Paragliding:
a visual journey
Follow along with us as adventurers take to the skies for the first time on a tandem, learn valuable paragliding skills or even catch a glimpse of pilots just goofing around!
Thanks to Bart for this panorama shot during one of our many Q&A times. The modified one-day course went smoothly (and I think Jeannette even got all of her erasable highlighters back, ha ha). Wonderful to see that each year another group of pilots take to the skies with more awareness and higher levels of safety. Getting to meet fellow air junkies from around the province is a great bonus!
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Living at the foot of the mountains means you never have to look far for stunning views or something to do outside. Tourism Chilliwack has launched a campaign to share this beauty and here's the first video. Share your own experiences when you come exploring out this way using #ShareChilliwack on whichever social media sites you like, and just maybe you'll see some paragliding on a future video ;) It's been blustery here in the valley all week, with no flying (of paragliders or hang gliders anyway) to be had. There's a glimmer of hope with one forecast showing less wind today, and rain predicted mid-week that should bring a new weather system in. Can we get airborne this week? Yes please!
This cartoon captures today perfectly as I seem to be fighting off a bug that wants to take me down (under the weather). Normally that would drive me crazy, having to stay inside with a week of sun in the forecast, but along with that sun are annoyingly strong non-flyable winds (over the weather). Time to catch up with the latest issue of Cross-Country magazine and maybe a few paragliding flicks!
As I talk to more members of the local community, it's great to hear them ask questions and gain a better understanding of paragliding and hang gliding. One thing they seem surprised about is the limit of winds we can fly in. Yesterday looked stunning - the clouds lifted enough to clear launch by late afternoon - but the winds were far too strong. Looking over from the Mount Thomm trailhead a small part of me wondered if I should risk driving over to check out launch rather than go for a hike, but watching the clouds zoom by overhead told me I'd made the right decision, no matter how tempting it looked across the valley!
Looks like we may have a short yet flyable window this afternoon. The ground will be wet from raining all day so anyone who comes out will probably have to dry out their paraglider before packing it up. Building a fort is a functional and fun way to take care of your wing!
The benefit of living in a place where the weather changes every 15 minutes is the amazing cloud formations that pass through.
With all the rain we've had the last few days (and more predicted all week) people excited about winter sports are starting to talk snow. Time to start core and balancing exercises to be able to launch on that slippery stuff!
Yesterday's forecast called for a chance of a thunderstorm, and while the storm never materialized we did get treated to some epic cloud watching. Check out this "thermal" right above launch at Mount Woodside! |
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