Airtime is Golden

For most pilots, the Canadian Paragliding Championships at Golden, British Columbia are not about competing. They are about exceeding your personal best, about pursuing dreams.
Willi Muller knew that. As organizer of the 1994 event, he announced in advance that the first two days would be open distance, any direction, any launch time. The emphasis was on each pilot flying as far and as well as they could, rather than racing the other pilots. The third day would be a race to goal so participants could head home early.
I flew at Golden two years ago. At that time I had less than a year of paragliding experience. I managed one 32 kilometer cross country flight, but mostly I was intimidated by the place. This year my goal was to fly cross country without scaring myself. If I improved my personal best, that would be great, but not essential.
Golden is superbly suited for cross country flying. The town is located in the Rocky Mountain Trench, the great valley that runs northwest to southeast between the Columbia Mountains and the Canadian Rockies. From Mt. Seven, the peak rising above Golden, the front range of the Rockies extends south at around 9000 feet for hundreds of kilometers. The 2500 foot valley has many fields within gliding distance of the range and a paved road provides easy retrieval.
This is not to imply that flying at Golden is trivial. The thermals can be as strong as anywhere and the mountains are very rugged. There are many places along the range where you simply DO NOT want to go down. Even if you survive a crash landing on the peaks, you may face a full day of difficult travel to hike out. The Canadian Rockies are wild mountains. If you don't fly with a wide safety margin, you're likely to scare yourself, or worse.