[This post is partially triggered by Bernd's post about Bella Bella and Port Hardy.] 
Now, please raise your hands if you like mountains...🙂...? OK, it is (perfectly) fine if you don't, but I am going to tell you about a mountain curiously named "Stupendous", so, please read on, if you're interested. First, however, I must say that my only (and limited) RW experience with Pacific Northwest (PNW), includes 2 visits to Seattle and a road-trip from Seattle to Vancouver via (a traffic-ridden and congested) Interstate Highway 5 on a (rainy) weekend, plus a day around Vancouver Island, hardly enough time to appreciate the splendor of this region. Maybe, instead of the roadway, I should have tried the ferry service, or even better, the luxurious (air) transport in Bernd's 6-engined (over-sized) flying boat...🙂...

Anyway, the two Bellas of my post here are (1) Bella Bella and (2) Bella Coola. I've lifted off, in my trusty DHC2 Beaver, from the airport (CBBC) in the island village of Bella Bella on the Pacific Coast, flying east (Note: Bernd flew south.) for ~75 miles towards Bella Coola (CYBD), tracking the narrow (and wonderfully scenic) Bella Coola River valley (see my images below). I've not landed in Bella Coola, but instead, have flown on, with Bella Coola River as my companion and guide, to near (and past) Stupendous Mountain towering 9,000 ft above the Bella Coola Valley. BTW, it's around this mountain that Bella Coola River gets its name, been formed by the confluence of two other rivers. It's also the Stupendous Mountain that nurtures Bella Coola River's flow, via (abundant) rainfall runoff and glacier meltwater, from its precipitous sides.

About Stupendous Mountain, the original discoverer, (Sir) Alexander Mackenzie, had said more than 2 centuries ago, "Before us appeared a stupendous mountain, whose snow-clad summit was lost in the clouds". Yes, this is exactly how the majestic mountain appeared today to me too...🙂...in my virtual world. The first ascent of this mountain, in 1937, was by the Munday family of three (Canadian mountaineer Phyllis, her husband Don, and their 16-year-old daughter Edith). It's worth repeating this bit about Phyllis and Don, "Phyllis, born in Sri Lanka, and having moved to BC in 1901, met her future husband in 1918, while on a mountaineering trip...Don lost his footing on a glacial moraine, and was in danger of slipping into a crevasse. Phyllis jumped to help him restore his balance, and in so doing lost hers. Don managed to grab and steady her until she could regain her feet...They married in February 1920, spending their honeymoon in a mountain cabin in Vancouver..." ...And they lived happily ever after...OK...the last bit is my (extra) touch...🙂...But, indeed, does it not sound better than any fictional (thriller) from Hollywood...? 

So, here we go. Please find this collection of images from my trip today in the cradle of the coastal region of beautiful British Columbia, and most of all, from around Bella Coola River and Bella Coola valley, a favorite destination of naturalists, artists, photographers, and virtual flyers...like yours truly. This particular PNW region has been my favorite since Orbx introduced PNW to us for the first time, nearly a decade-and-half ago. Today, I found a (surviving) 2010 post (not mine but from an excited member) right here in our Avsim Forum, as follows, "WOW!!! The PNW is my stomping grounds and I have to say this looks incredible. I'm in FS9, but I'll be making the transition to FSX within next 2 weeks (waiting on my computer to arrive) and this will be one of the first add-ons I purchase..."...🙂...Well...you can change a couple of words in this statement, and it could apply pretty well to us even today, I believe...🙂...

Hope you enjoy these images below, including 3 images of Stupendous Mountain (shot #s 13-15), as I gingerly pass by it...in awe myself...!

Thanks for viewing...!

"Stupendous" shots even before and after you reached the mountain of the same name.

Fine set, last pic looks somehow stunning..

cheers 😉

Edited May 4, 20242 yr by pmplayer

Lovely set of shots, and fascinating bit of background, P_7878. I always enjoy and appreciate your intros. I also remember discovering Orbx for myself - I'd gotten my first copy of FSX (my effective real starting point with simming after MS Flight vanished) and was a bit underwhelmed with the appearance, but then read about the Orbx stuff, and was hooked from that point on. By the time I'd gotten to maybe P3Dv4, I pretty much had everything they produced (this is before they became primarily a reseller, so I'm talking about their own stuff) and would simply just buy whatever they released whenever they released it. Those days long gone now, of course, but they did really good stuff in the past.

So great to see these. Even if I still can't get excited by pointy bits of rock sticking out of the ground <grin>

(actually, looking at these again and thinking about it, my not-really-a-thing about mountains may just be down to the poor handling of vertical surfaces in the sim. The quality of that really doesn't seem to have improved much since FSX (with the occasional exception). Maybe 2024 will finally crack that, or maybe it's just in the nature of the beast - I can see how that could be)

Wow, you -- again -- outdid yourself, P_7878!! What an interesting post, the intro, the pics, everything!

Super set of shots! 😉 

Nice pictures and story P_7878.

Darryl

 

Friends:

Many thanks for the kind words....🙂...Appreciated...