Paragliders celebrate 50 years of flight at Steptoe Butte on the Palouse

At least 50 people, plus one dog, visited Steptoe Butte State Park in Colfax Saturday and Sunday for an event hosted by Center of Lift to celebrate 50 years of flight at the location.

One or more paragliders could be seen up in the sky at any given time. Attendees could be seen conversing, photographers snapping shots of the gliders, and a few children testing toy airplanes in optimal wind conditions.

“Mostly the events are centered around just how beautiful it is here, the people, and getting in the air and flying,” said Nate Anglen, who has been a member of Center of Lift for nearly a decade. Center of Lift is a local chapter of United States Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association.

“The club has several different fly-ins at different places,” Anglen said “This one’s special in that it’s the 50th anniversary of free flight here at Steptoe, so people have been doing this for a long time.”

One of those longtime paragliders was at the event. Center of Lift member Conrad Agte has been practicing the sport for 40 plus years and has flown in three national championships.

“I started in 1974, when paragliders hadn’t been invented yet, paragliders were just getting going,” he said. “I had been married for a couple years and was kind of in the routine of life and going to work every day, and I said to my wife one day, ‘I really want to do something exciting. I want to jump out of an airplane and go parachuting.’ ”

Agte’s wife then suggested an alternative: paragliding.

Contrastingly, Ricky Cabilao, who came to Steptoe Butte from Seattle, has only been paragliding for about a year.

“I am excited,” Cabilao said, “Just to see the ground from so high up.”

Anglen enjoys the activity for another reason.

“It’s an incredibly freeing experience, like you’re out in the elements and you can feel the wind in your face, and it’s just amazingly in touch with nature,” he said. “It’s like carving fresh powder on the mountain, except that you’re in the air.”

Anglen didn’t plan on flying himself, but said that wind conditions were great.

“It’s exceptional, it’s a good day,” he said.

Gliders have been using Steptoe Butte in Whitman County for 50 years, but it was within the last decade that Steptoe Butte became a state-approved location for the sport. In fact, Steptoe is the only state-approved spot for hang gliding and one of three state-approved locations for paragliding.

“We’d flown up here for 40 years, but it was never really legal to do it,” Agte said.

Steptoe Butte offers an impressive view of the landscape in any direction, with rolling hills of golds and browns stretching to faraway blue mountains. It also offers a great place for paragliders to take off.

“Steptoe Butte is incredibly unique in that it can be flown in any wind direction, and it’s very rare to find a paragliding site that that can happen. For its usability, it’s an incredible place to be able to go, and pretty much fly anytime the wind is within the right miles per hour,” Anglen said.

At one point, Anglen’s daughter Ellie, a sixth -grader, was watching a paraglider land.

“Touchdown!” she said. “Look at that.”