The forecast was looking good for flying. Cu's were popping early in the day and I thought it could be a promising XC day. The plan was to meet at 2:30. Since I was up early, I thought it would be nice to catch an early skate session with Nick.
Iris in the front yard
Skating didn't turn out to be so nice. I was feeling off and ate shit hard more often than I stuck a trick. You can forget how hard cement is until your body is bouncing off it. Anyways, it is alway nice to pretend to be young again.
Nick in the cradle
I rolled up to the LZ at 2:30 and quickly loaded gliders. Everyone was anticipating a good day. When we reached the launch the sky was still looking promising, but we knew there was a high pressure system nipping at our heels. Greg, Mike, and Karl launched first. After some short "climb-outs" they were heading to land. Brian, Josh, and I waited a short bit to launch after watching that horrior show.
A Bitterroot flower on Mt. Sentinel
Josh launched. As I stood on launch watching, he inspired no confidence. High pressure was here and we were getting hosed. Josh found no lift and quickly landed. I figured I might as well hang out with the guys in the LZ and launched. As I was getting hosed and heading to the LZ, I found a nice thermal and was able to hang with it for some time. It eventually took me to 8,200 ft where there was a shear. After that, I lost some altitude but was able to find another thermal taking me back up to 8,000 ft. I never could get past that point. Eventually I couldn't find any more lift and was forced to land.
Greg launching
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