Tracklog Results
Another event at Marshall as San Diego weather looked too windy. Pretty windy at Marshall too, with smoke still visible in the air from the fires last week forming a strong inversion.
The 30km course went out into the valley early, then over the back of launch to Crestline, across the valley to Pine and Bowl, then a 13km leg all the way down to McKinley in the south. The group was small, and I launched a little later than most, so many were already off before I started. I had to reset my GPS for some reason so had to double check I had tagged the start cylinder.
Lift over launch was abundant but scrappy, and I soon climbed out to 1800m and went on the first transition to a turnpoint just out over flats. Drifted back with the wind behind all the way to Billboard without losing any height. Tagged the second turnpoint at Crestline with Dimitri Soloviev tagging it lower down and then racing off ahead. Everyone else must have been racing hard so I was totally alone from that point on.
There was so much lift at Crestline I simply turned around and straight lined up another 100 m in height on the way over the big valley to Pine and the turnpoint at Bowl.
Dimitri was now in the distance around the front of the launch, so I decided to fly a deeper line fading left onto the ridge behind Mt Arrowhead. This was a mistake, and resulted in a nerve racking into wind flight around the ridge making 10-15km ground speed. I probably should have topped once around the front of Mt Arrowhead, but the wind was strong and I was worried about getting blown back and have to repeat the push forward.
So I went on glide to the Daley ridge after the abandoned Arrowhead Springs resort. The air was even worse over there. Took the biggest collapse in my entire paragliding career about 1000ft above the ridge. 80% of the right wing folded under, immediate dive and violent 90 degree turn to the right, then the wing reinflated just as violently as it had collapsed. I was pendulumed wildly under as the reinflated wing bit into the air, so then the glider pitched back to 45 degrees behind me... A few more crazy swings and I had it under control. All over in less than twenty seconds but I didn't stop hyperventilating for at least 10 minutes!
Looking at the tracklogs later, I realized Dimitri never got another climb after he gained altitude over launch. He sank like a stone and landed just a couple of minutes before I got thrashed. Maybe there was a big thermal releasing that sunk him out, then gave me its best as it made it's way skywards.
Jai Pai also sunk out in the same spot, like Dimitri, hitting big areas of 4m/s + sink plus headwinds of 16 - 20km/hr.
After realizing I still had at least 10km of turbulent air to get through before I finished the course, I was nearly ready to give up. Then I stumbled into a rare smooth thermal over Highway 18. It was drifting back in the direction my missed turnpoint, so I went with it, trying to regain a bit of composure before throwing myself back onto the dreaded Daley ridge where I had the collapse. The thermal went nice and high, and the turbulence was gone as I cruised across with a tailwind, and then climbed even higher to 5200ft again.
From then on it was a slow grind along the low hills into the headwind, surfing along lines of hot gusty air coming up the first range of hills. Made it to goal after eventually having to search for sink to come down in.
A few hours later conditions calmed down, and we had a fantastic evening flight to calm my jangled nerves.
30 km of Paragliding Rodeo
The 30km course went out into the valley early, then over the back of launch to Crestline, across the valley to Pine and Bowl, then a 13km leg all the way down to McKinley in the south. The group was small, and I launched a little later than most, so many were already off before I started. I had to reset my GPS for some reason so had to double check I had tagged the start cylinder.
Lift over launch was abundant but scrappy, and I soon climbed out to 1800m and went on the first transition to a turnpoint just out over flats. Drifted back with the wind behind all the way to Billboard without losing any height. Tagged the second turnpoint at Crestline with Dimitri Soloviev tagging it lower down and then racing off ahead. Everyone else must have been racing hard so I was totally alone from that point on.
There was so much lift at Crestline I simply turned around and straight lined up another 100 m in height on the way over the big valley to Pine and the turnpoint at Bowl.
Snarly Air
The air started to get pretty snarly over Pine, but I found a rocking climb right out in the middle of the valley over the power station pipeline that took me up to 7000ft. Nice view of the inversion with smoke from last weeks fires under a cloudless sky. The air was ratty on the long glide over to Arrow, so didn't want to let go of the controls to go fishing around for my camera.Dimitri was now in the distance around the front of the launch, so I decided to fly a deeper line fading left onto the ridge behind Mt Arrowhead. This was a mistake, and resulted in a nerve racking into wind flight around the ridge making 10-15km ground speed. I probably should have topped once around the front of Mt Arrowhead, but the wind was strong and I was worried about getting blown back and have to repeat the push forward.
So I went on glide to the Daley ridge after the abandoned Arrowhead Springs resort. The air was even worse over there. Took the biggest collapse in my entire paragliding career about 1000ft above the ridge. 80% of the right wing folded under, immediate dive and violent 90 degree turn to the right, then the wing reinflated just as violently as it had collapsed. I was pendulumed wildly under as the reinflated wing bit into the air, so then the glider pitched back to 45 degrees behind me... A few more crazy swings and I had it under control. All over in less than twenty seconds but I didn't stop hyperventilating for at least 10 minutes!
Give back as hard as you get
I knew from experience that when you flying in bad turbulence you have to give back as good as hard as you get. So after a few minutes to compose myself flying down the ridge line , I threw myself into the next shitty broken thermal with as much aggression as my nauseauted stomach could muster. Eventually climbed back up to 1300m, where I was so flustered and motion sick from the bumpy conditions I mistakenly thought my vario buzzer had signaled tagging the turnpoint. So I started flying back north to the next turnpoint. It was only after 3km into wind that I realized the mistake. I've never had so much motion sickness from turbulence in 14 years of flying!Looking at the tracklogs later, I realized Dimitri never got another climb after he gained altitude over launch. He sank like a stone and landed just a couple of minutes before I got thrashed. Maybe there was a big thermal releasing that sunk him out, then gave me its best as it made it's way skywards.
Jai Pai also sunk out in the same spot, like Dimitri, hitting big areas of 4m/s + sink plus headwinds of 16 - 20km/hr.
After realizing I still had at least 10km of turbulent air to get through before I finished the course, I was nearly ready to give up. Then I stumbled into a rare smooth thermal over Highway 18. It was drifting back in the direction my missed turnpoint, so I went with it, trying to regain a bit of composure before throwing myself back onto the dreaded Daley ridge where I had the collapse. The thermal went nice and high, and the turbulence was gone as I cruised across with a tailwind, and then climbed even higher to 5200ft again.
From then on it was a slow grind along the low hills into the headwind, surfing along lines of hot gusty air coming up the first range of hills. Made it to goal after eventually having to search for sink to come down in.
A few hours later conditions calmed down, and we had a fantastic evening flight to calm my jangled nerves.
Photo: Aaron Colby Price