Ethos Spurred

Sometimes things come together in such a way that you cant decide if you are just lucky or that you made the right decisions every step of the way. It seems its a combination of both that work out in the end and that perpetuate themselves along the way.
Standing on top of Chelan Butte on Friday with about 100 other pilots of various forms, bags and plumbers mainly, champing at the bit to get off the hill and climb to the cloud directly over their heads. Classic Butte launch conditions where everybody is geared up and the wind is not coming from any direction, but a few pilots in the air climbing out adds to the frustrations. But first some background. On top of the Butte with everyone deciding on what kind of task they wanted to do that day, I noticed a nice cloud street heading straight into the direction I and a few others have always wanted to go. Straight to Winthrop and the Methow Valley. The only stipulation was a long glide or short xc flight to get to the cloud street in unknown territory, North towards Goat Mtn, West of Pateros.
So, since i have no patience for waiting for other pilots to launch in nil conditions and its clearly going up out front, I walk over and forward launch off of the Northwest (Lakeside) side of the Butte. After launching I head back to the sunny side between the rocks and climb out in one sweet thermal with a topless glider for awhile to 9600ft, roughly cloudbase. Meanwhile, there's hardly anyone in the air except for a Canuck buddy Brett Y. climbing steadily below me and my only chance to fly with someone to make the crossing. I wave him to come with me straight north over the back but he turns and heads south back towards the flats. I'm all alone. Oh well, I'm high, committed, and have an idea of where I want to go next. So, I glide which seems like eternity before getting to the other side of Chelan and hit the rim lowish. Great, why did I go this way again? Some stupid idea of flying over the mountains to Winthrop maybe, dumb I'm thinking to myself. But, I keep on like I know how to keep on and work some light lift for a long time before steadily it comes together and notice a cloud forming over my head. Just off timing the cycles with the cloud development. Ok, climb. Back up with my next idea of heading in deeper to the mountains/foothills, but I'm in the lift line now I was looking at standing on top of the Butte earlier. So, I keep going West of Goat Mtn and push in deeper now where the terrain comes up and I fly the ground for awhile. Classic, sculpted bowls and sunny ridges where its working and back up to base where I can fly the clouds again. Now its getting sweet. I'm in the high wild and lonesome place travelling with a 20-25km/hr tailwind and stong rough lift over the crest of the terrain. Doing this for awhile I'm making good time travelling across this crest and now timed better with the cloud cycles. Sometmes though it would seem I was too early and I would get low and work the mountainous terrain before getting back with the cloud cycles. Established high on the North side of the Sawtooth Ridge, I'm enjoying the classic Cascades Mountain view from 11,000ft. After some cloud work (trying to get out of one, another story), I manage to get low with a last big crossing SE of Twisp where I get stuck on Lookout Mtn. But I'm elated because I made it this far and looks like I will land near Twisp at least. But I still work the ridge lift against the mtn and get my butt kicked for awhile looking for LZ options. I keep ridge soaring the ripping lift and broken thermals and push around until I find some stronger stuff and my saving grace of a Falcon climbing in the core. I push into the core with the tiny bird and hang on because this thermal is just tearing off of the ground. But I boost back up high, nervous, elated, and thankful of my Falcon buddy, I take this up and over, right into the Winthrop Valley. Now high over town I'm completely stoked and can relax again. So I just drift downind and go with the bonus lift I keep getting and head up the valley towards Mazama since Im still kind of high. I boat along overjoyed and play around over the lifty valley for awhile before landing several k's short of Mazama. In the end, it took me just under four hours to get there and 4 rides back to Chelan and my car. Sometimes, your initial idea of where to go based on what you see and your intuitions pay off in the end regardless of what the "standards" are. Ive always wanted to do that flight and get away from the normal routes from the Butte and it worked out. It just would of been nice to have some friends with me along the way. But I had my big bag of granola just in case. SM

some pics I took with my untrusty point and shoot camera along the way.