to Sims corner, before landing in goal at Mansfield.  It looked like if you could have survived the Forest turn point, you were pretty much assured of making goal!  When I last checked, there were lots of pilots in goal, so they will be very happy ;). Me, due to the scoring using FTV, this will be my discard day :)

Tomorrow looks blown-out and Saturday is looking iffy as well at this point, but sometimes forecasts change so we will see what happens tomorrow!

Chelan Nationals July 11

After yesterday's rest day (too windy for a safe task, although some free flyers went 250 km!), everyone was ready to go today.  I thought we'd have some form of triangle or out and return, but with the north wind the task committee decided to go long downwind and fly to Saddle Mountain via Ephrata.

The north wind was making it difficult to choose a launch, but I was confident I could stay up so I launched quite early in the queue.  It was actually quite easy to get up, and I was glad to have launched early as I saw the hoopla on the 3 main launches as comp gliders were trying launch and failing in the light and switchy conditions.

The start today was an hour later than on other days, which allowed us to get higher than usual and cross over the flats for the remote start over there.  It was so nice to get over the flats nice and high and not scratch next to the high-tension power lines like we so often do :)

The north wind was quite significant so our gaggle was drifting too far out of the start cylinder so we had to keep an eye out to not get too far downwind too early.  But I was in an excellent position when the 2pm start happened and we were off!

The climbs were strong and plentiful on the flats all the way to the canyon and Palisades and Appledale, and on the other side it was also fast and furious all the way to where the plateau drops off to Ephrata.  And then it was a different animal!

About to drop off the edge of the plateau.  Ephrata is to the left.

After tagging the Ephrata turn point we tanked up as high as we could since we were now transitioning from the strong, brown, and dusty plateau, to a lower, green, and much wetter valley, and I anticipated we would very shortly be slowing down and racing less.

I could see the gaggle ahead of me on a giant glide over the greenery and as I continued to watch them I could see they were getting not much, and the wind had switched from a north tailwind to a south headwind, yay!  Our gaggle spread out and went on a similar glide towards Saddle Mountain, which was about 40km away still, but we were getting nothing either, and pretty much everyone lawn-darted into the ground around the town of George, about 25-30km short.

A big change from the dry and dusty plateau!  Saddle Mountain in the distance on the left.

I was surprised that nobody was able to climb out of there out of our 2 gaggles, usually there is at least one lucky person who finds something and continues on, but this was one of those rare times when the entire gaggle goes down in the same area.  The lead gaggle had managed to somehow squeak through the Green Valley of Final Glide and around 10 made it to the Saddle LZ and goal.

It was a fun task despite not making goal and cool to fly over the plateau and drop down to the Ephrata valley, but I think it would be a good idea to have that task on a day with some more clouds north of Saddle Mountain, so we'd know that the green valley was actually working.  Also, had the wind stayed north once we were south of Ephrata (and not south like it turned out) I think we could have made it, as that would have made a huge difference in our glide ratios and we would have covered the green valley much quicker and made it to the brown hills nearer to Saddle Mountain.

We did have a reserve toss today near the Ephrata turn point but the pilot was totally fine and in fact was messaging and WhatsApping other pilots on his reserve ride down, so he must have chucked high!

94 km flight to George.

Chelan Nationals July 9

Another long task, this time because of the strong south wind we were heading north to Oroville and the US/Canadian border, about 133 km away!

Launch conditions were a bit better today with a definite east flow on the Butte so pilots were launching off Ants in a speedy fashion (unlike yesterday where it was quite switchy on launch and lots of aborts).  But it was tough to get high over the Butte…with the strong SE wind we were getting blown back over the lake and we weren’t getting more than 2000m.  But happily, about 15 minutes before the start, we all found a climb which took us to 2200m and then it was off north to the first control turn point of 15 km around Bridgeport.

The turn point radius was actually on the other side of the Columbia river so we had to cross the river twice, and once back on the “proper” side, it wasn’t the easiest going in the hills behind Pateros.  I saw a lot of pilots landing in this stretch, so I got as high as I could (2400m) and then dove deeper into the mountains where the clouds were beckoning and cloud base was around 3600m.  Despite being deep there were actually lots of roads and farms with large fields to land in, but given the wind strength I had a lot of incentive to stay high and avoid all that hoopla ;)

A bunch of us did the same thing, staying deep and high, which was a good thing since we were seeing groundspeeds of 80+ kph (one pilot reported 100+ km on bar!).  I did get very low one time on a low-angle hill with few landing options, and single digits of groundspeed, but I was able to dig myself out of there with Brett Yeates and then we were off again.

The conditions seemed to be getting better and better around Tonasket, with more and more generalized lift the closer we got to Oroville.  It was no longer necessary to actually thermal, but flying straight we were flying through oodles of light lift.  The predicted front was moving in from the west and was creating lots of clouds and lift but also lots of wind up high.  I could finally see Oroville, the lake, the Canadian border, and Osoyoos, I was 30 km away from goal at 2800m, so I decided to go for it.  I had a wicket tailwind as I came over the last ridge south of Oroville and then it was time to find the goal field.

The pilots who were ahead of me were reporting the goal field was a bit small with obstructions (powerlines and trees surrounding it), and given it was blowing 25+ kph at times, most pilots were opting to land either at the nearby running track or the baseball diamonds after tagging the actual goal field.  So it was a good thing I arrived high enough to tag the goal line, and then continue north another 1km or so to the baseball diamonds where it was plenty large enough to back myself into for a safe landing.

On glide for Oroville!

Between the actual goal field, the running track, and the baseball diamonds, I’d guess there were about 50 pilots in goal.

Back in Chelan it was still blowing strong and pilots were ridge soaring the Airport Ridge.  Tomorrow it’s supposed to swing to strong NW, so if we fly, I expect we’ll go out onto the flats and perhaps go long!

141 km flight to Oroville.

Chelan Nationals July 8

Day 1 of the US/Canadian Nationals and Pre-PWC!  With a light (for around here) south wind forecast, the task committee sent us to Mazama in the Methow Valley!  Not too many people have done this route so I was excited to try it.

Launch was very light and fickle, so I was glad to have launched early and was able to stay cool in the air while I watched the lineup of pilots grow as the cycles were a bit on the light side for comp gliders.  In the air it was actually SE and not totally south, so we were drifting back over Chelan and having to work our way back to the Butte in order to not get too downwind for the race start at the Walmart.

I had a pretty bad start, frankly, since I wasn’t that high when the start came so I decided to keep climbing until I was confident I could make the glide to the hills behind the Walmart.  But once over there and established, it was easy flying along highway 97 until we got to Pateros, where we had to turn up the Methow valley after tagging the control turnpoint.

Once in the Methow valley it was tougher flying since there was quite a bit of wind down low in the various side valleys and the thermals were scrubbing along the sides a bit.  Some pilots had decided to fly directly down the middle of the valley, and were making it work, but I thought it would be better to stay in the mountains and fly deeper.  This worked out well with the group of pilots I was with until I got to Winthrop, where the valley turns again up to Mazama and my route was now somewhat downwind of the control turn point.  Oops!  I had to resort to soaring the small bump overlooking Withrop until I could get high enough to tag the turn point, and even then it was a stretch just to make it.

It was an impressive low save after getting the last turnpoint and running across to the other side of Winthrop where I could see some other pilots climbing.  With only a few seconds to decide if I was going to turn right or left before landing, I found a ripper right above the highway and beamed out over the gravel pit, at which point I knew I had goal, since it was only 17 km away and downwind with a series of nice SW-facing rock faces all along the way.

Lots of happy faces in the Mazama LZ as pilots kept coming in, I think in the end there may have been around 50 pilots in goal.  The Methow valley is certainly beautiful, and on a light wind day, is awesome to fly in, since there are oodles of landing spots and an easy obvious road to follow, and if you get stuck in one of the side valleys they actually have nice LZ’s and roads too.

Goal field in Mazama!  Photo. courtesy of Alex Raymont.

96 km flight to Mazama.

Chelan July 7: US Nationals/Canadian Nationals/Pre-PWC practice day

I'm now in Chelan, WA for the combined US/Canadian Nationals/Pre-PWC, which actually starts tomorrow.  Today was a practice day and launch was very busy with pilots getting their gear sorted and figuring the site out.  The Butte is very green for this time of year...usually by now the grass has gone all yellow and dried (if not burned), but there is plenty of greenery still on the Butte which indicates it's been a wet spring so far.  I did see one fire to the south near Wenatchee but nothing that should impact the comp.

Most pilots opted to do the usual cross-over-to-the-flats and fly to Mansfield or return, or Sims Corner and return, but a smaller group of us decided to fly back towards Lake Chelan along the mountains rimming the southern edge of the lake.

Lots of nice cu's in the mountain passes but not so many around the lake (the northern side of the lake had no cu's), so I didn't go too far.  Lots of lift out front and easy to stay up in the vicinity of the Butte.

Since we had to be in Chelan to get registered and waypoints downloaded etc, most pilots didn't go too far either, and landed at Chelan Falls LZ for an easy flight and no hassles.  There were reports of a pilot who landed in McNeil Canyon, and I'm sure several other pilots landed on the flats either in Mansfield or on the way to Mansfield.

There are about 24 Canadians here for the comp and tomorrow is looking very good weather-wise.  Fingers crossed we get a good task tomorrow!

Mt. St. Benedict July 3

Mt. St. Benedict with both the upper and lower launch visible, as well as the Dike LZ along the river.

A surprisingly good day, super-light winds and in fact there was a touch of east or north up high (it was forecast to go very outflow the next day) just to keep things interesting.  The run up to Dewdney was fine and cloudbase was around 1400m initially, but by the end of the day it had risen to over 1600m.  Perfect conditions to cross west over to the Steelhead!

Looking up Stave Lake from over the Steelhead.

Beautiful cu's over the Steelhead bumps and the Stave Lake dam was very nearby.  Al and Claudia joined me and it was sweet flying...not too windy and high clouds made the flying very fun!

30 km FAI triangle

Looking into the Fraser Valley from the Steelhead.

Blanchard July 2

I think this is the latest I've ever flown Blanchard in a season...usually we consider this a spring site, and this time of year we're flying Pemberton or Chelan, but this season has been unusually bad for XC flying, with lots of slow clearing days which just happen to be the right recipe for Blanchard.

Lots of cloud initially but it eventually cleared as predicted, but with the slight north wind up high it was not the smoothest air.  And with the overcast and big development further inland, it was not really a big XC day.  But we were able to fly around the north bowl and watch all the hikers summiting the cliff faces at the Oyster Dome.