Jeff writes:

Last night I felt trapped in a cirque. With north winds predicted, and being
that I was on the south side of some big mountains with a lot of terrain and
distance between us and the turn point, which I had to fly around airspace to
the north to get to.

I wasn’t sure how the morning should go. I figured it was going to be an all day
suffer fest on my feet to extract myself from where I had ended up. We got up
this morning and put our heads together and figured that our best option was to
hike and climb up to the ridge line to our north to see how strong the wind was
and whether or not I might be able to fly.

Dustin Martin and Huntley Badger were amazing and hiked with me, through cool
limestone towers and up permanent snow and ice fields. Dustin came with me on
the last, sketchy bit to a tight saddle/col at the head of a big mountain
canyon. The high Cirrus clouds were shutting down any potential energy in the
airmass and the wind was pretty much perfect.

It would have been far too dangerous in any other conditions because the launch
was steep and on partial rock and steep snow. Dustin was a CHAMPION, proving
again how lucky I am to have him as a partner on this crazy adventure. He laid
my wing out at the top of the col while I tried to control it and then came down
to hold onto me so if I lost footing when the wing came up, I wouldn’t go for
“the ride” down the steep slot. I was so grateful to have him up there and even
though it all went as perfect as it could have, just the mental support was
priceless.

I ended up flying off and gliding out around airspace, landing with a no stepper
right at Astune ski area, directly under the turn point cylinder. It was a
beautiful morning, mellow glide and one of the most satisfying flights I think
I’ve ever had.

Gonna go tag the turn point now and the sun is coming out and burning off the
high clouds. Maybe the conditions will get good to fly later toward turn point
4.

Just landed safe after trying to fly toward turn point 4. Saw the
overdevelopment happening all around me and was concerned but wanted to get out
of the higher peaks. As I approached a lake, there were white caps and the trees
beneath me were bent over.

I used every descent technique I know and was flying backwards any time I came
off the speedbar. Thought of Cedar Wright as I hovered down in a SIV landing
(thanks Bradley Gunnuscio) in front of some high tension power lines. Had a good
landing and as soon as I got the wing pulled together thunder started exploding
above me. Now, I’m sitting under a tree in the rain.