Headed past the UDOT field, still doesn't look real deep, but i think its rideable. At 3:00 or so, there was no wind so i continued on to DF. The snow looked a lot better than when i rode there Friday, skimming over rocks. Still not much wind, tho. A wise man once said, "if you don't try to kite, you won't kite", so i sat and waited. After 45 mins, the wind started to come up a little, so i pumped the 15. By the time i was set up, wind was rideable, tho still light. I had the strangest experience as i started out. As i got going, i began getting shocked in my feet and hands. Not as strong as, say a shock from an outlet, but strong enough that i had to keep dropping the bar. When i would stop moving, it would stop. At first i thought maybe there was an electric line exposed to the snow somewhere, but i think it was just the conditions at the time. It was snowing really hard, and the snow was kind of wet. I think there was just enough static electricity in the air (or ground) flowing thru me into the ground (or air), and everything was wet enough to help get it conducted thru me. The snow slowed down in about 5 minutes, and it didn't happen further. Pretty wierd. Anyone ever experience something like that? Once i got done electrocuting myself, I rode for an hour underpowered, just cruising back and forth. As it started to get dark, the wind came up to maybe 15-16 average and i had a nice hour in the waning light. Gave up on jumping pretty soon as i just couldn't see the ground coming up for the landings, but had some nice high speed runs. You know my motto: kite til it gets dark, then kite another hour.
I thought the snow was in pretty good shape. There's tall grass still sticking up, but no actual plants, and i didn't hit a rock the whole time.
When i was packing up at 6, three guys i didn't know came out and began setting up a kite. It didn't look like they were completely sure what they were doing, so i went over to say hi and, as gingerly as i could manage, asked them if they had experience kiting, and if they might need any help. One of the three said he had kited before and said they would be ok. After packing up, I sat and watched them for a while to make sure they wouldn't kill themselves (and restrict our access). The guy took about 10 good diggers in a row and got yanked around a little, but was flying the kite ok - he wasn't getting lofted or dragged - and it wasn't real windy at that point. When i was satisfied that they didn't appear to be a danger to themselves (you know, if you ignore the kiting in the dark part), i left.
Not a bad afternoon.
