I took a break today from building all of the components that go into the Covert to take advantage of a slight improvement of the weather. It has been cold and raining every day since we returned from California and when the sky broke open today, the mountain was calling.
Karl Hallman
I called Karl and even though it was blowing pretty hard and in a tough direction for our local site, we were both pretty keen. It was great to meet up with Karl, throw on and head up the hill efficiently. Karl is a very experienced mountain pilot and I always appreciate flying with him. No issues, no worries, no drama.....just free flying with a good friend and a good pilot.
climbing out over Sentinel's launch
We arrived on top less than 45 mins after I left my house and decided to set up. It was blowing pretty hard at times but we both felt it would be acceptable. The direction had changed to be more favorable and it was looking like we might get high. I put on extra clothes (which would prove to be barely enough;-)
looking down the Bitterroot Valley
A one or two step launch and we found the wind had smoothed out the thermals. We went up immediately to 9k' over Missoula in nice thermals. The thermals had enough "meat" to them to block a lot of the wind which kept the drift reasonable. It was blowing 22-25 up high and we raced around for 1.5hrs until the sky started to look threatening. We had to land in a Southwest which is sporty here. The turbulence coming into the field caused me to focus but in the end we both ended up laughing and super happy that we had the fortune to have the flight work out as well as it had. It was improbable but sometimes, those end up being the best ones.
looking east toward our standard XC route, up the Patomic Valley
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