Marshall to Mt. Baldy Rd. and back flight, 55 miles

Excellent weather for out and return flights on the front range. South-east wind in the morning switching to the south-west. I flew with usual suspects chasing XC: Gavin and Reavis.

Reavis

We got separated after crossing Cajon pass and I never saw any of them after that. I got low and struggle in front of Cucamonga Mt and turned around just before Baldy Rd. If I knew guys was still in the game I would certainly continue west. Reavis flew longest leg out claiming Marshall out and return record that day 127.2 km (79 miles). Congratulations!

Gavin

Track logs:

Alex - 33.4 * 2 = 66.8 km

https://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/3064846

Gavin - 57.8 * 2 = 115.6 km

https://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/3064851

Reavis - 63.6 * 2 = 127.2 km

https://www.xcontest.org/2022/usa/flights/detail:reavis/25.04.2022/19:04

Mt. Whitney

My annual Mt. Whitney winter excursion was in the February this year. I went solo again since everyone was busy. Typical itinerary is drive from LA starting at 2:00 PM, arriving at trail head around 6:00 PM, hike to Lower Boy scouts lake (10,340 ft), few hours of rest, boil water and start hiking at 2:00 AM, top out around 10:00 AM, hike back and drive back to LA. Speed can vary greatly depending on snow conditions and my physical shape.

Whitney trail head

Note that road to normal trail head is closed during the winter and you need to start from 6600 ft and hike additional 3.5 miles one way. If you are lucky lower gate maybe only soft closed (you can drive around a closure sign on your own risk), but the upper gate is always hard closed.

Cold bivy on the snow

Frozen water

Sunrise near Upper Boy scouts lake

First glimpse of Whitney

Sun

Bird greeting hikers and looking for food

Main chute

This year was super low snow year with final 400 ft chute almost clear of snow.

Final 400 ft chute

Mt. Russel

At the top

Snow inside the house

Marshall to Lancaster flight, 67 miles

 Another high cloud base day with SE wind and typical course. I was flying with Gavin, Rush, Jai Pal and Jonathan. Days in October are short and we was late at least 30 minutes, I was able to climb to 6K just right after the launch and start the journey to NW. Flight was good until I get to Palmdale area and decided to experiment with the line, going to the east low ridge. Bad idea. I should stay with Russ on the left (west) side. Russ was able to fly all the way to Quail Lake.

First pilot

Silverwood Lake

Climbing with Jonathan, I-15 behind.

Lake Palmdale

LZ was not particularly friendly

Gavin, Russ & Jai Pal

My GPS track:

https://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2930276

Russ's track:

https://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2930791

Elsinore to Corona and back flight, 35 miles

 I flew from Lake Elsinore to past Corona before, but this time idea was to do out and return and maybe try to shoot toward Soboba. Dmitry was up for a challenge and we had an excellent flight to south Corona and back. We could probably fly all the way to the end of the mountain ridge, but commercial airplanes traffic was so bad we decided to play it safe and turn around early. Well, not early enough to have a chance for Soboba leg, since sea breeze already arrived when we returned to Elsinore. Dmitry laded on the lake shore and I attempted to cross the lake and establish on the other side, but that did not quite work out. I landed maybe 10 miles up near hw 74, but still managed to do a nice 57 km free triangle.

Lake Elsinore Launch

Lake Elsinore

Santiago Peak

My LZ

My GPS track:

https://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2928596

Blackhawk to Baker flight, 103 miles

 I think I was at Blackhawk launch at least 2 or 3 times, but never flew from there due to strong winds, but this year Gavin convinced me that it's going to be fine. There was also few folks from SB and Nicole was our driver. In fact conditions was excellent, light breeze with some cumulus clouds popping up near launch. As much as I had bad luck with this launch before this flight felt like jackpot and completely changed my perspective about it. Most of my desert flying before was from Marshall/Crestline on easterly days toward Palmdale and there was 1 occasion when we flew Kagel to Barstow. There are certainly more days when Marshall and Kagel does not work due to inversion and launching from desert (Ord and Blackhawk) makes a huge difference, but wind prediction is something I have to work on to avoid wasting time to come on the days when it's too strong.

Blackhawk

Ozone M7

Blackhawk and hw 18

On the north side of hw 40

Afton Canyon

Mountains on the west side of hw 127

Picking LZ along I-15

Sunset

My LZ

My GPS track:

https://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2910068

Mt. Muir

Map

Mt. Muir was last California 14ers for me to complete. It's located in Whitey Zone and requires permit. We even got an overnight permit for Whitey for end of June, but due to fire it was canceled, so I have to do some improvisation. Instead of direct route I decided to start from Meysan Lakes and do loop with few bonus peaks.

Foothills after recent fire

Meadow near Meson Lake

Between rock and ice

Mt Mallory

Bivi spot at 13,000 ft

Mt. Irvine

Sunset

Mt. Langley

After sleeping at 13'000 ft. my first peak was Mt. Mallory. Initially I try to traverse on the west side, but stuck at sketchy down climb and have to go all the way back and hike 150 ft down and use one the chutes to went up, which worked out. On the way back I use the path where I stuck in the morning, since going up was much easier.

Mt. Irvine was easy, there was some interesting sections going down toward Arc pass, but nothing memorable.

Chimney

My 3rd objective was Mt. McAdie, but I run of water and have to detour to unnamed lake to refill and come back to Arc Pass. It was getting late in the day and I decided to leave McAdie for next time and descended via Arc Pass to Consultation Lake.

Mt. McAdie

Sky Blue Lake

After spending second night at Consultation Lake I continued via easy trail to my main objective. It was easy 30-40 min scramble to tag Mt. Muir.

Hitchcock Lakes

Mt. Muir

Mt. Whitney

Opted to descent via Mountaineering route, which was fast and convenient. The only surprise was impassable waterfall in the main canyon, so I have to south to avoid it.