Chelan (OR) -day 1

Sun: today we arrived at Chelan; we dropped of our luggage at the motel, so we had more room in our car, picked up Jim and another pilot (Jeff) and drove up to Balde Butte, the local launch. Here we met Lennie, who is directing the Chelan XC Classic meet. We completed registration, got an information booklet and a t-shirt. Zac, who was launch and safety director at the 2011Red Rock PG Nationals in Richfield UT, will be launch director here for the coming week.

Andy, me and Stacy; Chelan Butte in the background

looking SW towards Columbia River

Chelan lake

Unfortunately the winds today were forecast to be still too strong for us paragliders and I think also not all HG pilots elected to launch either - as off tomorrow it should be much better (and also warmer)...

Grizzly, Saddle Mountain (OR)

Sat: knowing that we had to drive around 600km today, we left Prineville early. But already after less than 10min we saw this nice mountain. Stacy knew that it had a launch on top, so (of course) we had to drive up to explore.

Stacy on Grizzly, looking South

Stacy landing

Stacy landed near the road and was greeted by Charlene, Charles and their kids, who had wanted to know what kind of 'contraption' Stacy was flying. They welcomed us to land in there if ever we would fly here again - thanks!

wheat fields in northern OR

Then we continued north across endless cropfields, across the Columbia River into Washington state.

With winds out of the West, we knew there was another flying site along the way: Saddle Mountain, on the Columbia River. So we went exploring again.

Launch overlooking Columbia River near Wanapum dam (right)

Andy launching

We needed to drive around a while to find a suitable launch, but in the end, Andy was launching into pretty strong winds. On landing the winds had increased even further, so he was flying backwards...
Today I declined to fly: in Grizzly there was very little wind on a flat, rather stony slope; in Saddle it was too strong for me - even Stacy didn't launch in the end.

Sunset in Wenatchee (where we stayed for the night)

A video by Andy about flying Saddle can be found here.

Whaleback Mtn (CA)

The conditions didn't look too promising for Woodrat in the morning, so we drove even further south; across the border into California to Whaleback Mtn. Upon arrival, TO was still in clouds, but after about an hour they started to clear.

Shortly afterwards, Stacy and Andy decided to launch; I offered to be the driver, as it was still pretty cold (< 10°C) ...

Andy launching

Stacy coming in for landing

Mt. Sashta

Later in the afternoon it cleared further, became a little warmer and conditions got better (but a little windy). So we drove up to launch for another flight, this time Stacy being the driver.

Taggi                                Andy

Is think Whaleback Mtn is a great site with lots of potential, but being in the high desert it can probably be a little like the Owens Valles: pretty rough during summer/ middays. But the guys from RVHPA (Rogue Valle Hanggliding and Paragliding Association) did an excellent job preparing the LZ and launch!
Well worth a visit!

A video by Andy can be found here.

Hagelstein (Upper Klamath Lake) (OR)

Friday: travelling from Klamath Falls North towards Bend, OR. According to the forecast, the winds at Pine Mountain (near Bend) should die down in the late afternoon, so we headed North in no hurry.
But already after less than half an hour driving there was this nice ridge which even seemed to have a paved road leading up to possible TO's. As the wind came in perfectley from the lake, of course we couldn't resit exploring a possible flying site.

Just 30 metres of the paved road we found a TO, albeit rather small, it was facing perfectly into the wind.

Andy getting ready

Stacy

LZ at Hagelstein Park

According to the Nat.Forest Ranger Jim we had met on launch, nobody has ever flown here before,so we decided to name the site 'Hagelstein' after the park near the LZ.
I didn't fly, as the wind was at the upper limit for my present training state and it was increasing steadily as well...

Then we continued towards Bend, mostly through huge forests. Bend (OR) proved to be a really nice lttle town: very well mantained, lots of trees and green. 

near Mt.Bachelor/ Bend

cloud street at Pine Mountain

Of course we also needed to check out Pine Mountain, the flying site near Bend. It's basically the only site in Central Oregon and it certainly looks promising, but the winds were pretty strong and we didn't expect them to die down in the evening, so we continued.

our motel at Prineville

Finding a decent priced room provd to be a bit of a problem; Bend is very touristy and rather 'high end', so the prices quoted to us were pretty expensive ans many motels also booked out. But we found a really nice place to stay in nearby Prineville (Rustlers Inn).

Crater Lake National Park (OR)

Unfortunately, the day started with light drizzle, so no chance of flying. Therefore we decided to do a little sightseeing.

Crater Lake 

Crater Lake NP is only about 2 hours away from Medford (where we stayed for the night). It was a nice drive along the Rogue River and its Gorge with its forest full with large trees. Crater Lake was formed (only) 7700 years ago by a vulcanic eruption.The lake is with 590m the deepest lake in the US and ranks 9th in the world.
Some parts of the rim road where fogged in and some are still closed due to snow (at 2400m/ asl)

As we hope that toworrow the wx will allow flying at Woodrat, we returned to Medford.

Woodrat (OR)

We stayed overnight in Vancouver (OR, not CDN), just passed the WO-OR state line.
The desicion to head south to Woodrat Mtn (in the Rogue Valley) was absolutey correct. They pronounce 'Rogue' like 'rouge' in French; it's sometimes also written as 'Ruch'. 

Apparently yesterday has been of the best flying days here in quite a while :-))
When we finally had done the paperwork, check-out the LZ's we got to fly around 1400: just a little cirrus covering the sky, otherwise strong and abundant thermals with a top of ca 3000m. Without these cirrus clouds the thermas probably would have very strong.

looking east

looking west

At the moment here at Woodrat a competition is going on, so I got to meet a few old friends: Arnie, Ken (from SLC); Karie (Castle) should also be around somewhere.

Most amazing: there is an elderly lady taking part in the (low lovel) comp: she is close to 80 (!!) years old, but she finished yesterday's task... 

Flying has been really great, but as I had not yet completely recovered from my jetlag, I decided to land after 1.3hrs.

A video by Andy can be found here.
 

Unfortunately, the outlook for the next few days is not very promising - but we shall see...

LHR-SEA

B777-300

Luckily, the onward flight to Seattle was uneventful; a late departure due to some missing pax (whose luggage had to be unloaded), but with a short flight time of only 9 hrs arrival still almost  on schedule.

my seat :-))

Ireland (?)

Unfortunately, the flight information part of the inflight entertainement system was not working, so I was unable to located our position when taking pictures (therefore the '?').

Main course

Canada -plaines (?)

Mt.Rainier (descending into SEA)

We met Stacy at the National rental car counter in SEA and after waiting a while for our car to be ready, we started driving South: the forcast shows the best chances for flying on Tue, Wed in Woodrat (near Medford, OR, just north of the CA border). Thu, Fri look unpromising everywhere, so we'll use these dyas for travelling north again to Chelan for the XC Country Classic starting next Sun.

Sunset (driving towards Portland)

At 2330lt (0830SLT) we finally checked into a motel just south of the WA border (Vancouver, OR). I was glad Stacy had been driving: I had to catch some sleep during the drive (Andy as well)...

...on the road... ZRH-LHR

Departure ZRH (Katzensee)

Arrival LHR

LHR: Security was 'hell' today: roughly 1 (!) hour in the fast lane :-(((

...on the road...

Finally, after planning and preparing for the last 6 month, departure day has arrived!

Today Andy and I leave ZRH via LHR to SEA, where we'll meet my friend (and our guide) Stacy. My PG bag weighs exactly 23kgs (max allowed weight per bag)...

Stacy has guided me during all my trips to the US (2008, 2009 and 2011). This time it's more of a challenge for him, as we're not going to fly in his home state (UT), but in WA, OR, ID and CO, so most of the sites are new for him as well. Furthermore - at least to the wx fcst I have seen so far - we probably need to change our plans for the first week (ie flying in/ near SEA: Tiger Mtn etc) as it does not look very promising  :-((   In this case we would head south to Portland or even further to Medford (Woodrat) and try to fly there. Hopefully as of coming Saturday we'll be able to 'connect' to the original schedule and head for Chelan in order to take part in the Chelan XC Classic for a few days.

Büelen

Just one last (short) flight before departing on monday: Büelen in the Engelberg Valley.
I have chosen this site, as I needed to visit André at Flugsau in order to make some minor modifications at my harness. Flugsau is THE place to go if you have some special requirements regarding harnesses etc. André is the 'master of the sewing machine' and so far has always come up with clever solutions to my 'problems' and questions.
Btw: this is the company that constructed/ built Chrigel Maurer's harness for the 2013 X-Alps.

Büelen

Ebenalp & USA

After having come back from SCO just a few days ago, now the time to prepare for the upcoming (PG) trip to the US has come. I took also advantage of a flyable morning to get airborne after 'being abstinent' for almost 6 weeks and to check my equipment. I was able to fly at 'Ebenalp' for almost an hour before it started getting dark and I couldn't tell for sure anymore if there were CBs develloping or not.

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PG USA 2014, 23.6. - 18.7.  Seattle to Denver

This map shows the approximative itinerary we have planned. Of course it all depends on the weather and is therefore subject to modification(s).
I'm travelling with my friend Andy (Schumacher) and Stacy (Whitmore from UT), which has guided me on my previous trips to UT in '08, '09 and '11, agreed to be our guide.
Along the roag from SEA (Seattle) to DEN (Denver) there are some of the best flying sites of the west: Tiger Mtn, Chelan (we'll take part in the XC Classic), Mt.Baldy (Sun Valley), King Mtn and Jackson just to name the most prominent.
Departure is set for MON, 23.June, with British (BA): ZRH-LHR-SEA, where we're sopposed to arrive in late afternoon and hook up with Stacy at the car rental agency. For the first few days we'll stay in SEA to acclimate and get over the jet lag...

Pictures (as usual) can be found on my flickr account: https://www.flickr.com/photos/taggi/sets/72157645161192345/
The links for the tracks (InReach) you'll find on the right side.

SCO

After almost 5 weeks in Schottland I returned home by car on Wednesday.
All in all we have been realy lucky regarding weather: just 2 (!) real rainy days without no sun, otherwise at least sunny for part of the day (if not for the whole day).

Even though so far I never brought Scoth Whisky back from these trips to SCO; this time I couldn't resist as I have found a bottle of 'Balblair 03', about which I had read some good reviews.
We shall see when we finally get around to tasting it...