1/21 Strawberry CC 15M

[fredishlarsen]

I got to Chicken Creek about 1pm. Wind was blowing about 14 or 15NNW. Ralph showed up right after I did. I decided to try out the line mount for my GoPro. Mounted it on the front lines where they meet about 15 meters from the bar. I flew with it on my lines for about three hours. One bad thing about having it mounted at that spot is when you down the kite the camera tends to wrap around the back lines and then you have to land the kite and fix the lines. Good thing that only happened twice. When I watched the video I learned a couple more things. It's really had to tell from 15 meters if you have snow packed on the lens of the camera. And because the case of the camera is convex right at the lens and the camera is pointing down most of the time, water that is on the camera housing sometimes puddles right where the camera is filming. That makes for a pretty psychedelic effect, but you can't see what the kiter is doing on the ground. The last thing I learned, if you have hours of video shot from a line mounted camera it might make you sick to watch it full screen, especially on a light wind day with a lot of kite looping.

Here's a small sample. Nothing to exciting just showing the view.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYfMh8i6fTs

The snow was mostly crusty with a couple fun spots on wind protected areas. Todd found me and we had a great time hunting around for soft snow. Then the the wind died. Sorry about the hike out Todd. Wish I could have helped.

[whit]

Nice view from above, especially the flip segment.
Strawberry is blowing right now, just concerned about the crust conditions, didn't look like you were leaving any track at all. WG

[Ralph Morrison]

Whit, there are still pockets of soft snow.

[whit]

Thanks Ralph, I made it out about 3PM Saturday, to white out on the summit, but clearing at CC East. Jim Hornbeck and I found some fluff on all the SE faces. Very crunchy (for snowboard) on exposed ridges. Me 14M, Jim 11M +skis, we were the only 2 at CC East. Blizzard down the entire Daniels Canyon on the way home. Clear at Parley's, go figure. WG