EOU graduate, Burnt River teacher flying across Eastern Oregon by paraglider

Published 8:16 am Thursday, July 24, 2025

Killian Sump is traveling across Eastern Oregon this week but the traffic he has to deal with is turkey vultures and bald eagles rather than semi-trucks and motor homes laboring up steep grades.

Or perhaps a passing Cessna.

Sump, an Eastern Oregon University graduate who taught this past school year at the Burnt River Charter School in Unity, is soaring across the region by paraglider.

He started his solo journey on Wednesday, July 23, from the top of Black Butte, the conspicuous and conical volcano that looms above Highway 20 several miles west of Sisters.

Sump flew east for about 88 miles, landing on East Point, a 6,601-foot-peak several miles south of Mitchell.

Sump’s aunt, Shelley Wyllie of Dayville, said he hopes to finish at the Snake River. Although he allotted five days for the trip, based on his progress Wednesday he might arrive at the Idaho border sooner, she said.

“He’s making really good time,” Wyllie said on Thursday morning, July 24.

Wyllie said Sump, who is in his mid 30s and grew up in Newberg, has been planning this unique journey for some time.

He is carrying everything he needs, including camping gear and a satellite communication device that tracks his route. He also has to carry his paraglider when he hikes to a launch point.

Paragliders are fabric wings that have no rigid structure and are inflated by the wind. Paraglide fliers launch by running until the wind fills the wing.

Wyllie said Sump launches from peaks, and he has to wait until the air is warm enough to create the updrafts that lift him to where he can take advantage of prevailing winds.

She said Sump checked the weather this week and decided it was favorable, with westerly winds and little or no wildfire smoke.

According to his tracking device, he lifted off from Black Butte around 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday and landed on East Point around 6:30 p.m.

During the day he rose to nearly 14,000 feet and his speed at times topped 40 mph.

Wyllie said her nephew had to hike to reach the point where he took off Thursday morning, a summit more than a mile from East Point.

He launched at around 1 p.m. on Thursday and traveled almost 96 miles, landing around 7 p.m. on a ridge near Glacier Mountain, near the North Fork of the Malheur River southwest of Unity.

Wyllie said Sump is experienced in a variety of outdoor adventures.

He worked as a backcountry ski guide in Halfway for several winters, taking clients into the Wallowa Mountains, she said.

“Killian has always been this incredibly graceful athlete,” Wyllie said. “He has a real aptitude for these things.”

She said Sump has launched his paraglider from peaks in the Wallowas near Joseph. He lived in Enterprise in the past.

After teaching the past two years at Burnt River, Sump has taken a job teaching at the Black Butte School in Camp Sherman, west of Sisters, Wyllie said.

You can track Sump’s progress here: https://share.garmin.com/killiansump