by Jason Klein » Sun Jan 04, 2009 11:57 am
I had the 15m out. On an otherwise great day for kiting i managed to have an extended EVA. I got a bridal wrapped after crashing the kite, anchored the bar with a ski and went to the kite to get it sorted out. While at the kite, a gust came along and pulled the kite out of my hands and the anchor ski out of the snow. I lunged for the bar but missed it and watched the kite drift downwind. I was south of the first hill to the south of the parking lot and noone was on my side of the hill. The kite stopped a few hundred yards away, so i thought, not so bad. I grabbed the one ski i still had (the other one went with the kite, still attached to the chicken loop), and started to make my way to the kite. Trying to walk just resulted in every step going down to my hip, so i basically crawled while leaning on the ski. About 5 minutes in, i had made it about half way to the kite, when another gust came along and started the kite moving again. This time i watched it go all the way to the big gliding hill, where it finally settled LE down into the wind about a quarter way up the hill. Still noone on my side of the hill... I crawled probably a half mile thru the snow - 40 minutes or so. about 200 yards from the kite, i heard a noise above my head and looked up to see Jake's kite. He towed me the rest of the way and got my lines sorted out for me. Thanks for the rescue Jake! All told, from when i originally crashed the kite to when i recovered it and got rolling again, probably took an hour and 15 minutes. With the 20 minutes of kiting before and the 20 minutes it took me to get back to the parking lot, that used up the time i had (i had to get back to PC for a 3pm slot to buy sundance tickets). Oh well...
On the bright side, i had what i would call my first glide. I was in the air long enough that i ended up flying backwards for a while. Anyone have advice on how you get yourself turned back around for the landing? I pretty much just crashed going backwards.