10/6

Ignoring my crappy day yesterday (I got some uber-sport sunscreen in my eye at launch, and couldn’t see right for the next 3 hours, so didn’t get to fly), this weekend was great for paragliding. In particular, Saturday was “epic” (quoth Dusty).

While sitting on launch waiting for the conditions to get good, I was chatting with Brian, and we got the idea of maybe shooting for hitting Pine (the mountain + ridges just to the west of Marshall) if the day suited it. I was excited at the idea, but wary. I was definitely trying my hardest to make sure I didn’t get too set on the idea, lest that lead me to pushing to hard for it when I shouldn’t. Little did I know what was in store!

I launched right at 5PM, steady wind with no complications. Worked the ridge a bit right at Marshall, and then decided to shoot out to Regionals, where folks seemed to be doing well. Got over regionals a little low, and scraped around until I caught one or two thermals that got me to about 4300. Brian was no where to be seen, but I figured I’d give Pine a shot. I now know that I definitely need more than 4300 if I want to try for Pine straight from Regionals! I got about 2/3 of the way to the lower Pine ridge and tucked tail, turning around and heading back for Regionals before I got stuck and had to hit the backup LZ.

I made it back to the lower ridges of Regionals (what are these called? anyone?) with little altitude to spare, and back to hunting I went. Things were looking pretty bleak, until I found a nice wide thermal that I managed to ride back up to 4100, directly above Cloud Peak. Regionals was now happening a little bit more, and several pilots were now getting up to about 4500 at times. Suddenly, I noticed Dusty’s wing heading over towards where Rob was circling, and I thought to myself, “If I want to follow anyone to look for good thermals, it’s them!” so off I went. Lo and behold, after searching a bit with Dusty, he and I latched onto a rocket of a thermal. It wasn’t necessarily pretty, and we both had to work to keep with it, but we both managed to ride it to 5100.

At that point, Dusty started heading “back.” I’d only ever even *launched* from Crestline once, and certainly never gotten high and flown back there. I had a moment of doubt, but then decided that since I had about 50-100 feet on Dusty, I could keep my eye on him the whole time, follow him, and worst case scenario bail and head out again. The glide was smooth, with not a single beep out of my vario the whole time we were headed back. We crossed the ridge leading down from The Billboard (Yes! I’d made it there!) at about 4600, and there were those lovely beeps of the vario again! We circled in the bowl there, and I got to have my first pass flying over the billboard! (for those that don’t know, the billboard is an old radio antenna that looks like a green billboard, thus the name).

Did a few passes there, before Dusty stared heading for Pine. Why not? Off I went. On the way there though, I hit some pretty big sink, and I’d fairly well used up my reserve of boldness in the glide back to Crestline, so I decided to play it safe, and aborted the glide to Pine to head back to Regionals. Made it back there with altitude to spare, but not a lot, and started working things there again. Folks were working the area by the 750, so I headed that way, and managed to hook a nice one that drifted me back towards Marshall and up to 4300. I noticed Brian over by Marshall, so headed that direction. Made a couple passes over the peak, and managed to nail my first top landing there! Brian later managed to scrape his way up enough to have a side hill landing, and we took a nice breather before both launching again and enjoying sled rides to the LZ. An eventful 1:30h flight, followed by a victory lap flight of 14 minutes! What a day!

And here is the KML file.