Pre comp tour

After an epic day of strong lift and attempting to learn the area a bit yesterday, Jeff and I woke up early this morning (knowing that it was supposed to blow 26 knots) with hopes that we might sneak up for an South Side esque session from Monte Cucco. We recorded some video on the HD Hero cam and will try to compile a short for a post soon.



After the flight, we hooked up with Belinda and drove across the country side to the historical village of Gubbio.



The hills above town were already occupied in the bronze age. It was the place where the Eugubine bronze tablets were found that constitute the largest surviving text of ancient Umbrian. After it's Roman conquest in the 2nd century BC, it remained important, evident by it's large Roman theater (apparently the 2nd largest surviving today). It was an amazing experience to walk through it's alleys and streets (for lack of a better term) where people walked previously for thousands of years.



There are images of St. Francis and the Wolf throughout the village. The story goes that the Wolf was causing problems by eating the town's people and their animals at it's gates until St. Francis came and walked to the gate. As he approached, the wolf charged. He put out his hands and made the sign of the cross and the wolf slowed and laid his head in his hands. St. Francis told the wolf that if he stopped eating the town's people and their animals, they would feed him and a truce was solidified as was the story within the area's history.



Deep history and the beauty of the country side made for a ambient place to have lunch and cappucino while listening to the bells ring and the wind blow. We are so lucky to have the privilege to do what we do.

coffee break

We have been cranking on harnesses and the last two days (and nights) have been especially productive so when I took a coffee break at noon today and saw cu's popping high over Mt Sentinel, I couldn't resist heading up the hill for a bit of a fly.

Met up with Karl, Chris and Brian encouraged by a sky that was looking organized. Wind direction and velocity was on to possibly allow for an adventure up one of the canyons over the back.



I launched first and scratched around the hill trying to survive the shade cycles until it turned on. I don't think I was encouraging to the other guys as I was above and below launch for the first 30 mins or so.




Karl and Chris launched and it snapped on pretty quick. Chris and I hooked into one that took us over the peak behind Sentinel just over 13,000'. We had a decision to make. Clark Fork or Patomic? In the end, we chose the Clark Fork and Karl (with Brian behind) went up the Patomic Valley. The clouds looked good ether way and with no driver (planned to hitch back to town), it didn't really matter at this point. I must have saved a kitten in a past life or something because karma kicked in as two local pilots showed up on the radio and offered to chase us. Thanks guys!!



Chris and I ended up flying together until out of the mountains and into the flats but the clouds dried up with the end of the range and I knew flying out into the blue was the beginning of the end. We ended up landing about 10 miles apart for a memorable 80k flight. Not huge distance but miles in Western Montana are hard fought and I enjoyed the going with Chris. Turned out to be a nice coffee break.



Now, back to work.

before Italy

It's been a crazy month. After losing a good friend in a back country skiing accident (more later), I've been trying to appreciate and to be present for every moment of every day. I've been flying as much as possible, running daily to train for an ultrathon that I signed up to do in the Fall and sewing like a mad man to get as many customer harnesses done before I leave for Italy as is possible. The balance has been complete by being able to work at home where quiet family time happens throughout portions of every day.

I took a short break to run down for a flight at King where Seth Warren stopped to collect footage for his sequel to his award winning KAVU, KEEN, Cliffbar film "Nature Propelled". Unfortunately, although it was looking good at 9am, by 11 the sky turned black and we drove through rain and lightning all the way back to Montana. Either way, it was just nice to be back down there. The Lost River Range is a special place.






I arrived home just in time to take advantage of some scratchy local conditions and was able to squeak out a couple of fun XC flights. A visiting pilot from AZ "Andy" was cool enough to drive for me one day and picked me up in the early evening in this beautiful field. Thanks Andy!



Been sewing ever since. The new harnesses are coming together really clean. I feel like the process of building them (although still very custom) has become refined and the results are tangibly improved. I'm really proud of how they're turning out and look forward to seeing the pilots I'm bringing them to (in Italy) flying in the mountains in their new Coverts.

Montana

Photo of the "Lady of the Rockies"- Don Lepinsky


Yesterday, I traveled with Karl over to the East Ridge site. It overlooks Butte, Montana and I was stoked because this would be the first time I was to fly "the Lady". The ridge line that the launch ramp is on is the home of a large statue of Mother Mary. Kind of reminds me of the Christ in Rio.

Don climbing in front of "The Lady"


Launch is at just barely under 8,000' and has a 12 mile jump over road less, tree covered mountains to get over the back. Once this is done however, the flight travels over beautiful valleys and several other rugged mountain ranges with lots of landing options and big skies.

Launch


Don getting up over Elk Park


about half way across the first jump


Don getting to the first of the landing options and a beautiful Delmo Lake


It was a strange day with east winds on the ground, north cycles on launch, south winds in the valleys and almost straight west above 11,000'. The thermals started out quite turbulent but after getting 20 or 30 miles over the back, they smoothed out and the only reason to not be relaxed was the extremely low temps above 12,000'. Base was around 13,500 and it felt like it was about 10F up there. My fingers have still not completely thawed;-) I ended up landing 97 ks out, just shy of Bozeman, right next to I-90. It was a fun flight capped by Karl being right below me in the truck when I had to land, making the retrieve pretty brainless. Nothing like having a H-5 pilot chasing. Thanks Karl.

across the Bulls & heading for the Bozeman Valley

between rain and ripstop

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

Kara and I drove down to Wills Wing to get a large supply of harness components cut. It is great to continue the learning process and I must say, after cutting several harnesses by hand, operating the cutter and being mesmerized by how fast and accurate it accomplishes the same task that takes me 20 times longer is

Local fest

Big weekend here in Missoula for the Nature Propelled tour. As some might know, Nature propelled is a movie that was made by Seth Warren, with the support of great companies like KAVU, KEEN and Cliffbar to promote alternative energy by following the complete cycle of water as it flows from the ocean to the clouds, to the mountains in the form of snow and rain, into the rivers and tributaries after melting and eventually, back to the ocean. Along the way, he filmed athletes enjoying their passion in each of those elements and Jeff and I were lucky enough to participate in the "clouds" portion by flying and filming in our gliders.
The tour is a beginning of the next project to promote outdoor wilderness access. It's great to have guys like Seth and companies like KAVU, KEEN and Cliffbar fighting for us all to have the opportunity to share our planet with our kids and to do it in clean oceans and skies.



Local fest is a huge annual event in Missoula with thousands of people coming down to a large outdoor venue in the middle of town. There was a kayak competition (rodeo) going on at the man made wave in the Clark fork river that happens to run through down town Missoula and is basically connected to the park where the party was happening. KAVU, KEEN and cliffbar, along with several local venders, had booths set up. There was live music and good food galore. It was great to see all the folks involved with each of the companies. Kara and I were lucky to have Shawn Carkonen (from KAVU) and his beautiful family stay at the house while they were in town. Previously, we had talked about maybe doing a tandem some day and on their last morning here, we were finally able to get off the hill together. He mentioned that it was like a dream (the one we all live for;-) and was smiling from the time we left the ground until he and his wife and two kiddos hit the road. It's always great to see the faces of tandem passengers after a good flight. Really hits home how lucky we are to get to do what we do.



Good times. Stay tuned for the next film and for the tour to come to an area near you. If it does, head down and say hey to the folks out there fighting the good fight.