Utah Windriders Association

Reasonably good sized crew out at the marina yesterday. The wind felt pretty light but once you got the kite in the air the wind up a little higher proved to be plenty to keep everyone powered up nicely. The lake in close to the marina was a bit of an icy chunky 4 wheel drive type nightmare due to the snowmobile traffic but once you got halfway across the lake it was perfect pristine powder on top of the ice. Great rides in the hills as well with plenty of deep pow. It was almost too deep in some places and you still had to beware of the hidden underground sage snares which more than once managed to snag and bury the front of your board forcing you to steer the kite back quickly to avoid knee injury. Some of the hills facing the sun were starting to get a little crusty but not bad yet. All in all a much better afternoon than expected.

I was surprised by the quality of the powder. I started at the campground, rode downwind to the lake and up the hills. My big board (192 cm Tanker) kept we out of the sage traps. It was a little hairy in spots where the snowmobiles dug down 2 - 3' on the hillsides. Outside of the snowmobile tracks, it was virgin pow. I would guess that there were around 10 kiters out there on a mostly sunny afternoon. Turned out to be a very nice afternoon.

I guess this should have read 2/4/10