Get really high and jump off
The US Paragliding National Championships are coming to the Eastside for the Owens Valley Cross Country Classic Sept. 19-26. More than 70 competitors are expected to take flight. This race is the last in a series and will determine the national champion.
Racers will launch from a spot east of the Owens River, near Silver Canyon. They find a high spot and jump off. Event organizer Kari Castle said the launches are cool to watch and one of the few parts of the race that surface dwellers can really see. Once the racers are in the air, they become tiny colored dots. Competitors can legally go as high as 17,999 feet, Federal Aviation Administration limits.
The Owens Valley is a gliders paradise. There are two parallel mountain ranges framing one of the deepest valleys in the world with 10,000 feet of vertical relief creating lots of lift, Castle explained. The weather and conditions are consistent and the scenery is unmatched.
People come to the Owens Valley to see how far and fast they can go, Castle explained.
Castle has earned some frequent flier miles. She set her first world record in the Owens Valley by being the first woman to make a 200-mile hang-gliding trip. She set a 250-mile record in Texas years later. Castle is a world champion hang-glider, multiple national championships for both hang-gliding and para-gliding, world-record holder and Bishop local.
There hasn’t been a hang-gliding competition in the Owens Valley since 1993 and the one before that was in the late ‘70s. Chris Arai, a member of the U.S. team in 1993 explained to the Los Angeles Times that the Owens Valley had always had a reputation for being “big and gnarly.” But with better techniques and equipment the Valley has been tamed … a little.
Owens Valley Classic competitor, Tavis Gustafson got turned on to paragliding from enjoying the lofty heights he enjoyed rock climbing He competed earlier this year in Oregon, placing fifth and flew in the Mexico National Competition in January.
He said the event is a race, but he said, everyone flies “on the same team” flying the course, until the last 10 minutes when it’s everyone for themselves to the finish line.
