Traveler briefing for Mount 7 and Golden

aimed to hang gliding and paragliding pilots in particular

Index

Season

Access road

Aerological conditions

Meets

Peak time

General hang outs & meeting places

Important small print

Maintenance fund

Places to stay

Golden

Facilities, services & activities

Notes on Hospital

Flying Equipment

Nearest city

Transportation routes

Season

May to October
Earlier is somewhat radical and launches inaccessible due to snow. Later, launches get inaccessible due to ice and snow; only sledders (snowmobiles) can go.
Local paragliders rides snowmobiles in the winter. In April, they also drive to the 7 km point, which melts early because of the sun exposure, and walk a trail to the lower launch.
Note that the Kicking Horse Resort allow access to experienced paragliders. Contact the appropriate local pilots beforehand. However, the conditions proved to be rarely suitable at the resort.

Access road

was upgraded to 2wd in 2000. More about it on the main page.

Conditions (in very general)

Of course, conditions will depend on the weather. It varies significantly from year to year. However, general patterns are recurring. Late autumn and winter are very cloudy. Spring, when the valleys are dry and the mountains still frozen, is often sunny. When the peaks are melting, strong thermals mix with strong sink for very challenging conditions, dangerous at times, for paragliders especially. Rain is common then. Middle and late summer is drier and sometimes, sunny weather locks in place for weeks. The temperature depends on the amount of sun and varies by 10°C to 20°C between night and day. Thermals become milder and more predictable then, although quite strong. Later in the year, the daily thermal period shortens rapidly and the lift strength weakens.

April starts nicely. Harder to climb high and go cross-country.
Late May is awsome, if radically cold.
June can be really nice
July is arsekicking
August goes from arsekicking to glassoffs to pretty quiet, we can float about all afternoon.
September is more cloudy and windy but can be very nice. Daylight get shorter. Smoke may damper thermals.
October and November still allow simple flights before the snow accumulates.

This is a thermal site, an afternoon site, and a cross-country site. 1000 fpm (5 m/s) is quite normal, up to 2500 fpm (13 m/s) is perfectly common. PGs do get all sorts of collapses at these times. Evenings can be very smooth, and glass-offs are common some years.

Cross country flights - to the south most common. 100 km flights relatively common. Good LZs, though there are some restrictions and rules. See cross-country section of the main page and locals can fill you in if there are recent changes. Return is straightforward as there is only one highway; very basic hitchhiking if you do not have retrieval arranged (the bus comes from Radium after 8:30 pm). To the north is more challenging and less distance to travel.

Days are long at the end of June - daylight 5:00 am to about 11:00 pm. August closes in fast. 7:00 am to 8:00 pm by last week of August. If you are over mount Seven at say 9500 ft (3000 m) ASL in glass-off at 8:00 pm August 23, it will be DARK by the time you have struggled down to the valley bottom at 2600 ft (800 m) ASL to land.

Meets

Willi Muller cross-country challenge aka Willi (HG and PG)
Fun relax meet with many categories to encourage cross-country flights. Prizes. It is basically on the annual "to be there list" of a lot of good folks and good pilots. Note that since 2013, they require a GPS emitter (such as the SPOT) to participate. Past results.
It runs normally during the week end of July beginning of August. So, the week before through the week following is peak activity time.

A list of all meets is posted on the HPAC website at hpac.ca

Peak time

Mid-July to mid-August is the peak time, especially the last week of July to first week of August. There are lots of pilots here, flying at all times of the day, rides up to launch are quite easy to arrange, advice for new visitors is plentiful.

General hang outs & meeting places

The municipal camground ~ The Nicholson LZ ~ The parking/picnic area between Reflection Lake and the gravel pit.

Important small print

To fly the site you must be have pilot insurance.
For Canadian pilots, this means full HPAC membership
For US pilots as for everyone else, the temporary Out-of-Country HPAC membership is the rule. The forms are available online at hpac.ca
Waivers are becoming a norm - be prepared to be asked to read and sign one. The owners of the Nicholson landing zone have their own waiver you will have to sign. It's posted online . You can print it, sign it, and mail it in advance.

We have an emergency fund known as the Contingency Fund. It is principally setup to cover helicopter rescue costs. You can join in for $25. Rescue charges in BC have been from $2000 to $5000.

shirt mt7 01, back. $30.
shirt mt7 02, back. $30.
shirt girly sizes. Also in red, army, blue. $15.
shirt natural, ash, also steel. $15.
long sleeves steel, sand. $20.
Limited quantities. Sizes adults except girly. Child sizes possible. Simple black design can be added to your own shirt for $5.

If necessary, membership & Contingency Fund can be arranged by:

• Serge: sergelamarche@gmail.com
  Serge is a hang glider (and paraglider). He knows the whole scene thoroughly. He also speaks French and English.
• Scott: scottwatwood@persona.ca
  Scott is a paraglider and a BASE jumper. He is the most involved with managing mt 7, since 2006.
• The LZ office employee. The LZ owners want to make sure everyone landing there is covered by insurance and legit. They also have their own waiver.

Maintenance fund

Profits from sale of shirts go to the site fund. I am particularly thinking about improvements of the north ground. I have a couple of designed shirts for sale. Contact me (Serge) at sergelamarche@gmail.com to order or buy in person. Some items could also possibly be found at the landing zone's office/store. Plain donations are also gratefully accepted, of course. You can donate right now, online, with Paypal:

Places to stay, three categories:

Campsite
Hostel/Cabins
Lodging

Lodging

Range is from 4-Star hotels - the Prestige Inn and Best Western Hotel, to some very motelly sort of motels and some very pleasant and more personal bed and breakfast places.

Golden

Golden is a town of about 3500 persons, with another 3500 living in the surrounding rural area that relate to Golden. All kinds of outdoor activities abound: climbing, hiking, mountain biking, motocross, white water rafting and kayaking, hunting in seasons, fishing, archery range, shooting range, canoeing, bird watching, and all kinds of skiing and snowmobile rides in winter. Not forgetting hang gliding and paragliding! There are lakes and sloughs to go swimming in or just relax at. If you have not seen mountains before, you are going to see them here.

Facilities, services & activities

Notes on Hospital

This is a small one with not too many resources, although there are some excellent doctors, who, as we are on the Trans-Canada highway, are well practiced at ghastly emergencies. With anything serious, the patient is transferred to Foothills Hospital in Calgary - by road, helicopter, or plane, as needed. They have the best of everything there.

Flying Equipment

Muller Windsports
Vincene Muller
Cochrane, Alberta
mullerwindsports.com
They deal Wills Wing and Apco, but have a lot of stock of all sorts of things. They can repair most, if not all, flight equipment. Cochrane is 30 min. west of Calgary, so is 2.5 hours from Golden.

Nearest city

Calgary, Alberta, 3 hours east on highway 1. International airport.

Transportation routes

Trans-Canada highway (highway 1) west-east and highway 95 south to Cranbrook, and across the border to the US at Kingsgate
Regular bus schedules operates on both routes.
Local depot.

See you in the air!
- Serge.