We don’t normally invite return guests to our instagram account, but when Corinne Stoltz Orava finished her week posting for the Hooves and Horses event, with the offer to reprise her role as a guestagrammer when the paragliding Canadian Nationals sailed into town, we knew she could provide us a bird’s eye view that we didn’t want to miss.

Corinne and her husband Jim Orava have been running Cayoosh Expeditions in the Valley since 1993.

Here’s her recap of the event, as well as a small selection of some of the images shared during the week.

Pemberton Canadian Nationals 2017 happened smoothly with very good Karma on the weather and no smoke.

It was the week of the 21-29th of July. Usually the event is about a week long to make sure at least 4 days are flyable.

The pilots have to race to set goals following a course on GPS (they call them turnpoints) and in Pemberton this year they had some tasks of up to 90km.

Pilots came from all around the world, including Taiwan, Argentina and France.

They ran 4 days of official competition this year. The days forecast to be windy were cancelled and pilots could visit and discover our beautiful Valley.

I believe three were over 80 pilots registered for the competition.

Many of us where tracking them online on the SPOT device (GPS tracking) while they were flying and could see how fast they progressed.

Being able to fly the exact demanded task on aircraft that have no engines at all is absolutely incredible to watch and follow.

Most of the pilots are used to competing and know how to fly tactically for the conditions, wind and time of year.

Pemberton first hosted the Canadian Nationals in 2012 but didn’t return until now, due to busy summers and lack of organizers, accomodation and logistics.

The Quebecois pilots were pleased to have it on this side of the Country for a change in order to give them a chance to fly different scenery.

Most people say our landscape is absolutely stunning and they want to return to fly our McKenzie site!