Nuthouse or Pine 11/26?

[Chris G]

27º spread in Ojai with L&V up to 12k. Should be sweet at either location. I'm game for whatever. Nuthouse should be an easy climb-out with tops around 7k. Tops at Pine around 9k. 10:00 at Nordhoff HS for either location. 805 368-3543

[Chris G]

Made the call for the Nuthouse today to cut down on drive time before dinner. Blips for Ojai looked stellar and the spread was 27º. L&V conditions in SB through 18k with some lingering NE aloft predicted for WJF. It was another solo mission and I arrived at the top at 11 sharp. OJ was in the valley and offered to drive my car back to NHS if I managed to climb out. Cycles were almost nonexistent on the hike up but after waiting 20 minutes on launch they were more than enough to climb out in. I seem to remember the Nuthouse being much more intimidating, with raging strong cycles. We haven't had that lately and the "pluck" factor has been zip. However, that didn't seem to affect the climb-out rates. Spent maybe 5 minutes just above launch worrying about it before a boomer came through and got me to the ridge top. Skipped across the usual points below 3k and struggled at the jumping off point to Pyramid. Yesterday that spot worked, today not so much. There was a light prevailing East again which forced me to make a low, lee-side, into the wind approach to Pyramid but found the same buttery climb well before reaching the spine. Never had to get close to get out. Once over the top the usual air-combat resumed and it was all hands on deck to 3700. Glide to Nordhoff ridge was sinky and slow but connected above the top and got another climb to 4800. At the top the lift got sheared off by an upper level NE making further East progress difficult. Had I been more persistent I probably could have skipped along under it but 4800 still wouldn't have been enough to make the jump from Bruce's to Twin Peaks. As it was I'd had enough combat for one day and a 3:00 dinner appointment beckoned. OJ and Susan had retrieved my car and were waiting at NHS so I took the easy out. Enjoyed a smooth glide out to Krotona where it seemed like things were trying to kick off but it just wasn't cohesive enough to maintain in. Landed in the football field after 1 hour. Max climb was just over 1k/min but the lift was fairly broken up. It may be that the afternoons are better but I just don't have the patience to put up with 3 hours of whoopin' to find out.

Good times as always. Tomorrow is going to go SW aloft ahead of the front tomorrow night and may be too strong for the mountains but maybe the ridges will come on and we can get some speed-flying in.

http://vholdr.com/node/53398
(Might take a bit for the video to come up if you're checking Thurs night.)