Plowshares

From: Casey
Activity_Date: 4/29/01
Remote Name: 206.117.4.67

Comments

Plowshares Saturday, 28 April 2001

We all meet at Santageetus(?) around 7:30 to make the drive to Plowshares. We had Kevin, Bill (and his son??), Bob, Benson, Ron and myself. The plan was to get to launch well before the convergence in order to setup for launch.

We got to launch around 9:30 and were welcomed by 30 mph winds from the NE. Not very promising. We made a couple of calls, and were told this was “normal”. I’ve come to appreciate this place as anything but normal… So, we waited …. and waited …and waited….

After 3 hours of waiting the east was still 20+. The hangies were in the air now, and were reporting turb conditions .. and no convergence. None really climbing out.

We baggies were not in a hurry to commit to the conditions. We needed a hero … and up to the plate came Jim Maddox.

The conditions were still strong, but the lulls were getting more frequent. Jim launched and was immediately lifted off into very active air. After a few large collapses, Jim got control and took the nearest thermal up. He was not penetrating, so I’m sure he wanted as much altitude as he could get to make the road. Which he did nicely. He seemed to be making the glide no problem. But, he hit a strong north before the river and was not able make it across.

By this time the conditions were still crappy and everyone was making their way to the cars.

Bob, Ron, Benson, Kevin and I just could not accept defeat. So we waited a while longer.

Bob decided to go for it. He launched into strong cycles and still nasty air. He made it, but it looked pretty dicey. So we started heading for the cars … again.

Since we were at the ‘new’ launch, we had to walk past the ‘old’ launch. In that much time the conditions went from scary to “lets go!”

So at 4:30, after 6 hours of waiting, Ron and Benson were the first off. They did not connect and I was thinking it was over. I launched into a perfect cycle and hugged the terrain to the left looking for a thermal. I got to the ridge and ….. boom! A sweet, tight 600 up waiting to be ridden. After a couple of passes, I finally nailed it and took it to cloud base, which was around 6000. As I looked down I could see Kevin right on my tail. What was the problem!

For a while he and I just boated around in sweet, active air.

Kevin made his way out, and I stayed to play.

I was flying the Sabre, and it felt good. I love that wing … spanny yet stable, but definitely with an attitude.

I boated around for well over an hour, heading east slowly. I was very tempted to head up the range, but it was at least 5:30 by now. Next time. The air was quite active, and needed constant attention. Just how I like it!

I slowly made my way back west to the car and the long drive home. A very cool way to end the day!

The plus side to waiting so long is prolonged expose to some of the most beautiful scenery in the world, and some good conversation!

-- Casey