Red Fish: a lake @ 2,500m ASL (photo: K.J. Bowden)
I apologise for the lack
of information over the last week. It
has been a rough ride travelling aside.
I will publish video footage of the last day when I get around to it.
The last days of
flying were intense to say the least!
Let's wind back a
little to catch up. Day five saw us go to launch with the forecast
predicting fairly firm winds from the north. For those of you
not familiar with the launch direction, north wind would be over the back.
This forecast was
fairly accurate in the sense that by the time we were ready to launch and a few
minutes before the opening of the window the wind was very clearly over the
back. This confirmed the warning that we were given at the briefing that
launching in the lee of Bald Mountain can be tricky at best with dust devils
steaming through. There were as many
dodgy launches as I have seen in the last couple years of World Cup.
I had one of those
sublime launches where I got the gust right and was barely air-borne and got
hoisted in a rapid ride to the top @ 4,500m ASL without incident. That we were in the lee was undeniable with
the final confirmation for me was wrestling my glider through the turbulent
layer before we got above the terrain where it became sublime. Others were less
fortunate with a couple of near misses compelling Mike to close the window and
cancel the task as previously mentioned. Footage of some of the near miss
experiences available here.
Paragliding World Cup -Sun Valley- Day Six - King
Mountain
Despite the fact that
we had had relatively good flying up until this point flying every day had only
yielded one valid task.
With an unfavourable
forecast for the final day and in an act of desperation we all willingly drove
the 90 miles to King Mountain in the hope that we would have a late task.
The driving itself was
very interesting through the Craters of the Moon with the Fields of dark chocolate
lava chunks providing a couple of tourist moments where we all stopped to
survey the terrain in the howling gale that appeared to be coming out of the
south east. This wind was 180° opposite to the wind experienced by those who
took the shortcut through the pass.
With our instruments primed with the optimistic task we sat around and waited for the wind to settle or abate.
In the 15 min or so
leading up to and after the window opened the wind swung through 90° placing
the launch in the lee which for the third time in this competition resulted in
a cancelled task after numerous incidents. I experienced this first hand taking
an asymmetric collapse while fiddling with my go pro which resulted in an easy
dive and smooth exit after a mild 360° turn requiring minimal input.
It was a delightful experience to be flying on the mountain that had provided such relief and joy on the first day hoisting everyone up into orbit over the cliffs.
The visibility was
much improved providing the opportunity to survey the stark majesty of the King
Mt and the surrounding farmland in the Valley.
A couple of pilots
ignored the cancelled task notice electing to fly the course. Ordinarily I
would have been critical of such apparently selfish behaviour but, if truth be
told, I was envious as the task was totally doable and the launch had simply
let us down yet again. By all reports those two guys had a magnificent flight
albeit a little slow.
Paragliding World Cup Sun Valley final day.
Few people expected to fly on the last day so many were probably nursing free-beer-at-lefties hangovers going up to launch. The task was quickly set applying lessons learnt early in the week and the window opened in short measure with the start following within the hour.
It was immediately
apparent that the massively thick and murky inversion would not be breaking in time
to facilitate the task. The start was one of those mincing
stop-start-wondering-around confused messes that we occasionally see when the
conditions don't quite fit the task planning. To make matters worse the wind was making its
mark on the field right from the start. Just getting across the first ridge was in
itself an achievement. I found myself on
full bar pushing toward the lee side of the ridge sinking @ -3m/s with the full
expectation of being flushed before the day had properly begun. If ever there
was an opportunity to make an argument for open class gliders then this last
day would be my showpiece. It was not a day to be scratching low given the punchy
thermals and the violent little gusts that occupied every little invisible
corner like a cockroach infestation.
Two groups eventually
managed to fight their way out of a dead-end gorge taking care to avoid the
airspace and the inevitable walkout in the very likely event that one would
land if you lost focus.
You would have been
forgiven for thinking that the lead gaggle and the chase gaggle were ignoring
the course line entirely because almost everyone abandoned the course in favour
of the terrain anticipating climbs at the crest of every ridge.
The first group more
or less disintegrated with the second group coming in above them with all those
pilots then working together to get up for the crossing into the Abyss.
No sooner had we
clawed our way back up to the top before we went on a blind death glide in an
attempt to complete the crossing vaguely in the correct direction. Another desperate scratch demonstration saw
twenty or thirty of us claw our way up to the hard ceiling before diving into
the haze again. This next crossing was
different in the sense that we were now getting ground speeds in excess of 70km/h
and we were going to have to climb pretty well to clear the terrain that hosted
B52 which was the final TP.
I’m not sure if we
were unlucky at that point in so far as experiencing a prolonged lull, but I
was absolutely not comfortable to continue along the course line over the big
mountain low and elected to fly completely off-course onto the foothills into
the prevailing wind. I was not convinced
it was safe so I did two full circles of the bowl in order to make a decision
based on the ease with which I could penetrate into the flats. It is not often you see a world cup gaggle
wait it out on a ridge to check the safety. We wasted close on an hour before getting a
climb of sufficient magnitude to get safely over the mountain with Marina.
Personally I would have preferred to be on my R11 but that's another matter. I suspect this was the area where Guy went down.
It was shortly after
crossing the summit of the mountain and turn point that I bumbled into the only
sustained 10+m/s thermal that I have ever seen in my flying career. To say I was in control of that bucking beast
would be a little light on the truth, but I held on thrilled and terrified at
the same time knowing that the higher I got the better things were going to turn
out. Marina followed closely without any
apparent problem and we sprinted over the back into the relative safety of the
flat lands on our way to goal. At some
point the task got stopped and then the epic fat bastard Guy saga started.
The prize-giving
ceremony was a late and subdued affair with Mark, Andre and Nariyama making up
the men’s podium and Regula, Marina and Yayoi completing the women.
Bucket List
I don’t how many of
you keep a bucket list for paragliding, but mine just got shorter: I get to tick off: a Sun Valley world cup; a 100
mile task; and a podium finish. Guy
tried his very best to upset the experience but thankfully he failed mostly! There are probably easier ways to get a ride
in a Black Hawk, but that must have been a rush!
Equipment update
A previous post
described my latest flight deck. This is
what I used in Sun Valley (along with my IP6, Advance Impress III and Mayday reserve):
-
Brauniger
Compeo+ using route optimisation functionality
-
Samsung
Tab II 7.0 running XCsoar on Android
-
Mini-Gorilla
(for powering the radio and any other USB device)
-
Garmin
GPSMap 60 (mono Colour)
-
Go-Pro
Hero 2 (New addition)
