Our thanks to Ian Drummond for the following 'photo' story of his "Flying in the Rockies" adventure. 

       The photographs were taken by Stephen Drummond and John Donovan, and Ian has provided the text.

       Enjoy!!

Climbing west out of Pincher Creek, Alberta, takes you over a wind farm, a testament to the frequent strong winds experienced in the area. Calgary Transit buys power from the wind turbines, allowing them to boast of   “wind-powered public transit”.

Crowsnest Mountain (9,138 ft ASL) rises to the north of the old coal-mining town of Coleman, Alberta.

Large coal mines are still active in the Elk River Valley, near the town of Sparwood, BC. The VNC shows a large “blasting area” right here!

The Sparwood/Elk Valley airstrip has a very nice 4,000 ft paved runway. It is at 3,800 ft ASL, but the surrounding quadrants on the VNC have maximum elevation figures of 10,500 and 10,700 feet!

Southwest of Calgary is a spectacular route, up the Highwood River, over the Highwood Pass, down the Kananaskis River to the Bow River, and back to Springbank airport. In this photo Mount McPhail rises to 9,450 ft ASL right on the Alberta/BC border.

Ian Drummond is the pilot in GVDH, a Piper Warrior, entering the confines of the Highwood Pass. The Pass is crossed by a road at 6,400 ft, one of the higher paved roads in Canada.

To the east of the Pass is Mount Arethusa and behind it, Mount Storm. The pilot and passenger have climbed both mountains. They encountered a grizzly bear on descent, at tree-line in the foreground. The bear watched them walk by, but showed no threatening behaviour .

The calm conditions allowed a flight around the circumference of the Kananaskis Lakes. Mount Warrior is capped by a small plume of cloud.

The spectacular Kananaskis Lakes await on exiting from the confines of the Highwood Pass. It was worth waiting for a beautiful, calm day to make this flight.

Copyright North Bay COPA Flight 23, 2005