Pemberton April 18-19

High pressure and forecast to be somewhat stable in the Fraser Valley so it's time to head to Pemberton!

Upper launch in a milky Saturday.

Unfortunately the forecast for Pemberton was somewhat stable as well...just not as stable as the FV.  Saturday was WNW winds and difficult to get high until past Owl Mountain, where we finally got to 2400m.  The zipper on my outer jacket had blown so I was quite cold!

Doing the milkrun with Andrew.

Andrew and I turned around at Goat (I wasn't liking the lift enough to want to continue NW) while Peter kept going until just short of Spindrift Mountain.  Alex had headed over the back at Mt. Fraser and was circumnavigating Birkenhead Peak (where he was getting to 2700m) and made it back out via the Birkenhead/Anderson valley for a nice figure-8 tracklog.

Oops!

Sunday looked to be more of the same but it was more stable down low; it took a bunch of us 1.5 hours to get from lower to upper launch (and those that launched from upper sunk down to lower anyways)!  By the time I got to upper launch height I decided I wasn't enjoying the air in MacKenzie basin anymore, so I was considering going out to land.  However everyone at Goat was reporting a lot of north wind (it was showing up at MacKenzie too), so I thought it may be better over at Mt.Currie.  Patiently waited for a climb which took me to 2300m and then headed over the Currie where it was indeed nicer air compared to MacKenzie, but not much north wind at all.  In fact it was light SW.  So instead of ridge soaring as I had hoped I ended up trying to thermal up in the lee and in the shade...not the ideal combination!

Both LZ's: the new primary (the oval) and the secondary (field immediately left of the oval) when the primary is in use.

I did find a lee/shady climb to 2300m and then had to decide what to do with this altitude...use it to go to the Currie summit, or use it to recross to MacKenzie or the LZ.  I opted for the Currie summit glide since getting high on Currie is so rare; as I glided next to the summit I was able to watch small avalanches and rockfalls as I passed by the numerous cornices.

Majestic Mt. Currie

About 5 pilots heard I was over at Currie and came over to join me but I don't think many got high as they experienced the same lee/shade issue as me.  In the end some of us landed at the airport while the rest glided back to the LZ.

Heading for the summit of Mt. Currie

All in all, a rather average weekend at Pemberton; it was too stable and
the funky north wind kept us from doing really interesting XC's.  But it was fun nonetheless and very hot on the ground!

Fraser Valley Easter Weekend April 4-5-6

LIttle Nic launch after the hike up under grey skies on Sunday

After a very rainy March it was finally good weather for XC in the Fraser Valley!  Saturday looked very promising and I was test-flying Martina's Cayenne 4, so I took it for a spin over the back and to the Bridal side of the valley.  Lots of clouds in the middle of the valley so it was a Green Hill crossing and the usual sandbar thermal to get me onto Butterfly along with Peter, Andrew, and Al.

Kevin and I heading out towards Mt. Thom.  Cultus lake in the background.

There was a big cloud shading out the western part of the Bridal range; Andrew and I ended up at the Bridal LZ while Al hung out at the knob for 40+ minutes until some sun came through and he was off to Elk and back home to Woodside.  Peter had turned around and back to Ludwig before recrossing to Green Hill and back to Woodside that way.  So Andrew and I had a nice hitchhike back to Agassiz until Claudia came by to pick us up; thanks Claudia!

Big cu forming over Woodside later in the day.

Sunday was pretty lame, lots of high cloud was shading things out despite the cu's and it was very scratchy at Woodside.  I didn't fly long, maybe 30 minutes, before I decided to head out.  Others landed at Riverside after an hour or so of similar scratching.  Since the day was so lame a group of us decided to salvage something by hiking up the new trail to Little Nic (without gliders).  I hadn't been up Little Nic in years but it was much cleaner than I remembered...maybe the washed-out road and recent Club activity has kept most of the rednecks away?  It was beautiful view regardless and it was nice to see a launch that we normally just fly over when flying XC from Mt. St. Benedict or Woodside.

Robin and I heading out to land at Brad's.

Today was a completely different day...lots of huge development despite the high cloud (and maybe the high cloud was actually a good thing in that it kept the thunderstorms away) and it was easy to stay up.  Today we opted for Bridal as Woodside was looking a bit too strong and blownout; I think we made the right call as we flew for several hours and had a fantastic time playing in the clouds at Elk around 1400m.  There was a bit of wind in the air and reports of windy landings at the Bridal LZ (one pilot almost missed the LZ due to setting up a bit too far back in the wind), so Kevin suggested we land at Brad Henry's place in Rosedale (nice big fields) for a change of pace.  BTW the Bridal LZ is looking fantastic; it's been freshly mowed and is now ginormous.  We just need some new lawn furniture as the old stuff is looking pretty UV'd up!

Big development over the Bridal range after we landed.

Meanwhile back at Woodside it sounded quite "industrial" and many pilots left Woodside to come to Bridal instead.  Reports of a student in the trees in the gully between launch and the south knoll (they were OK) after getting turned downwind after launching.

Helping Brad out at his place.

Robin's new glider (Norm's old glider!)

After landing next to Brad's house the skies really got interesting as towering cu'd were going on all over the place with virga, snow, and rain over Dewdney, Black, and behind Woodside.

Love those grins!  Photo courtesy of Kevin Ault

Mother Woodside delivers February 22!

My first local thermal flight of the season!

The night-before forecast looked good, but the actual skies weren't looking too hot initially...a thick (from horizon to horizon) band of cloud was shading things out, and with the prevailing NE wind that meant it probably wasn't going to be anything more than sled-rides.  But after an hour or so of waiting on launch we finally saw the edge of the band, and when it finally moved off, the thermals kicked in and it was good for the next 4-5 hours!

The air was still a bit ratty from the NE/cloudy conditions but it smoothed out as the afternoon went on.  The best lift was to the extreme north, up past the north cliffs, where we got to 1100 m.  Not quite enough to do anything with (ie head to Agassiz Mountain) as it was the only spot on the mountain it was working to that high.  Had we found 1100 m in multiple spots we would have headed east for the first XC's of the season :)

Lots of pilots came out to bask in the sun and get their gear sorted after a winter of inactivity...about 20 pilots were out in the end.  And the Riverside LZ has never looked so good, nice grass and bone-dry!

Toluca volcano January 13

Looking east from the crater rim.  Toluca smog in the distance.

On our last full day in Mexico Alex, Will, and myself decided to hike the Toluca volcano rather than fly.  We had already arranged a driver so we were up at the parking lot by 9am; the ground was still frozen!

We had a nice hike on the south-facing slopes of the crater rim (the north slopes are full of snow) and then Alex and Will visited the crater lake.  Skies were extremely blue and all the pollution from Toluca, Valle, and Mexico City was below us.

As we descended back to the parking lot it was a steady stream of people hiking up to enjoy the rare snow + no clouds + visibility.  Entire families, some wearing entirely inappropriate clothing for the volcano (!) were heading up to play in the snow and take photos...I guess Toluca proper doesn't get much snow!

Crater lakes, facing SE.

Meanwhile back in Valle it was pretty average conditions, climbs to 3200m reported by Al and Andrew, who flew to Divis before heading back to the lake.

Popocatépetl volcano on the horizon, facing east.

While watching the afternoon SIV course, I watched as a pilot full-stalled his EN-B glider, messed up the recovery (he let up on the brakes while the glider was behind him), and then fell past the slack lines.  A big cravatte ensued which came out right away during the resulting autorotation/SAT, but then it went into a full-on spiral dive.  Despite the instructor saying "throw your reserve" repeatedly, the pilot did nothing (possibly Gee-d out) and hit the lake, hard, while in a full spiral.

Heading up to the high point of the rim, facing west.

The recovery boat was right there and pulled him out and he was pretty unresponsive, possibly concussed.  But he was alive and moving so the ambulance crew showed up and took him to the hospital.  A scary thing to watch as water can be awfully hard when going in from that height and with that much force.

Valle de Bravo Jan 12

Another lazy day in Valle as the high pressure is setting up.  Cloudbase has been getting higher and higher as the days go on; today the volcano looked to be in the clear for most of the day.  Closer to Valle cloudbase was 3600m (over Serro Gordo, I was amazed!) but there were few actual cu's.

Landing short, pilot in the water but his glider in the trees.
Then this kid rescued his glider with a stand-up paddleboard!

The lake LZ had quite light winds and it was very bubbly, so the landings were sometimes chaotic.  Pilots were going long, going short, landing downwind, and occasionally splashing in to the water.  At one point 3 pilots were coming in quite close together: pilot #1 landed and then proceeded to kite as pilot #2 was coming in.  Pilot #2 then flew into the kiting pilot #1, resulting in a tangle of pilots and gliders right in the landing spot.  As pilots 1 and 2 were trying to sort themselves out, pilot #3 came in, and in trying to avoid the mess, stalled his glider from about 5 feet up, landing on his back and bottoming out his airbag harness.

I believe if he had leaned forward in his harness for landing, with his body forward of the risers, he would have landed more on his feet and it would have been a non-issue.  As it was, he didn't bother getting out of his harness and into the landing position, flared too high, and consequently landed on his back.  As he was in quite some pain the ambulance was called; they showed up in 20-30 minutes and put him on a backboard to take him to the hospital to be checked out.

Aftermath of the landing-on-his back pilot

After that the wind came in a bit more strongly so the landings became less of an issue.  Alex and Andrew landed up by Saucos, while Al almost made it back, landing just behind Torre as he didn't have the last 50m of clearance to make it over and into Valle proper.  Will and I did simple flights back to the Lake, via Maguey and Serro Gordo.  Lots of pilots did the south circuit to the Aguila ridge and then San Simon before making it back to Valle, either by flying or by taxi :)

Valle de Bravo January 11

Coming in over the Lake

After yesterday's final day of the Copa Intrepidos comp, I was feeling tired so I only did a quick local flight from Penon, landing back at the Lake.  Meanwhile Andrew, Al, and Steven decided to try to fly a circuit to the volcano and back, while Trey and Peter did the same but starting from the opposite direction.  Andrew landed up near the volcano and had a couple hours of hiking out before he got to a road with a taxi to Temascaltepc, while Al landed up near Oxtotilpan for his own taxi ride back.  I believe Pete made it back, at least according to his XC Find track ;)

Toluca volcano is in the clouds.  Al and Andrew and Steven are back there someplace!

The final results of the comp are now available, they can be found here.  Eric Paquette of Quebec was the top Canadian, with Alex only 18 points behind.  I believe we had something like 20 Canadians in the comp, so we are well-placed throughout the results.  Great job guys!

Final day in the Copa Intrepidos January 10

Epic-looking skies today for the final day of the Copa Intrepidos comp.  This time a 65-ish km task was set out to 3 Kings, Divisidaro, across the convergence to Saucos, back to Serro Gordo, La Casa, and finally into the goal field at Casa Viejo.

Waiting for the start over the flats in front of Penon

Unfortunately I didn't make it around the course; I got stuck on the Divis ridge and ended up landing at the base of St. Augustine with Luis.  His Mum came and picked us up so it was all good and we were back at the goal field getting scored in no time!

Meanwhile the gaggle was still flying and coming into goal.  Alex, Greg, and Will made goal, Will for the first time this comp, congratulations Will!

Female podium!

During the prize-giving we had a special surprise as the organizing team had bought canisters of foam and were spraying all the winners as they came forward to claim their plaques made from local wood, courtesy of the Quintanilla brothers.

I've been foamed!

The special Naviter Oudie2 prize went to Mark Florence, fellow Canuck from Calgary!

Because I had done so poorly in today's task, I thought for sure I had lost 1st place to Patty (local Valle pilot on an IP7 Pro), but it looks like due to FTV every pilots' worst score was dropped, which means I actually got to retain 1st place!  Eric Paquette from Quebec snagged 1st place in the Sports Class, while Alex managed to hold onto 2nd place.

Setting up the paper hot air balloon

Official results are not yet out due to some issues with the overall class winners, but when they are, they'll be here.

Some pilots are leaving tomorrow, but our group is here for a few more days yet so we'll be doing some more flying and maybe hiking the Toluca volcano if the snow isn't too deep.

Lots of convergence flying at the Copa Intrepidos January 9

Classic Valle today as we had light winds, high base, and the convergence right in the sweet spot.  Today's task was out on the flats to La Pila for the start, then off to the Monarcas, back  to the mesa and Divisidaro, recrossing back towards the Monarcas, and then landing in goal at Casa Viejo for about 74 km.

Today's task: La Pila-Monarcas-Divis-Monarcas LZ-Casa Viejo goal

Cloudbase initially started out at 3200m but it rose throughout the day to around 3500m by mid-afternoon.  The field split into multiple groups quite early on: after the La Pila start, a group of pilots opted for the 3 Kings-Maguey-Serro Gordo route to get to the Monarcas, while the larger group (myself included) went back to Espina and the Wall to jump to St. Augustine.  The 3 Kings route was actually sunnier than the Wall route, but that group of pilots got held up at Escalaria, enabling the Wall group (which had a lot of shade to contend with) to catch up.

Cruising the convergence into goal with Alex.

The convergence seemed to fade and then reappear which made the going quite slow at times.  A lot of times I would see a group ahead of me quite low, so I was very slow and stopped in everything once I hit the shade.  If it was 0.3m/s, I stopped in it :)  Eventually those slow climbs would speed up and get me to cloudbase so I could continue the course.

Near the end of the flight I noticed the convergence seemed to be breaking up a bit, in a good way, with not so much blanket shade and a lot of sun patches, so once making it to cloudbase for the last time it was easy to cruise along to goal.  Just before my final climb I met up with Alex who was struggling below me, we found a nice unexpected climb in the shade which took us to 3400m and an easy glide to goal.

You can see the convergence getting big back towards the volcano.

Lots of other pilots landed up near the Monarcas TP as the shade was quite epic back there and it was hard to get back out with enough height to reconnect with the clouds.  Greg landed near the airstrip after getting too low coming back from the Monarcas to reconnect with the clouds and the Divis TP.  Ty and Dave had to land early as they had to catch a plane back in Mexico City later on.

We also had some mishaps...Benjamin ended up in a tree near La Casa (not sure if he had an event or simply got too low to make the glide out).  Andrew was nearby and was able to relay Ben's info to Radio Control, while at the same time ridge soaring a small hill with a long glide out of his own, good job multi-tasking Andrew!

Al also had a mishap, having a full-bar blowout resulting in double-tip cravattes and multiple line twists which wouldn't come out with full-stalling, so he tossed his reserve.  Despite having a Beamer 3, he was unable to get to his steering handles, partly due to reserve line twists, but also because his Camelback hose had been routed through one of his handles so was caught up in it (Camelback users: check your routing!)  However he came down quite softly in a field near the garbage dump where the military police arrived, checked him out, and gave him a VIP ride to Valle to get his gear untwisted and sorted.  He'll be back tomorrow after getting his Beamer repacked!

Al's glider and reserve after landing softly in a field near the garbage dump.  Posted with Al's permission.

I think in the end there was something like 30 pilots in goal.  I wasn't last, but I was close, but I was just glad to actually make goal after not making it yesterday!

A tougher day in the Copa Intrepidos January 8

Today's task was out towards Divis before turning around at Atesquelites, heading back to Cerro Gordo, and landing at Quintanillas.  Similar conditions to yesterday except for more high cirrus coming in which was to make the task a lot harder.

Today's task: Divis-3Kings-Atesquelites-Cerro Gordo-Quintanillas

For some reason I was feeling a bit off all day; I had a not-so-great start and the trek out to Divis was low and painful, and I didn't reconnect with the clouds until Cerro Gordo.  The convergence line was a bit too far east to be of real use for flying to Atesquelites, so pilots had to tank up at St. Augustine before heading out.  I wasn't able to stay connected once off Saint Augustine and basically scunged myself over to Atesquelites before landing on the way back to Cerro Gordo.

Race start to Divisidaro.

Ty and Jeff Wishney landed next to me and we opted for a quick taxi ride to Valle rather than the comp shuttle.  Al and Andrew landed west of Mesa de Delores along with a German pilot who injured his ankle on landing: the ambulance was dispatched to take him to the hospital.  Dave Edgar landed out between Divis and 3 Kings and had a looong walk ahead of him to a road and retrieve.  Alex and Eric did the best of the Canadians today by making goal...good job guys!   Results

Fun task in Valle January 7

Finally a good weather day!  I think the task committee was a bit gun-shy after the past 2 days, so a pretty short 40km task was set which would put us in Amanalco to the NE of Valle.

Today's task: Piano-Diente-Sacamacate-Amanalco.

Conditions on launch seemed a bit strong, so myself and several of the other female pilots decided to launch right away.  (Later on, an American pilot went into the trees after launching with a cravatte and tore up his glider quite impressively).  Of course this meant 1.5 hours of waiting for the race start, but the clouds over Crazy Mesa were pretty mellow at around 3100m so the wait was pleasant.

Final glide to Amanalco.

Once the race started it was off to Diente and then tank up at the Wall before diving over the back to Sacamacate.  I had the opportunity to watch an Enzo2 pilot perform a full stall right in front of me on the way back from the start, as he had a collapse which had cravatted; I had to make a quick move myself to get out of his way as he full-stalled past me, getting his glider restarted with a few hundred feet over the Crazy Mesa trees to spare.

A few pilots dropped off on the way to Sacamacate, landing at the Penitas.  Alex Wedensky was attacked by an eagle at Penitas, but his glider was OK; this eagle has been harassing many pilots who pass by lately, beware!  But the majority of the field continued on under the convergence which had set up in the usual place.

Over goal in Amanalco.

If you stayed connected with the convergence clouds ~3300-3400m you only needed one more good climb to make it to Amanalco, so lots of pilots were making it to goal with oodles of height.  I think in the end we had something like 50+ pilots in goal and a good portion of the townspeople came out to watch the show.  We had good representation with ~10 Canadians making goal today!

Flight is here.

Packed goal field!