Two Men Enter, One Man Leaves. The Adventures of Kite Touring Winnepesaukee.

If you’re familiar with the Mad Max movies you’re familiar with the “Thunder dome”. If you haven’t seen those movies the “Thunder Dome” was a huge domed cage where 2 opponents fought to the death. They fought one on one and the crowd would chant “Two men enter, one man leaves!” Apparently women never fought in the “Thunder Dome” or “Two people enter, one person leaves!” just doesn’t carry the same weight as the saying they used in the movie.

Anyway, the saying was in my head as I did my final approach to my anchor after tacking 10 long miles up some serious head wind back from Ellacoya to Leavitt Park. Mike and I left together in the morning but I was the only one that made it back.

No we didn’t fight to the death.

Man what a season it’s been so far! In spite of the lack of snow and lack of wind it’s been a pretty good season. We’ve been doing a lot of riding down in the New Hampshire lakes region and a lot more riding on Winnepesaukee than we have in the past. We haven’t had a lot of wind in the last month and I’ve been struggling just to stay in the 50mph speed range but for what we’ve been missing for speed and snow at least the ice has been good and clean which helps a lot when all you get is light wind.

The touring has been great. I’m really digging the whole “pack an extra kite in case the wind changes drastically and go explore.” thing. You really get to see a lot and you learn a lot about the winds in different places and where things are, which can be really useful.

Winnepesaukee

This is especially true on Winnepesaukee with the size of the lake and the numerous islands it has on it. At ice level everything looks the same and it’s really easy to get disoriented if you’re not careful.

Sports Outlet. North Conway

Thursday I went back to Leavitt to go touring and see if I could get down to Ellcoya and back. The wind reports I saw were for winds 15mph gusting to 25+. My edges were cooked from last weekend and I needed to freshen them up before I went down so I stopped by the other of the two best shops in the Mount Washington Valley known as Bob and Terry’s Sports Outlet. They’re a great family oriented shop and with a super friendly staff. If you’re in the area and need something you should check them out. If a guy with red hair is there tell him Jim Cline sent ya.

After I sharpened my edges at Bob and Terry's I drove down to Center Harbor to Leavitt Park where I met up with Mike Elliott.

I got to Leavitt at about 11:30am and Mike was parked out on the ice and already getting set up. The park was empty except for a sizeable group of ice boaters who also apparently thought Thursday was going to be a favorable day for getting out and cruising the ice. It’s great getting to talk to them and see how similar our different methods for playing on the ice really were. They were in it for the same reasons I’m so addicted. It’s the sense of freedom, the experience of being powered by the wind, the solitude and also the occasional thrill of just hauling ass.

They seem a pretty dedicated (addicted) bunch. I really like the diversity in the boat designs. It makes me think about the diversity in kite designs and makes me wonder how that diversity plays out in the iceboats. Are they’re bad and good designs? If they’re like kites there must be some dogs out there. We talked for a while about the surface conditions, wind reports and what we were looking to get out of the day. I had no idea how much of fun a challenge I had ahead of me at this point, or that I’d be flying back alone.

After talking with the ice boaters and taking some photos I got my gear on. Mike had set up right off the sandbar and was already heading out to the cut. I opted to set up in the sheltered area that I used last Friday (see my last blog entry) when I got my ass handed to me. I didn’t want to skate my skis anywhere near shore because a lot of sand and fine dust gets on the ice and even though you can’t see it, it will dull your edges just enough to make them almost useless on the hard ice. They’ll feel sharp to the touch but won’t work hardly at all.

Haulin' bait.

I was feeling a little adventurous and since the winds were going to be moderate with occasional gusts over 25mph I decided to put all my faith in the 15m Peter Lynn Charger and NOT take a backup kite. On the surface, not the smartest thing I could do. The trip down to Ellacoya (red circle below) is 10 miles straight distance from Leavitt and a whole lot can change wind condition wise in that distance not to mention in the amount of time it takes to get down there and back. If the winds got too strong I’d be trapped 10 miles or more from my anchor. Conversely if the winds crap out down there it’s the same deal.  Again that 10 miles is STRAIGHT distance.  Tacking will triple or quadruple that distance depending on what the wind is doing.

Leavitt to Ellacoya

But as I’ve said before the 15m Charger has a HUGE wind range. The wind we had to start with were pretty light, maybe 10mph gusting to 15mph. Mike was out on his 12m Syn and was fairly powered sometimes and struggling to keep the kite airborne others. The Charger was about the same initially until I made my way out of the cove. That’s when the fun began.

My actual tracks

Molly and I had done a tour the other day on Winnepesaukee and attempted to fly from Leavitt to Ellacoya but were stopped about 2 miles out by a fairly large water filled pressure ridge. The winds were too light to jump it safely and we didn’t have daylight enough to find a safe spot, get to Ellacoya, and find the same spot on the way back. So we had to bag it and head back. Fun all the same but I left with a feeling of leaving a goal unfinished.

I headed downwind toward Ellacoya after I got out of the cut. The trick to going fast on a down-winder (kiting with the wind) is not to simply go down with the wind but to take across the wind like you might when going up wind. A little different but very similar and it makes you go a lot faster than wind speed alone. You can barely keep a kite in the air and pulling if you go with the wind too much.

The wind was supposed to start to die out after 1:00 so I pinned it (went as fast as I could) to get to Ellacoya.

There were several pressure ridges in between the one that stopped Molly and I and Leavitt Park and they had gotten bigger but they were dry and easy to air out over with the Charger. I was pleased to find the last one was dry and frozen solid. It was bigger than the rest but still easy to jump with the Charger. Nothing to keep me from Ellacoya but a big island called Welch Island. We’ve ridden around Welch a few times in the past and with Thursday’s moderate WNW winds it was going to be an easy cruise. So I decided to head a little south and east before hitting the beach.

Pressure ridge on beach.

Well, as we’ve learned wind reports can be a little off especially in the mountains or in our case on Thursday, on big lakes. Lakes make their own weather to a point. And the winds weren’t dieing but were in fact building. I didn’t notice it much because I was going mostly with the wind and when you’re in the broads everything is far enough away that accurate perception of speed can be a little off. I made the distance in a short amount of time and made a long tack east of Ellacoya to the eastern side of Rattlesnake Island (orange dots) and near the very beginning of Alton bay. With the increase in wind speed this turned out to be a minor mistake. The winds were getting pretty strong. Blowing a steady 18 or 20mph in the cut NW of Alton Bay and east of Rattlesnake the winds get pretty heavily funneled. So when I popped out south of Rattlesnake it was REALLY windy.(red zone)

This was a minor mistake for me but a major mistake for Mike as he followed me in.

The wind in there was probably blowing 25mph with occasional higher gusts. And it was getting windier. I trimmed the 15m completely and had the bar in the full depower position and slowly (about 1mph) tacked my way upwind out of the Alton Bay. I was making progress but it was progress nonetheless. After about 20 minutes of slowly making my way I saw about 2 miles west there were more ice boats and an ice windsurfer. I figured they were flying out of Ellacoya and it gave me an idea how long this was going to be.

I looked back at Mike about a mile or so behind me. He looked like he was heading back behind Rattlesnake and maybe making his way back out to the broads to get out of the funneling winds. Or at least take a break in the wind shadow from the island and set up his smaller back up kite. I continued up wind and eventually came to a small pressure ridge. I crossed it and continued west when the ice windsurfer saw me and started heading for me. Another look back and still no sign of Mike.

I’ve never seen an ice wind surfer. Not up close anyway and I wish I wasn’t getting beat up and fighting my ass off to get up wind so I could have stopped a while to look at his set up. He slides up, turns his sail into the wind and steps off his board with creepers on his shoes and just casually walks out to me to say “Hi”. I’m fighting like hell to creep along at 1mph and he’s just standing there in his full face helmet trying to carry on a conversation with me 3 feet away. We’re right next to each other but in totally different realities at that point. It was kind of funny. He asked me about where I’d been and if I’d seen good ice. I gave him as much info as I could and continued west towards Ellacoya.

Mike was visible again down in the cut. He was about 2 miles away from me at this point. I didn’t dare go in after him for risk of getting trapped myself. All I could do was keep and eye on him from a distance and see how things turned out. I would hang around and continue to fly off of Ellacoya and see how he got out of his predicament. I was surprised he didn’t put up another kite yet. Before too long I was at Ellacoya surrounded by iceboats zooming around me. Mike had disappeared again.

The iceboat drivers were looking at me like I had 2 heads. I don’t think they see many kiters and I didn’t launch from Ellacoya so they were probably curious where the hell I from. That’s what my ego was telling me anyway! I was still just creeping upwind fully trimmed so I wasn’t doing anything to add any “wow factor” to the scene. I just kept creeping west.

I looked back and there was no sign of Mike once again. I decided I was far enough up wind that I could let the kite into the power zone and see if I could keep up with the iceboats and maybe outrun one or two. The wind was pretty strong at this point but super steady and good for some speed runs. I made a few runs and was in the high 50mph range each time with the kite still trimmed out. At one point a iceboat gave me a close pass and I decided to see if I could outrun him. He went by, I let out the trim and took off. In about 2 seconds I was on him and passing him. He peeled off and I slid to a stop. I checked the GPS and it said 64 mph. (scrubbed the data on KA72 see red circle) Sweet! I’d been trying all season to break 60mph but there hasn’t been enough wind.

I thought about making a few more speed runs but at this point I was getting tired and I still had a long trip back up the lake before I was done for the day. I didn’t see Mike anywhere and was beginning to think that he had gotten out and was already heading north. I was just about to make my way out when off to the east I saw someone struggling to walk along the shore towards Ellacoya. A large bundle of Rasta colored fabric under their arm. It was Mike.

I cruised downwind toward him just as he got to the beach. He looked tired. He said that he couldn’t get out of the cut no matter what he did and at one point he’d almost been blown away on the smooth ice because he took his skis off much like I did last Friday but he didn’t anchor himself. Fortunately he got blown into a divot in the ice and was able to drive his knee in and hold himself. He eventually got the 12m Synergy packed up but his lines were a mess. I realized at this point that he didn’t have a back up kite. He took his 130lbs out on a pretty long trip at the top end of the wind range for the kite he was on and didn’t bring a back up. “I’m screwed!” he yelled to me in the wind. “I couldn’t get out and now I’m screwed.” He yelled. He didn’t actually say screwed he used another word but this is a PG13 blog so we’ll go with “screwed”.

Ellacoya.

“I guess I gotta go back and get the van!” I yelled to him. I didn’t know how long it was going to take but Mike didn’t feel he could get his kite back in the air so he had no choice but to wait for me to tack the 10miles up the lake, get in the van and drive the 15 miles down to get him. The whole point for me to fly out of Leavitt is SO I DON’T HAVE TO DRIVE TO ELLACOYA! Gas isn’t cheap these days and 30 miles is half way home. But you can’t leave a friend stranded. I started north and realized that it was going to be a hell of a trip getting back. The wind was still blowing strong and as I got to the first pressure ridge I realized some things had changed while I was at Ellacoya. When you get high winds on ice with pressure ridges the ice moves and the ridges get bigger a lot of the time. As they get bigger water squeezes up from the cracks and makes pools around the ridge. There was a lot of water around the pressure ridges now.

I was tired, my edges were burned off and to jump the ridges with the water I had to jump to my left, which I totally suck at. If I land in the water with the wind and the cold I’d be in serious trouble. It would mean frostbite and hypothermia and Mike and I would both be “screwed”. Fortunately I managed to get past each ridge without too much drama and after about an hour and a half was within site of the last cut before the cove at Leavitt.

That cut was a bitch to get through.

Once through the cut I was in the relative shelter of the cove and was able to tack twice to get back to my anchor. All the iceboats were at the shore taking a lunch break. One of the boaters asked me how my ride was. I told him I had a ball. I took a chance, jumped some stuff, went fast, saw some more boats and fought my way back up the lake right to my anchor. I had a hell of a good day! I picked the right kite, took a chance and came out ahead. Weighing 200 lbs helps.

My friend other the other hand as they say, “not so much.”

I took off my gear, packed up the van was off to pick up Mike’s skinny butt.

30 minutes or so later I rolled into Ellacoya to find Mike bouncing a ball off the outside wall of the beach bathrooms. At least he was keeping himself entertained. Looking thoroughly disgruntled after his nearly 3 mile “walk of shame” to Ellacoya and 2 hr wait mike loaded his gear into the van and climbed into the passenger seat. He thanked me for picking him up. I told him I thought this fiasco was worth a lunch. He just grunted.

The kid’s such a cheap bastard though. If I were rescued and someone had to drive 30 miles to do it I'd buy them a lunch or beer or whatever floats thier boat.  Being rescued is worth it.  But I'll never see it. ;-)

Mike, post "Walk of Shame."

We got back to Leavitt about 4:00. Mike unloaded and I left for home. On the way back I passed Jim Cline packing on the miles at Berry Pond. He’s over 1200miles in for the season so far and on target for his 3000mile goal. I was going to stop and say “Hi” but I was too tired. Any longer in the van and I’d risk falling asleep at the wheel.

That would ruin a pretty damn good day.