BOW VALLEY – Nearly one thousand metres above the legendary Mount Assinboine, renowned extreme athlete and Canmore’s own Will Gadd takes in the sights after a three hour flight with nothing but his paraglider and the wind.
Circling the mountain for 30 minutes, Gadd found a patch of snow to finally land where he did a less than graceful summersault upon touch down before embarking on the next part of his dual sport adventure.
“This trip meant a lot to me. It’s something I’ve been thinking about doing for at least 20 years,” said Gadd.
The flight to the iconic Canadian mountain was just one part of Gadd’s dream trip, as he will once again gain elevation in the form of rock climbing before taking to air again and flying another 100 kilometres out of the remote area.
Setting off from Ha Ling Peak, the expert paraglider circles for nearly an hour while the warm air rising from the iconic mountain takes him higher before heading toward the prominent peak approximately 50 kms away.
Although, using the “world’s worst performing aircraft” for a flight to Mount Assiniboine in B.C. is a technical and unlikely adventure.
“If somebody were to say, ‘what are the odds of doing this?’ I would have laughed at them. I would have taken the bet against it,” said Gadd. “It’s just so unlikely to be able to do this. It really is like winning the lottery.”
Although the conditions were largely favourable for the flight in early August, they weren’t ideal.
“With the south wind, I had to kind of work against that, to get a little bit south to Assiniboine. So, very technical conditions for flying,” said Gadd.
“A lot of times you try things like this, and you land because you can’t make it work.”
Three hours later, the extreme athlete was floating at 4,500 metres directly above the towering mountain.
“I don’t think anybody’s flown directly over Assiniboine in a paraglider before,” said Gadd.
Gadd flew with 40 pounds of camping gear and extra food in case things took a turn. But he was right where he set out to be and the evening was perfect, so he set up camp.
Paragliders can fly about 8,000m for every 1,000m of elevation they have. To fly further and to regain elevation, pilots find thermal columns, which are hot air columns that rise from the ground.
“On a good day, the tops of the thermals are marked as really nice little puffy cumulus clouds. So, if you’re a paraglider pilot and you see all those nice little puffy cumulus clouds, it’s very exciting. It's like a fresh powder day,” said Gadd.
Finding thermals and reading the conditions isn’t always easy, and even with years of practice and formerly setting the world's longest flight with a paraglider twice, flying is still “infinitely complicated” for Gadd. But it’s the complexity that keeps it “infinitely interesting.”
“It is the most mentally challenging sport of anything I do,” he said.
With the dreamy, but adrenaline packed adventure still underway, Gadd woke up around 4:30 a.m., made a coffee and, again, lucked out with the weather which meant the summit of Assiniboine was awaiting his arrival.
Along with paragliding, Gadd is a world-renowned climber with decades of experience. He has several feats under his belt such as being the first to ice climb Niagara Falls, a four-time winner of the Canadian National Sport-Climbing Championships and a three-time X Games gold medallist in ice climbing, among other countless excursions, triumphs and world’s firsts.
With extensive climbing experience, the second part of the trip could only mean one thing: it was time to solo climb the imposing peak.
“This is not radical soloing, but it is soloing,” said Gadd. “It’s not scrambling. If you fall off, you die.”
Being right in his wheelhouse, it was smooth climbing to the top, and he was standing at 3,618m on the same summit his dad solo climbed 50 years ago.
“If you’re a climber, Assiniboine matters,” he said. “There’s a lot of history and a lot of memories with it. For me, it was just a dream come true to be standing on top of it.
“I don’t ever celebrate summits. I celebrate round trips. I was psyched to be there, but I also had to down climb everything that I climbed up.”
After a slow, careful and successful down climbing, Gadd celebrated with a freeze-dried meal back at his tent and was now ready to get back to civilization.
He only had two options to leave the rugged wilderness: he could walk 10 kms to a road not frequently travelled and hope for a willing stranger to let him hitch a ride, or he could hike another peak with the hope that the conditions will let him fly back to civilization.
Gadd chose the latter.
Going three-for-three on the weather, Gadd was able to fly 100 kms out of the backcountry to Golden, B.C., where his friends were also flying paragliders that day.
“I felt like I used everything I've learned the last 30 years of paragliding and 40 years of climbing to do that trip,” said Gadd. “It's not safe, but it was felt like it was reasonably safe, and I would have just changed really fast if things were going off.”
Paragliding, hang gliding in the Alberta Rockies
With a sport that gives such a feeling of freedom, it also comes with its restrictions.
Gadd, who’s a member of Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association of Canada (HPAC), along with other expert paragliders worked closely with Parks Canada to bring their sport to the mountains. Through trial periods they looked at what the environmental impact would be on the parks before fully allowing the sport.
“It took a long time. We actually changed the national parks act to recognize that paragliding was a legitimate use in the in the national parks,” said Gadd. “We did a tremendous amount of environmental work, and consultation was a long process.”
After negotiations with HPAC, paragliding and hang gliding were permitted in Jasper, Yoho and Kootenay national parks.
Takeoff and landing zones are permitted to certain areas in the parks, and pilots must adhere to any other closures that may be in place.
While Banff National Park does not allow takeoffs and landings in the park, Gadd said HPAC has been working with the field unit to create plans for what’s allowed, like the other parks.
“Banff sees such tremendous pressures. It’s taken longer to work that out with them, but they’ve been working in good faith and so have we,” said Gadd. “I think we’ll have a paragliding plan for Banff National Park relatively shortly that respects the special heavy use of Banff National Park.”
To fly in permitted national parks, pilots must be members of HPAC and carry proof with them, use designated trails and are expected to record their flights so the data can be sent to Parks Canada annually.
Other guidelines for pilots include avoiding the disturbance of wildlife and using discretion when launching or landing in public areas which might be busy.
Jasper National Park was the first to allow the rudimentary aircrafts in 2019 followed by Yoho and Kootenay in 2021.
“We’ve been working with them for five, six years now to fly in the national parks, and it’s worked out great. We've had no conflicts, a lot of positive interactions. Parks have been great,” said Gadd.
Gadd describes pilots as one of the “lowest impact users” as when they are on the ground they are just as any other person, and they launch and leave.
“We don’t need any special infrastructure," he said.
Alberta Parks, which includes Kananaskis Country, does not allow takeoffs or landings but are also in conversations with HPAC.
“Alberta Parks does not currently issue permissions for hang gliding and paragliding activities. Initial conversations for these activities are underway in collaboration with HPAC for Kananaskis Country,” said Alberta Forestry and Parks assistant communications director Rob Williams, in an email.
Transport Canada regulates anything that flies; however, the agency allow pilots to self-govern through the HPAC which require pilots to complete the Hang Glider Air Regulations exam.