B.C. man paraglides to work to avoid highway closure

It used to take Craig Pingle approximately 18 minutesto get to work via Highway 97 from Peachland to Summerland, both just south of Kelowna in B.C.'s Interior.

That was until the route connecting the Central and South Okanagan closed on Aug. 28after heavy rockslides.

"Now it takes about two hours or more if there's some traffic," said Pingle, who works as a general manager for Haywire Winery.

B.C.'s Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure openedtwo forest service roads as alternative routesfollowing the highway closure, but the detours haveturned out to be too time-consuming, sothe winery manager looked for new and unique ways of getting to work.

"First, I decided to park at the Okanagan Lake Provincial Park and then hike up over the mountain," he said.

Halfway through thetrail, he realized it wasn't the safest and definitely not the fastest route to take.

"There was a point where I was on my hands and knees and I definitely didn't want to do it again."

The following day, Pingle went waterborne when a friend, Ron Kubek of Lightning Rock Winery, offered hima ride home on his boat.

"Again, this wasn't as ideal either," Pingle said. "It was wavy and bumpy."

WATCH | Highway closure spurs Okanagan man's creative commutes:

Okanagan man sails, hikes, and paraglides his way to work following rockslide road closures

12 months ago

Duration 2:14

"Craig is coming to work on Monday by horse, said Okanagan Crush Pad co-owner Christine Colleta of Haywire Winery manager Craig Pingle, who has been finding unique ways to commute after recent rockslides closed Highway 97.

This week, however, he decided to up the ante by paragliding his way to the winery.

"A friend of a friend had a paraglide and he said you should give it a try."

So Pingle did. In a video posted on the Summerland winery's Facebook and Instagram pages, Pingle can be seen hooking a parachute to a backpack, licking his finger and holding it up to get a sense of the wind direction, and taking off with a work briefcase in hand.

"It was more of a fun thing to do rather than it being an economical way to spend my time," he said.

"The people are getting a kick out of it though."

Friends and colleagues have started offeringsuggestions for his next commute.

Christine Colleta,co-owner of Okanagan Crush Pad which owns Haywire said Pingle is coming to work on a horse this Monday.

"We have a wild horse riding stable next to our vineyard, so it's actually pretty handy," she said in a phone interview with CBC News.

Colleta said three of her employees, including Pingle, were impacted by the highway closure.

"Two of them we've managed to change things so that they can work from home, but Craig, our GM, is really sort of involved in the operations of the day-to-day."

Being harvest season, it's a busy time at the winery and missing a day of work isn't feasible, said Pingle.

The highway north of Summerland is expected to reopen to single-lane-alternating traffic by the weekend of Sept.16-17, according to the transportation ministry.