Sometimes You Have to Show Some Skin(s).


Local Field

Last Friday Molly and I decided to ride some fields we haven't ridden in a couple of years.  They're close to town but hard to get to if there's snow.  Fortunately we have a good amount of Alpine Touring (AT) gear so we can easily get to these fields without too much trouble.
We dug our climbing skins out (strips of sticky backed mohair) and with the free heel action of our AT bindings we were able to "skin" out across the deep snow to where we wanted to ride. 

Handy stuff that AT gear.

What a crazy stretch of wind we've been having.  It's been all WSW and gusty as hell.  It's the kind of wind that blows 17mph and gusts to 34mph.  And it can be nukin' 20 feet to your left and not even a puff where you're standing.  It's the kind of wind that I really appreciate being on the Peter Lynns.  I prefer to rig for the lighter end of the wind range in those conditions because I can always depwer the wing if the wind gets too strong.  But you can't make a wing pull harder if you're underpowered. But WSW really isn't good here and I prefer more West or North West.  Much more stable and predictable even when it's gusty.


Molly in the helmet cozy

Molly was having a couple of good runs on her trusty Apex.  The temps were pretty cold so Molly broke out her helmet "cozy" and cruised around for a couple of hours.  The Apex would be the next best choice for sucking up the gusts we were dealing with that day.  Smooth power, no lift and good depower.
                            
                          
Mo and the Apex

Molly did have a minor misshap. Doesn't it always seem like there isn't enough wind until you mess up on a launch or have some sort of line issue or snag and then the wind blows like crazy?  That was the case in the pic below.


Believe it or not she actually saved it.

I didn't have that kind of excitement on the 12m Synergy.  I got a couple good pulls and stayed on the ground because I have a cracked spreader bar.  I have a new one comming from Peter Lynn and it looks like just what I need.


Myself turning

I have to say I really like flying in the gusty wind sometimes.  It really teaches you a lot about what a kite does in certain situations.  Flying a kite in gusty winds, or even not so gusty, is a very anticipatory act.  You have to recognize when something is going to cause a problem and react before it has a chance to happen.  This skill really pays off even if it's not gusty. 

If you can learn to fly that way, then everything becomes much, much easier.

Ice is forming as I type this. Hopefully we'll be on the lakes soon and I'll have some exciting stories to tell!

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