Jan. 1, 2011

Well, the weather had been nice for awhile, but the last three days have seen some strong winds. Today dawned blue skies but then clouded over 100% as it progressed. Of course it was still flyable but just gentle thermals and light winds. Hopefully, the next few days will get better. Otherwise, Happy New Year from Valle! SM

Back to Valle de Bravo, Mexico 2010/2011

We are back for another tour and excellent flying conditions in Mexico. The first couple of days were super high pressure, dry and rough air. It has since gotten back to classic conditions. Cloudbases around 11,000ft with fat and smooth thermals. Today my buddy Joe showed up from Chelan, Wa and we flew towards Los Saucos under some really nice clouds and then headed back towards the lake to the lz. The new Buddhist temple was producing some exceptionally zen-like lift. Long and smooth climbs to the clouds which helped me glide in behind La Torre with plenty of clearance to land at the lake. Sweet Valle day! Tommorrow is the first day of the official tour and we are going to get some people sky high! Saludos SM

P.S. If youre reading this and you are in Valle or en-route look for me on launch and lets fly.

Task 5 final

T4 Monarca

back on tasks

Mexico Tour Dates

Yet another winter is fast approaching. Time to take the annual tour to Valle de Bravo, Mexico this January. Only one of the most consistent thermal sites in the world. Come join us on a week long cross country clinic and adventure. Fly in the mornings and afternoons. We'll be providing site briefings, xc and thermal coaching, and in-air guiding in some of the nicest cross country terrain around. Come learn to fly convergence lines, clouds, and xc glass-off flights and maximize your learning. Launch is at 7700ft and we typically have climbs to 12,000ft crossing the mountains, and flatlands and end up on a nice grassy lake LZ.

Tour dates are:

January
10th - 15th
17th - 22nd

If you are interested in polishing and/or getting some of your first xc flights then come along.
Cost is $500 for the week, $250 deposit by November 15th to save your spot.

Drop me a line for more information: alpineflight@gmail.com
or 206 819 0962

cheers!

Stefan

Icicle Tour

more relatively unknown sites

Mountan flying

Summer Mountain Dayz

Some great mountain flying in the Cascades last weekend.

some photos here:

http://www.me.com/gallery/#100046

http://www.me.com/gallery/#100039

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.

Pacific NW "Le Dents" (Rampart Ridge)

Photo Gallery

back on the Butte-Chelan

Ranch clouds

11am development.

2009 Worlds Video

Nicely done video and an interview with my Canadian buddy Jim about the 2009 Worlds PG Comp.

http://www.xcmag.com/articles/2009/06/3187/

The Hot Zone

A wild air day was had by all it seems. Lots of West wind pushing through ahead of a small disturbance off the coast provided Tiger pilots with a strong convergence and slightly windy conditions. My flight consisted of making the small salvageable mistake of flying to Squak to get under some clouds and hang out awhile. Arriving there, there were small cu's but they werent working when I got there. Not to mention I was in the lee in a strong West wind. Duh. So, I flew slowly and searched for lift on the south end of Squak and got pounded in the lee. It was going up but you had to fight your way in before getting established into a higher altitude out of the lee. This had been the precursor of this days conditions to come. Getting back over launch plenty high and drifting to the Lookout I flew around until I could actually manage to work some cores with a few people and get up high enough to look for the good cores. They were snakey but I just kept drifting back up towards the Towers where a nice cumulus was forming right above our heads while we were climbing, gotta love that. Eventually, I went on glide (4500ft or so) to the East and followed the lift line and windward side of the convergence line. I arrived at Taylor Mountain, this time not worrying too much for a place to land and just kept going towards the south side of Rattlesnake and Rattlesnake Lake. I arrived over the the ridge from the South and found a nice warm bowl to shoot for where I thought a fat thermal might erupt from. Sure enough when I got there I hit something so huge, I didnt even turn in it. I went straight up for a thousand feet like an elevator and then eventually turned downwind with it. A wild vent of lift! This took me to Mt Washington (one of my favorite mtns on the Pass area) where I found abundant lift. Although, cloudbase was only 6000ft, this kind of worried me a little since the crest of the mtns are about 5-5500ft. But there was a convergence line going straight over the Pass. So I kept going, working broken windy thermals and being close to base. Once in and commited I was getting blown apart almost literally by some the strongest most turbulent conditions Ive ever experienced. I was in the "hot zone." A newly discovered phenomena of mine that when you are over the mtns with a low base and 1000ft in between the clouds and the ridgetops with wind, you just get pummeled. Because the crest is kicking off its afternoon heat from the terrain and the clouds are converging on this area at the same time, add some wind to the mix and you have the "hot zone." Its all I could do to keep my little glider open and above my head up there. I even hit something so hard my glider picthed back what felt like 90 degrees and I was above my glider. It was crazy strong up there. After a few rounds of this I decided to tap out, the alternative was most likely pretzelling my glider and having to throw my reserve and land on top somewhere bad up there. But, I had the Pass within grasp, again, but it was not to be for fear of something other than another heathly flight and another return later. Eventually, I easily scraped out the evening lift in the I-90 valley and landed at Banderra airstrip going backwards at 10mph or so. At least it was grass and not such a bad drag, happy to have landed in one way and not in another. Needless to say I dont have any pictures after getting to Mt Washington. SM

Tibbets and Convergence

Thaw

After finally getting my lighweight flying kit back together I was ready to get it going again. The first hike and fly in the mountains this season. Finally a warm and sunny day with light winds. A great day for Banderra. A bunch of snow starting mid mountain elevation (3000ft or so) with dry patches near the summit approaching 5000ft. Nice firm snow conditions to kick steps in all the way up to the top. Once on top some mellow thermic cycles coming up, around noon. The wind direction was all over the place, as usual on these summits but predominantly coming in cycles up the face. I said adios to some hikers I met halfway up that took some video and it was an easy inflation with a 7-9mph cycle had me off the hill right away. Still weak thermals but I wanted to get down to the valley before the winds picked up. Boated around a bit said hello to some other hikers I saw below and headed off on the long glide to Banderra airstrip. The valley wind was kicking in but nothing too bad. I came over the LZ with plenty of altitude and saw a pack of dogs down there that hadnt noticed me. I could see my shadow below so I messed with them and tried to fly with my shadow over the'yre heads to see if they noticed a dark being coming over the top of them. My final approach, the wind sock was straight in from the West about 10-15mph , easy landing and then greeted by all the dogs that were getting theyre exercise by a doggie sitter. Packed up and walked to my stashed mtn bike in the woods and rode the 20minutes back up the hill to the trailhead to my car. A nice spring day in the mountains and a warm up for some vol bivy flights I hope to do later this season. Stay tuned. SM

Lighweight Flying Kit:
Light harness with seatboard and good compartments for gear.
Small reserve
Easy wing to fly, dhv2 is a good compromise
Headlamp for when you have to get around at night or open that can of beans for dinner
Can opener, multi tool.
Bivy Sack, lightweight
Down Jacket for cold nights
Camera to document your antics
Helmet, vario/gps
Sun hat for long hikes uphill in the sun and reflecting snow conditons
Bit of food
Lastly, some sort of plan....:-)
...and your good to go.