Idaho Peak Fly In

Finally - 2011 good weather!

2011-09-08T06:32:00.000-07:00

Photo by Andy Miller

Friday was a little unsettled but Sat/Sun and Monday ( and the rest of the week ) were great. Around 12 pilots made the most of the weather and got 1-3 hour flights in on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday had more thermal activity with some pilots getting high and cold. There was an attempt to fly to Kaslo but with max height around 9,000 ft it wasn't quite the day. Sunday was pleasant boating around between 6-8,000 ft enjoying the views.

Idaho Peak cross country

2010-11-27T08:07:00.000-08:00

2010 Idaho Peak Fly-In

2010-05-26T20:43:00.000-07:00

The long term weather forecast shows nothing but sunshine and great flying conditions. Plan to come flying in New Denver again this fall. Send me an email if you have any questions or just to let me know you are thinking of coming. To my knowledge this summer there have only been two pilots other than the 4 locals that have flights from Idaho Peak. The out-of-towners put in a 20km+ cross country in beautiful conditions.

2009 Fly In

2009-09-13T21:01:00.000-07:00

The weather was looking terrible for the weekend. Saturday morning looked great and at 8:30 there were 8 pilots ready to fly before the weather had a chance to turn. We all flew and then did some mountain biking down Idaho Peak in the afternoon. The rain started overnight and that was that. Another awesome photo by Sara Rainford.

Paragliding over Kokanee

2009-06-01T10:30:00.000-07:00

The Kootenay's are famous in the world of photographers for the soft evening light. The Kokanee Glacier is the snowfield in the photo. A bunch of years ago I spent an afternoon up here with a film crew from Kokanee Beer shooting a beer ad which included a .00005 second clip of flying from Idaho Peak.
These awesome photos are taken by Sara Rainford.

Landing from Idaho Peak

2009-06-01T10:28:00.000-07:00

There are two popular landing fields - Centennial Park at the campground in New Denver and then a private field north of the golf course which requires PRIOR permission. Idaho Peak is the right peak in the photo.

Valhalla Range

2009-06-01T10:23:00.000-07:00

Flying from Idaho Peak is spectacular. The small towns of New Denver and Silverton lie 6 km away and 6200 ft below the old fire lookout tower on the spherical Idaho Peak at 7650 ft asl. The Slocan Lake stretches for 60km in the valley bottom. The mountain range to the west is the Valhalla Range with steep rock climbing in the Mulvey Basin area ( in picture ).

Paragliders at Idaho Peak

2009-06-01T09:58:00.000-07:00

I flew Idaho Peak around 1993 or 94 and it sounded like there had been a few flights before me. That first flight I flew into a snow storm in October which dropped 5cm of snow on the peak. A couple of years later we had the first Idaho Peak Fly-In with 20 pilots. I can't remember if it was that year or the next when we had several pilots getting to around 13-14,000 ft and I ended up flying to Nakusp ( about 50km ) with some 6-7 km glides between thermals. I think it was that year we also flew from Idaho Peak across Slocan lake (in the picture) to the other side and returned and climbed back to cloudbase. The last six or so years there has not been a fly-in at New Denver.

Hangliding history at Idaho Peak

2009-06-01T09:44:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure when the first hanglider flew from Idaho Peak but there was a flying competition with a fancy trophy in 1973 and 1974. It's a little bit of a tough hike with a hanglider - at least an hour on a good trail but with steep drops off the trail. I think the hangliders moved to Mt. Buchanan over in Kaslo. There have been a few hanglider launches over the years including this one of Tyson Ehlers. Larry Strom flew to Kaslo ( 50km ) in a Topliss glider about 8 years ago and Doug Blake landed in New Denver after flying from Slocan Ridge ( about 80 km) about 4 years ago.