Friday 2/2 Nut House

From: Brendan
Activity_Date: 2/2/01
Remote Name: 4.33.113.55

Comments

The same four from yesterday met at 12:30 for the hike-up at the Nut House.

At 1:30 the winds felt moderate at launch, but once in the air I found them to be gusting hard. Twice I got blasted back with very heavy frontal surges following.

For about 30 minutes I stayed within 200-300 over launch, partially out of dificulty in climbing through blown-apart thermals, and partially out of fear that it would be rougher at higher altitudes. Several times I was silently hoping that I would flush and just land at the Nut House. It was very easy to stay up by simply going to the windward slopes and letting the ridgelift shoot you back into the sky, so flushing wasn't really likely.

After I had been buffeted around for the first half hour, Zvi and the others launched. Although still quite windy, the conditions had backed off a little and I didn't experience any more big blasts. I climbed the spine up to the back ridge and then made the transition to the next spine, intersecting it low. Was only able to climb a couple hundred feet after lots of trying. An hour in, and my nerves shot, I decided to land at the Quail Ranch estates with Zvi.

Tom landed there a little later as well. John made another run for the high school but the headwind and the sink left him in a large dirt field just short of Laluna on the 33.

Nervy day, but everyone had fun.

Brendan