A Magical Afternoon/Evening at Short Divide
Jeff Salisbury
Jaxon, Todd, and I flew Short Divide this afternoon / evening. It was
magical! For the first time, we were able to cross Short Divide Road
(from South to North) and we successfully benched up Clarkston and Gun
Sight Peaks. We were literally flying at the top of Clarkson Peak and
looking down on Clarkston town on the Cache Valley side of the mountains.
Todd flew for 1 hr and 55 minutes, and I flew for 1 hr and 45 minutes.
Jaxon was a bit late arriving and yet he still flew for well over an hour.
The air was very smooth in most places, and we were all bit
under-dressed. We could have stayed up longer, but we all got too
cold. Also, mother nature was screaming at some of us if you know what
I mean ;-) .
As we moved out west from the mountains over the landing zone, we
discovered lift was still very abundant and we had to carve out deep
turns and/or use big ears to get down before the sun set.
Todd, please jump in on these altitude numbers: Launch zone was near
4,000 or 5,000 ft, but we ended benching up to over 8,000 ft. The
flight today smashed my personal record for both time in the air, and
absolute height, and altitude gained from launch.
Wish more of you could have experienced it with us!
Jeff
Todd Sherman
We all flew for nearly two hours, gaining approximately 2,200' over the launch (3,000' over LZ). Launch is about 5,930 there, and we all reached about 8,100'. Total flight length was about 27 miles, but only ventured about 3.2 miles from launch, although Malad certainly looked very doable from Gunsight Peak.
I worked around the launch area for awhile until I was 750' over, then decided to go for the bench up. Only lost about 100-150' making the jump. Once I got over to the Clarkston ridge, the lift was abundant and easy to stay in. My vario recorded a maximum lift of 800 fpm, but it was mostly much mellower than that.
Looking at the wind chart after getting home, I see that the ticket was the wind didn't continue to drop off after we launched. We launched in 13-15 mph winds, and they stayed steady and even increased a bit while we were in flight, according the mesonet. The high pressure days with south winds may be a better bet for the paragliders rather than pre-frontal conditions, which have been too strong to launch until late in the day, and then it tends to drop off quickly.
I've attached my flight path for you to check out in Google Earth if you are interested.
Todd
Todd Sherman, PWS
Wetland Resources
182 East 300 North
Logan, Utah 84321
435.753.4517
www.wetlandresources.net
Dustin Hawkes
Dustin Hawkes
Matt S.
Glad to hear that you 3 had one of those magical afternoons over
"The Divide"!! I missed this posting when it happened because I was
so busy at work.
Sometimes it's tough to forecast those "bench up" days at SD, but
persistence pays off, and when it happens it's Sweeeeet.
Way 2 God, guys!
Matt S.
On Nov 1, 9:58 pm, Dustin Hawkes <dkhaw...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Oh Man, am I jealous!!! If it had not been on a Sunday, I would have been
> there. If anyone wants to head out again any time this week, I am totally
> game. Again, I wish I had been there! Thanks Todd for adding the google
> earth file, that only added to the excitement.
>