Date: May 31st, 2006
A good task, a good day! Len won, something like 45 people in goal, fantastic! Good to see so many friends again, it’s a gathering of the winged tribe for sure.
I had a very mixed day–somehow mis-timed the start and was a bit low when it happened, but high enough. The strange thing was my GPS didn’t flip at the first turn point, and I didn’t check it until I was about 3K past the point–I knew I’d flown right over it from the comp last year, but the GPS didn’t switch, so… I flew back, got it for sure, then continued on the course but 15 minutes behind the leaders. Comp experiences like that are mind-taxing, it’s easy to let the negativity of making a stupid mistake ruin the day. I was pretty much last on the course after my additional turnpoint, but managed to rally enough to make it into goal about 20 minutes behind the leaders. The whole time I figured I was in dead last, so I just relaxed and enjoyed the good flying, and it was worlds better to at least fly the course rather than blown up mentally. As happens so often, I ended up doing OK but forgetting the comp attitude and just flapping. I think it’s important to compete a lot to be in practice, I haven’t competed in a year and my systems were not tight. We loaded up my flight last night and I did indeed fly directly through the first turnpoint, but for some reason my GPS didn’t flip. I should have been paying more attention.
Keith, Rob and Grahame all made goal, Nicole missed it by being a bit late and geting shaded out. Still a very good showing for team Canada.
OK, we’re heading up the hill right now although the sky looks like grey.
Posted in: Blog
Date: May 30th, 2006
It’s been a fast-paced few days. On Friday Kim and I drove up to Jasper to wish my Mom a happy 60th birthday (happy birthday again), followed by a drive back to canmore, mad packing, then to the Dom semi-invitational suffer fest in his home gym that night. It’s always a wicked event, thanks to the Dom family and all the other people who poured sweat, chalk and blood on the holds all evening, I always crawl out of Dom’s garage. Then the party games started, which I suck at but lots of good energy from all the folks. Knut put me up at his house in Calgary that night, then up early to fly to Medford, Oregon, for the Rat Race paraglding competition. I got a great Yoga session on in the Portland airport, I always expect to get hassled as a potential Jihadist or something for doing yoga in US airports, but all cool, and it helped work out the kinks from Dom’s desperate comp. Finally made it to Medford, amazing how much can happen in such a short period of time.
Today was one of the best flying days I’ve had in a long time–the area around Medford is just made for paragliding, awesome flight out to Grant’s Pass and back–I didn’t have to turn for around 30K straight, just blasting along at and above cloud base, amazing. Flights like that are why I fly. There are over 100 pilots down here, it should be a very competitive comp and conditions look stunningly good…
After flying all afternoon and doing a tandem in the morning Keith and I hit the Rogue Rock gym in Medford, it’s a good gym, still worked from the comp but had a good time pulling on plastic. The comp starts tomorrow and it’s late now, time to wrack and get fired up in the morning, yeah!
wg
Posted in: Blog
Date: May 26th, 2006
On Sunday I’m off the annual Rat Race, a high-level paragliding competition in southern Oregon. I did it last year and had a good time flying with friends, looking forward to it this year. The photo is from Bo Criss from last year. Paragliding competitions bring out the best and worst in flying; the best when the flying is good, and the worst when we end up sitting on the hill all day waiting for good conditions… I’m fired up to fly, but if the flying is no good I’ll be able to climb at the Rogue Rock Gym in Medford, which wasn’t open last year. I’m actually maintaining a pretty good climbing fitness so far this year, I do not want to go through last year’s hell of getting strong again after sitting in my paragliding LaZboy chair all summer…
Everest:
Made the news yet again as a double amputee and about 40 other people choose to summit rather than try to help a dying climber down the mountain. Who knows what actually happened, but it’s clear that Everest is a circus that continue to amuse the public, and justifiably so. The summit is now more highly coveted by the public than by climbers, it would be a funny situation if it weren’t so deadly. Climbers get incensed when every accountant or car dealer who summits (or doesn’t?) makes the local newspapers, while far more “epic” ascents on other mountains receive no mention. I have to laugh at this a bit as what climbers are really saying is, “Hey, pay attention to MY climbs!” I also have to agree that climbing Everest by a standard route with good Sherpa support isn’t all that much of an accomplishment, perhaps more of a financial accomplishment in gathering the money than a sporting event. Sharon Wood and the other Canadians who climbed a difficult new route on the way to the summit of Everest 20 years ago deserve their press and respect for sure, but reporting every summit climb is starting to get ridiculous, like reporting who won the local golf tournament as front-page news. Today in the Calgary Herald there’s a story about a local woman who is attempting to climb what she defines as all seven summits. This is not news, it’s not a sporting accomplishment, but there it is, front page. In one sense I’m happy to see climbing get any press at all, but surely the new route Raphael and Scott climbed last week on Andromeda is more worthy of front-page news? Maybe if Raph or Scott was brain-dead and blind then it would have been more newsworthy? As someone who plays the media game and has also worked at various magazines I feel I’m qualified to say that the media, even the climbing media, doesn’t really understand climbing, climbers don’t understand the media or the public, and the public will never understand climbing as its portrayed in the media (I sure don’t). No wonder everyone is confused, and the resulting mix is so very strange, as it is today in my Calgary Herald.
Training:
It’s an odd time of year, where I’m trying to climb and also trying to fly and do all the business stuff I ignore in the winter months while climbing. I’ve been slipping in high-quality if short workouts at the end of the day. A couple of days ago David and I had a great workout after I ran some errands in Calgary, we went to the University of Calgary and spent a couple of hours bouldering on the outside wall of the PE building. Back in the early nineties I spent days on this long wall of flagstone bricks, it was a serious physical flashback. We finished the workout by going into the dungeon at the U of C and climbing on Murray’s old inset brick wall, and on the even earlier plywood and two by four wall. I spent literally hundreds of hours in that basement hallway years ago, it was actually super fun to try some of the old problems. I even got low blood sugar just like the old days when my diet resembled that of a rabbit (we used to think any bodyfat over about three percent was a serious hindrance, how times change…). Anyhow, a great “Nostalgia” workout as dD called it.
I’ve been mountain biking some this spring, including a great ride with “buzzsaw” Joe in K-Country. We rode around Barrier mountain, an epic ride, it really fired me up to do more riding in K-Country. Yesterday I rode with Mark for about an hour, then went for a short run with Chili dog, followed by a good yoga session. I’m slowly gaining more flexibility, although public reaction to my attempts at Yoga generally involves laughter. So what, I figure I’m not getting any stiffer at least, plus Yoga is good for the head.
Posted in: Blog
Date: May 14th, 2006
After ten days of trying we actually got a good flight in off of Lady Mac above Canmore. Josh, Kim, Jerome and I hiked up, moving slow due to Josh having a blown knee. Cruised along, ended up launching at about 1:00, I got yanked into the sky. It was interesting flying, fairly windy at base (about 3,800M), but with big thermals to block the wind. It’s always fantastic to get to fly in the Canmore area, big peaks with snow, love that action! The photo is looking east toward Calgary, Cougar Creek is the main drainage. It’s officially really flying season again, finally!
Posted in: Blog
Date: May 12th, 2006
Back home. It’s been the spring of road trips, partly due to shite weather here in Canmore and partly just to listen to the tires on the road. I’m trying to shoot with photographer Jerome for the Gin catalog, but we’ve really flown only one day in the past eight, too windy the rest of the time. We did get a short flight in at Hedley, but it ended quickly when Jerome flew out into the valley and went backwards for a bit. He wisely choose to side-hill land in the lee to escape the valley wind. I watched all this while thermalling above him, then did the same. The air was not friendly. Later I learned that Keremeos, the name of the next town up the valley, means “really windy place” in the local native language (seriously). The Hedley valley is a relatively V-shaped valley surrounded by high plateaus; you couldn’t design a better place for valley winds. It will have exceptional flying some days, but in general it’s not a place I’d recommend for inexperienced pilots unfamiliar with valley winds and how to escape them. That said, our three days in Hedley were great; fun locals, lots of climbing, kayaking, hiking, gold mine tours, it’s just a great town and one I look forward to visiting more in the future. The options are endless.
A lot of what I love about road-tripping comes from the people I get to travel with. In Hedley we met up with the full “Muppet Show” from the west coast. I think the name started with my bud Jim O, as we are indeed muppets on strings when flying paragliders. Anyhow, the Muppet Show varies in size and composition but includes an incredible chef, AKA the Dingo. The Dingo cooks at the best restaurant in Whistler, and travels with coolers of top-notch food and the ability to put together the best food I’ve ever eaten. But the real highlight is watching the Dingo cook, it’s a Cirque de Soleil style festival of speed, alcohol and general culinary madness that only reaches fruition when the food hits your mouth. Thanks to the Dingo!! The rest of the Muppet show knows how to erect a nylon refugee camp in ten minutes flat using vehicles, kayak paddles and whatever else is handy. There’s an art to nomadic living, and the Muppets have it down to a joyous science. Many of my best hours have been spent camping in apparent squalor but with a standard of life far higher than I find while occasionally staying at the fanciest hotels in the world. It might seem a bit trite to say, but I always return from trips with the Muppet show reminded that real life is best found outside with friends.
On Wednesday Jerome and I stopped off at Skaha while driving to Lumby and shredded ourselves running from route to route. Skaha is a hobbit land of fun climbs; we stoppeed climbing only when our skin was bleeding and the sun faded into a blue evening. I was so worked I couldn’t even climb a relatively easy route, I love that!
Thursday was spent in the company of Randy at the Lumby Air Park, always a pleasure, and we even flew twice betweeen rain storms. Lumby offers the most reliable soaring in Canada I think. It’s not the best place for competitions due to the variable weather, but those variations almost always produce at least a couple of hours of soaring conditions, it’s amazing. I’ve spent months there over the last four years, it’s starting to feel a bit like home thanks to Randy and the good scene there. We had to seperate from the Muppet show and head up home at night, now Jerome and I are back in Canmore and watching the wind howl yet again. I really hope we get to fly the next couple of days!
WG
Posted in: Blog
Date: May 10th, 2006
Hedley is located in the middle of nowhere, also known as southern BC. It might be worth taking the time to look it up on a map–Hedley is one amazing place. In the last two days we’ve done some excellent granite bouldering, crack climbing (10-foot roof with a wild crack) plus some kayaking and nice mountain running. The town is full of characters and loose nuts shaken here by various storms, a nice change from increasingly homogenous Canmore. We’ve been treated very well by the people here, I know I’ll spend more time here in the future on the basis of the people I’ve met.
No flapping for the last two days but, but lots to do so no stress. Today doesn’t look too special, but you never know!
wg
Posted in: Blog
Date: May 5th, 2006
Jerome Maupoint, author of the beautiful paragliding book “Stolen Moments” is in town shooting for a week or so. Yesterday we flew Swansea near Invermere, fantastic day, four hours of turning circles above very snowy peaks. Light winds, good lift, it was about as good as it gets in the spring. Josh flew the Zulu, I flew the new Boomerang Sport.
My favorite part of the flight was playing over the top of a ridge down near Fairmont–the tops of the ridges still look mid-winter, big whipped cream rolls of snow everywhere, plus the snow mellows the thermals out a bit making it more reasonable to fly close to the ground, a rare treat and something I normally avoid like the plague in the Golden-Canal flats area. It wasn’t even too cold at altitude, but I was dressed in Himalaya-style clothing in anticipation of suffering. Thanks to Tobias and the nutter mountain bike crew for the lift up the hill too.
The Sport is one silky and intuitive glider. It normally takes me a few flights to figure out a new glider, but I felt totally at home on it after only a couple of hours of thermalling. I flew several DHV 2/3 gliders a few years back and liked them at first, but ultimately decided DHV 2/3 gliders mainly offered the performance of a 2 and all the danger of a 3. So far the Boom Sport provides enough feel of the air for me to keep it inflated, without requiring nearly as much attention as the full comp Boomerangs. The Sport feels more like the Boom III than the Boom IV, especially on the speed bar where it seems to “firm up” and remain stable. We had to use a fair amount of bar to get back to Swansea, my 5020 said the performance stayed relatively good on bar. The “feel” was good too, the Sport stays pitch stable when cutting through chop upwind, that’s where the difference between a comp glider and a DHV 2 is usually most apparent. I’ll write a bit more about it after I get some more hours on it.
I’ll post some photos later, we’re out the door to have at it again today. I love spring flying!
Posted in: Blog
Date: May 2nd, 2006
Houseboat on Lake Lanier, Bruce photo.
Atlanta: wore me out.
It’s been a great couple of days here in Atlanta, with a lots of new experiences. Giving a “alpine start” show at 7:00 in the morning was a first, but I didn’t see too many people nodding off, and I’m still thinking about my tour of the hospital with Dr. R, it was educational.
A week ago I was climbing cracks in Indian Creek, Utah, where I had to shake the sand out of my sleeping bag with bloody hands before bed; in Atlanta I’ve had to eat the mints on my pillow to get into the thick sheets of the Ritz Carlton, real hardship, but I’ve managed. Plush hotels always feel mixed to me–very nice, but the reality is that my sandy sleeping bag was at least as luxurious as the Ritz, and the morning caffeine went down easier with a view of red rocks and the possibility of a day grinding yet more skin off my hands. Luxury for me has nothing to do with thread count or valet service; luxury is waking up with an easy mind and a wide-open day. Still, the mints were tasty…
Wednesday’s outdoor activities were curtailed by rain here in Atlanta, but in the evening I went to the Climbing Shop/ Wall Crawlerz gym and met up with one of the owners, Tim, to get a boulder session on. I’d also had a box of the new Scarpa shoes shipped there, I always love opening big-ass boxes of new gear. The new Scarpa climbing shoes look wicked, definitely the best rock shoes I’ve seen out of Scarpa in a long time. I’ll write some more on that once I’ve used them a bit more. Tim and a few locals beat the hell out of me in Wall Crawlerz for a few hours, it’s got great bouldering and a motivated crew of locals. The high humidity (the locals said it was low…) conditions destroyed my skin quickly, but good fun. Went out for beers with Tim and Dr. Dan from the AMC and his family, Atlanta is a rocking city at night in comparison to Canmore, good fun.
Thursday was a “perfect” three-sport day. I hooked up with a couple of the “Bad Apple” paramotorheads, led by Bruce. Bruce has a really nice houseboat on Lake Lanier, we ended up flying his motor near the lake and having a great afternoon of it. Perfect smooth 400fpm thermals, warm air, hell yeah! Thanks to Bruce and Worth, that was one fun afternoon! From there I drove over to Stone Mountain with the idea of getting a run and quick solo up the 500-foot rock dome on. Stone Mountain is Yosemite-style granite dome about 20 minutes from Atlanta, I’d always wanted to climb it, and figured there would be some good trail running around the base. It was a bit weird when I got to Stone Mountain—no climbing anchors, no trails to the base of the wall, weird. I ran around for about 30 minutes trying to find a way to get to the base of the cliff, but was thwarted by bush and poison ivy. Eventually I worked my way into the cliff and soloed an easy but fun slab line in the perfect evening light. Strangely, there was a line chipped into the cliff at about 100 feet off the deck, but there’s also a huge chipped carving in the middle of the main face so I didn’t think too much of it. As I topped out and hopped over the mesh fence a guy came up and said, “Ah, there’s no climbing allowed here, you can be arrested for that! Didn’t you see the “no climbing line?” Oh, so that’s what the line was… It all worked out OK, but I think it’s insane that climbing is illegal on public lands. The top of the dome has almost alpine-style vegetation (and a tram), it’s definitely worth a visit. Finished out the day with another session at Wall Crawlerz with Tim and the Thursday night boulder crew, some strong youths there! I was left barely able to hold my beer glass.
Back home in Canmore now, thanks to the many good people who helped out in Atlanta!
Workouts: Steady bouldering in the gyms (thanks to Tim, Zach and Wall Crawlerz), one day on the rock, lots of Yoga and running. Finally getting some finger strength back, it sure does take more time than it did when I was 21.
Posted in: Blog
