USA 2016 - the Plan v1.0 (3 weeks)

Once more I have planned a trip to the US: 3 weeks in June/ July.
I'll be travelling again with my good friends Andy and Stacy.
Starting point is Salt Lake City (SLC) (Point of the Mountain, Inspo, Francis etc), then north via Crawford to Jackson Hole; East to Dinosaur, Roan, Villa Groove; West towards Richfield (Cove, Edna, Monroe) and South via Cedar Mtn, Honeymoon to Las Vegas (LAS) (Jean dry bed, Goodsprings), from where I'll fly back home.
We are of course hoping for good flying conditions and that we can fly as many different sites as possible: some we've flown in 2014, some we visited in 2014 (but couldn't fly) and some are completely new :-))

Arosa in March -5

Some more local soaring in Arosa; cloudbase was much lower than yesterday.

Bergkrichli

Erich

Kiwi and guest

LZ by the lake

Arosa in March -4: full moon

Medergen

In the afternoon a nice local flight (Hmax > 2900m). But it was COLD! And the thermals not very well established.

Full moon over the 'Furkahorn'

Today (21.March) Arosa offered 'full moon skiing', meaning the gondola up to the Weisshorn would operate until 2100 for skiers. Of course I also used this opportunity to attempt a flight. On top of the mountain the view was magnificent.

full moon over Arosa

Unfortunately the wind on top turned catabatic ('Abwind') so I failed 2 launches and finally had to ride down with the gondola  :-((

Arosa in March -3

Three flyable (actually good) days in row here in Arosa.
Whereas the last two days were completely clear, today a kind of stratus cloud developed, which became thicker as the day continued, thus climbing above 2450m was impossible. But still more than an hour of flying :-))

Marlies

Peter

stratus slowly becoming thicker and more widespread

....company...

Hotel Tschuggen - spa area designed by M.Botta

Arosa in March -2

10.3.: what a great day in Arosa! I can't remember when the conditions in March have been so great here: good conditions on launch; nice, smooth thermals with tops at >2900m.

Aroser Weisshorn

looking towards Engadin (Bernina middle of pix)

Erich

and finally flying to Chur; but here the North wind was stronger than I had expected, so I couldn't fly to my usual landing near Masans, but had to pick a LZ near Rossboden.

Highway exit 'Chur-south'

11.3.: I almost didn't try to fly as the forcast (and actual wind in the morning) showed strong East winds (Bise). Luckily I tried as the wind was much less than I had anticipated. But the cirrus clouds almost 'killed' all the thermals :-((

LZ on the edge of 'Obersee'

Arosa in March -1

Today finally the first (!) high pressure area of the year developed, resulting in great winter sport weather for the next few days.
Unfortunately the wind (as can be seen in the pix below) was still too strong and gusty...
But -except us paraglider pilots- everybody is more than happy with these conditions :-))

'Föhn' over Valbellahorn

Weisshorn (right side)