I took advantage of the Mt. Waddington "Van Diego" to shuttle up Mt. Cheam on September 27th. I joined a group of seven clients guided by Emma Graham and Sam Waddington, owner of Waddingtons. The van was absolutely superb in getting up the rough Chipmonk Road.
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| The VanDiego - The Perfect Shuttle Van |
Sam and I arrived on the summit to find the predicted east winds which were quite strong, gusty and mixing with southerly thermals so we were quite prepared to hike down. We lunched with Sam's guided group, took the requisite summit photos and enjoyed the spectacular fall day.
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| The Man The Myth The Legend - Sam Himself |
After an hour of assessing the wind, I elected to give the east face a try. It was smooth and steady at 15-18 km/hr right on the edge, but where the wing was laid out it was twitchy. With some launch helpers holding the wing to catch the breeze between rotors I launched into "Baby Bum Smooth" lift and worked my way over launch where I stayed for well over thirty minutes watching both Sam and a visiting Norwegian pilot, Morten Kals, launch.
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| Launching the East Face |
Sam got off cleanly and had a safe traverse around to the Fraser Valley where he landed at Bridal. Morten, who I've renamed, "Viking" had hiked up from the Fraser Valley looking as if he'd just stepped out of an elevator on his way to Starbucks. When Morten launched his speed wing, he immediately put it into such radical barrel rolls that I could not track him with my Iphone.
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| Sam - A Cheam Virgin No More |
Meanwhile, I noticed a chopper circling the mountain and Morten ran into the photographer a few days ago, hooked me up and I'm sharing some of the most spectacular Cheam shots I've ever seen. Thanks to Ginnie Frede for the shots.
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| Beautiful Ridge Lift |
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| Amusing Myself Whilst Waiting For Sam and Morten |
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| Big Mountains - Puny Humans |
After some doubt about whether we would fly, it ended up being a spectacular Mt. Cheam flight after all.
Special thanks to Mt. Waddingtons Outdoors for their great guiding and the VanDiego!
