Capital Reef

 

Dead Horse Point

 

Canyon Land National Park

 

Arches national park

 

Red Rocks Wide Open PG 2022

In terms of competitions my plan was to fly Chelan this year, but I was few hours late to register and could not get a spot. This is insane how fast 130 spots are gone after registration is open these days, you need to be clicking on the button right that second when it opens. Process reminded me of Yosemite campsite booking. Exception is for top 30 or so pilots they can register whenever they wish. Anyway the second comp in US was in Monroe Utah, which is a nice spot and I have been there few times, so I went there without any hesitation. 

There was an excellent weather just before the comp started, but during the comp we was not so lucky with only 3 tasks. My performance was not that good, I took 80th place out of 104, but scenery was certainly worth coming. And during the 3 rainy days I went to mini-trip to Moab and nearby parks, including Arches, Canyon Land, Dead Horse and Capital Reef.

Monroe launch

Monroe LZ

Rainbow on I-15

Storm clouds

Results: https://airtribune.com/red-rocks-wide-open-22/results

Pine to I-5 flight, 31 miles

Good weather forecast, but not many takers, in fact there was only me and Chris Gulden with Fast Eddie driving. It was unclear if we should use north or south launch. We picked south, but wind was still OTB, so we have to drive back to north launch, which also requires a short hike.

Pine north launch

Chris Gulden

I launched at 12:13 climbing right to 12K under the perfect cloud street. Launch was definitely at least 1 hour late, but I was glad to be in the air. Chris joined me shortly after, but we flew separately. Cloud street was south from Lockwood valley following Pine mountain ridge to Alamo mountain to Pyramid lake and probably all the way to Marshall and beyond.

Bad lands and Mt. Frazier in the middle

I made mistake south of the Frazier Mountain by not following solid cloud street curving toward Pyramid lake and trying to use lonely cloud near Hungry valley. Cloud did not work and I encountered strong north wind feeding convergence. My motivation was absence of LZs under the solid cloud street and my general unfamiliarity with terrain in that direction. Another factor was our plan to fly toward Mojave. But in retrospective right choice was staying under the clouds and adjust the plans accordingly.

My LZ in Hungry valley

Chris was more conservative and topped out higher 14K(?) near Frazier Mt., but it did not help him much and he also landed not far from me unable to get into Antelope valley. Crossing I-5 is the trickiest part of the flights from Pine Mt. Basically there are 3 air masses mixing in this spot. Air from the ocean (and Pine Mt.), air from Central valley and air from the desert.

My track:

https://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/3125697

Mt. Humphreys via East Arete (attempt)

 Mt. Humphreys (13986 ft) is an outstanding peak, one of the 15 Sierra Emblem Peaks designated by the Sierra Club and 5.4 East Arete climb is one of the "100 Classic Climbs of the High Sierra". Russ was up for the challenge and we try our best to reach the top, but due to thunderstorm have to bail pretty close to the top.

Mt. Humphreys

4th class

Russ

Rain

Onion Valley to Roads End

Onions valley to Roads End in Kings canyon is probably the easiest route across Sierra, only 21 miles long and can be done as a day hike. The main challenge is of course logistics since it's 350 miles and 7 hours drive between trailheads. The easy way to do this hike is to find a partner who will hike in opposite direction and just swap the cars in the end. I hiked with my son from Onion valley and Aleksey L. hiked from the Roads End. It took us ~11 hours to complete the hike.

Deer near Onion valley

Sunrise

University peak

Kearsarge pass

Bullfrog lake

Bubbs Creek

North Guard

Alex & Alex

Fern

Horse canyon to Palm Springs flight 72 miles

This is my first long flight from Horse Canyon. Dmitry was out of town and finding retrieve was a big quest for me. There was few groups of pilots flying that day, so I figured at least I could get a ride to launch and if I'm lucky I can fly with someone else to share a ride back. 

Horse canyon launch

We launched around 11:00 AM and climbed to ~11K right away. There was a massive sink after Laguna, which put down quite a few pilots who tried to stay over the ridge. I also almost landed on the west side of Granite Mt., but was able to ridge soar and catch thermal back to 8.5K and continue north. After Volcan things improved considerably. It was pretty uneventful flight to just past Anza. Weather forecast indicated strong west in the Banning pass after 5:00 PM, plus I did not have confirmed retrieve, so I decided to play it safe and go toward Palm Springs. There was massive cloud development over the main San Jacinto ridge. When I cleared last cloud probably exiting through lee side (of the cloud) I got pretty nasty collapse. Very familiar feeling that your wing got into washing machine reminded me of Owens flights when west wind kicks in. Just a moment later I saw formless ball of fabric over my head. Wing did recovered fine and I was out from the mountains. I flew to I-10 and landed at Della S. Lindley Elementary school. Alex Grey flew to south side of Palm Springs and was kind enough to help me with retrieve. 

Alex G. and Alex G.

Alex Grey's landing

My track:

https://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/3084613

Alex Grey's track:

https://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/3153025

Olancha Peak

Olancha Peak 12,132 feet is the southernmost peak that is significantly above treeline on the Sierra Nevada mountain range. As most of the peaks south from Mt. Langley view is not that great compared to the middle Sierra. It's still an excellent hike through some pine forest and high alpine meadows.

Sunrise

Olancha peak from the south

Owens valley and Haiwee Reservoir

Register

Looking west

Back to the Owens valley floor