Epic

[faoro]

Six of us spent the day Friday in the mountains of the Ojai Valley looking at epic conditions.

None of us flew.

With a projected high of 98 degrees in Ojai, a 6,ooo foot temperature of 65 degrees and Vandenberg's balloon data showing the lapse rate pegged to the right side of the graph above 5,000 feet, how could it not be spectacular? We met at the high school at 10 AM and decided that with some wind in the forecast (120 @ 11) - most of it east - Pine Mountain wasn't the call, even though we're eager to break out the new year at our holy shrine. Ojai seemed a good bet. Fast Eddy predicted we'd top out at 9K; Andy D., Art, Robb, Chip and I had no reason to disagree.

Our driver made record time getting us up to the Nordhoff turn-off with hair-raising driving skills. There was a little east wind, maybe 5-6 mph, so we headed over to Chief Peak. There, it was blowing over the back, a definitely scary northeast wind. Ten minutes later it was blowing hard east. We stood around in the heat for another half hour and it blew west consistently at 8-10. Then three to five freight train cycles came roaring up the slope. In between, it would just get eerily still. Even the birds couldn't sort it out. We saw them struggle on the spine, get lifted straight up hundreds of feet, then struggle once again or go dive-bombing off toward West Repeater. Eddy had walked back up the road and had seen many dust devils at the turn in the road on the ridgeline. He swore convergence was the explanation for the strange conditions, and that any minute the west would push through and we'd be soaring high. Another 15 minutes and three cycles blew OTB. Dust devils were now picking up off the back of launch and traveled westbound. We were frustrated to see cumis start to pop up over Lockwood Valley or the Badlands with another string from Plowshares out toward Pine. We called Debbie and the wind was out of the southeast in the teens. That convinced us to try Nordhoff Peak for launching into the east/northeast wind.

Despite a quick drive on the twisty road, we got there late, about 1 PM. The cycles were intermittent but adequate for a few minutes. Soon, however, there was just too much south in them. We'd have to run down from the tower into the cycles of wind and hope to turn left. It was tempting, but the air still had a spooky feel to it. I can't be sure, but it felt that even if we got airborne, we'd have a trashy flight. Nothing was consistent the whole day.

So we turned down the hill and we wished we understood meteorology better (maybe psychology), or, at least, the specifics of this highly unusual day. I can only compare it to prior days in June at Pine, when the air felt explosive and volatile, but flights were unimpressive and scary. Like the whole place wanted to go off, but just couldn't - or hadn't yet.

When we returned to the high school, it was blowing stiff out of the west at 12-14 mph. I'm glad we didn't fly.

With Debbie reporting 13-26 mph west wind this morning at 5:30 AM, I'm not sure today will be any different.

[andy dainsberg]

epic