US'16 0627 -Monroe

Stacy's wife Judy offered us her car today - under the condition we wouldn't use it for driving up to Cove. As we wanted to fly from Monroe Peak, this was thus no problem. Thanks a lot, Judy, we really appreciated not having to go in the Pathfinder! 
The day looked perfect for a great flight from Monroe. We arrived on top at noon and already small CU's were forming. So there was no time to loose and I was the last to launch just before 1230.

Andy climbing in front of TO

1100m above launch

The thermals have been strong but nice and in just 10mins I was more than 1000m over launch.

heading for Cove, where I had to do some 'work' before finding a thermal, which took me to 5000m

using my O2 for the first time on this trip...

looking back to Cove (snow); Monroe Peak on far left side

5209m = 17100ft

My 'problem' on this flight: the longer I flew, the stronger and wider the thermals became and the harder it became not to bust the legal limit of 17999ft (5486m). Even doing accelerated big ears it was still going up with > 2m/s (400fpm) and I got to less than 300m/ 1000ft of this limit. (And since my accident in '12, spiralling down is not anymore a real option for me.)
Of course it would have been easy to just continue climbing as cloud base was at 20'000ft (or even higher), but for that I have been involved in aviation way too long...
But I think today would have been THE day to set a new record from Monroe Peak for any of the 'big' XC-pilots: the cloudstreets leading north towards the wasatch range and Salt Lake City.

near Koosharem Reservoir lookibg north

So after pulling big ears for quite a while in order to just get down below 16'000ft I decided the day was probably going too strong for me and finally landed on a nice field near Koosharem, where Stacy normally works.

near Hanock (left) looking south towards Parker Ridge (middle) and Koosharem (right)

waiting for retrieve; looking towards Hancock/ Fish Lake High Plateau

After riding in some really rowdy thermals, Andy decided also to land - he touched down near Glennwood (east of Richfield).

Luckily, only on our way back, about 5miles out of Richfield, the transmission belt of Judy's van 'quit', so there was no more power steering and also insufficient engine cooling. But we made it back to the motel and Stacy was able to drop off the car at the garage. It's already fixed and tomorrow we should also get the repaired van back. But we'll be probably using the pathfinder in the morning to go flying. Where? It's not decided yet...