A while ago, a friend and I bought a Groupon for Paragliding in Harrison Mills, BC. After some unforeseen circumstances, she had to back out and I ended up going with another friend. I had been looking forward to this for MONTHS, no joke. Unfortunately, because I have such a busy couple of months coming up, we were really restricted on when we could go. This is because the sport is very weather dependent.
View going up the mountain
We decided on Mother's day weekend and honestly at first we thought our luck wasn't that bad. We stopped by in Aldergrove first at my friend's friend's cafe for breakfast. I had one of the best egg's benedicts I've had in a while! Although it was raining in the morning by the time we reached our destination, the rain had completely stopped. We signed our waivers and browsed their pamphlets. However, it was still cloudy up in the mountains where we'd be launching from, so we were told to wait even more. While we did so, we drove to a nearby lake for a stroll. After a half hour delay, we packed up the gears and headed up into the mountains.
How we made it up to the launch area, I'll never know. The road was so steep and rough, and the truck wasn't the newest and best looking thing. While we waited for the clouds/fog to clear, we suited up.
There was another person with us and he was first to go. It took maybe ten minutes for them to find an opening in the clouds to launch, but as they did, he was pulled back by the unexpected wind force and fell over. He ended up landing on his tandem instructor who was a lot smaller than he was and twisted her knee. Unfortunately for them, that would be it for them. Next up was my friend. they managed to get ready only waited for a few minutes before the opportunity came for them to launch. They succeeded and within seconds of liftoff were out of view from where we were standing.
It was finally my turn to launch. I was pumped and ready to go. We got our sail ready for launch and stood in position. We waited.. and waited... and waited. I honestly thought I stood for ages. All it took was maybe a ten second window for us to be able to launch, but the weather just did not want to cooperate. After an hour had passed, and all of us up in the mountains cold out of our minds, my instructor told me that if we couldn't launch in the next five minutes we would have to call it in and reschedule. I was super disappointed. I prayed up there that the weather would be nice to me just this once. Just when we thought all was lost, we found an opening! Even though it wasn't the best, we went for it. We succeeded in our launch and was up in the air! The ride lasted maybe 10 - 15 minutes, although it felt a lot less than that. The view was stunning and breathtaking. Once we had launched and moved out of the clouds, the entire valley was in view and was gorgeous. At one point, my tandem instructor even let me take over the reins, teaching me to turn right and left. I was awestruck at being in the air. But it ended so soon. My instructor told me on a good day and the weather was cooperating, you could literally be in the air for 5 hrs!
I could really see myself coming back on a good day to try again, although it is slightly far and if not for the groupon, a bit overpriced. But it is an experience I would never trade for the world! :)
For those that are interested, I really recommend this company! They have been in this business for almost 20 years! Check them out at: http://www.flybc.org/
PS Why it was also bad luck too was the power went out in the area due to an accident, and we are still waiting on our flight videos :( which we have yet to see.
