Strawberry 2/1/11 15m and random

[bigwavedave]

Arrived at CC East at about 12:30 to what seemed like pretty decent wind. There was a pretty good crowd of at least a dozen people just getting rigged. People were rigging 9's and 10's with a couple of 12 Meter kites but when I went out to check the wind it didn't feel like more than 17mph so I just pulled out the 15. I threw out the kite and got a good 20 minutes of ripping on the cornices and hill beside the lake. The ridge lift on the hills made it pretty nice while it was on. After about 20 minutes of trying to get my hands warm I started heading back to the car to see if I could find a pair of mittens in my kit. About a quarter of the way back the wind pretty much shut off. Those who were fortunate enough to get their kites pumped up before it shut down were left with their kites on the ground waiting for any little puff to try to get back. I managed to keep the kite flying most of the time but there were moments of nothingness followed by a full 180 degree wind direction change from the original NE to SW. By the time I managed to work y way back to launch the SW kicked in stronger and suckered a few more people away from home base before shutting down completely again. Most people after waiting at least 30 minutes or more had either hiked back or packed it up when a minor snow squall came through and it picked up again from the NE. Many had deflated their kites by now but I headed out (only because I had foils). I got another sweet session on the same hillside where the compression made for good rides but as soon as you got to flat it was really light. I managed to make it back to the car right before it shut down again completely, leaving a lot of people stuck out by the hill once again. It was far from an epic day . . but some got rides. I normally LOVE east days at strawberry but yesterday was little more than scratching the itch. Some folks barely even got rides at all due to the timing.

[Kenny]

Dave,

I owe you $20. Please send me your snail mail address.

What a day. I guess we should feel fortunate that NE is a rare wind direction in Utah. Glad I spent the afternoon at my office.

[bigwavedave]

Keep the $20 - your forecasts are worth more..