This was a very hot, stable day. I worked in the morning packing parts and took them to Fedex on the way to the airport shortly after noon. Jerry was just landing with Dean in the Blanik; I looked from Fedex and observed their turn to final. It was too low for my comfort. They went up still several more times; John, the towpilot commented how dead the air was aloft.
Easterly wind picked up and we shifted the launching operation to the interesection of runways 30-12 with 25-07. I took my time assembling, waiting for the temperature to rise from the already high of 31°C. Still no stir, according to John. Finally I launched at 3:30 pm, followed by Kurt in VH. I was hoping that we could team fly; I found lift at south ridge and climbed to 6,000'. Regrettably, Kurt didn't, after a while he landed, and didn't relaunch. So much for the prospect of team flying this day.
I thought I had enough altitude to explore the possibility of finding lift on the south-facing slopes of Jumpoff, with the wind coming from that direction. I crossed the river above the aluminum smelter and headed all the way to the radio tower on Jumpoff, arriving there with just 300' or less above it. It was time to retreat. I took the same route, trying to bump my way up. Crossed the smelter again, but this time only at 2,500' MSL, four and a half miles from Pangborn; this was way too low.
I took a calculated risk to cross the river and connect
to ridge lift above Keane Road and then follow the lower
line of basalt cliffs towards the south section of the
main Badger ridge. The plan worked although adrenaline
was flowing high; I was as low as 2,300' when over Keane
Road. But then I was able to slowly gain altitude as the
basalt was releasing its accumulated heat ("thermal
ridge lift"), when I arrived below the tall basalt
columns of main ridge I was at 2,700' and high enough for
venturing one turn. Still not enough lift, so I continued
on north, until a little farther where the direction of
the main ridge curved to the northwest-west, I hit a good
thermal which hugged the slope (now facing enough into
the mild south-southeasterly wind). This was enough to
lift me above the main ridge again, I uttered a sigh of
big relief, and continued on back south to above the
tallest knoll of South ridge to catch the
"chimney-effect-thermal" rising from there. I
worked that patiently to 6,000', and then followed the
dried-up canyon of Rock Island Creek to the northwest,
gradually catching stronger and stronger thermals
originating from rocks inside its canyon. Eventually,
between the Lookout and the western edge of Badger
Mountain, I climbed to 9,700'.
I
made one long glide across Columbia to the foothills of
Entiat mountains (Swakane Ridge, and Chumstick Mountain)
where I anticipated finding some lift; indeed by
Chumstick mountain there were good thermals; in a series
of three I climbed to 10,000'. Then what? There were no
clouds anywhere. I decided that I would gamble the
altitude into crossing the Wenatchee River valley to the
Enchantments foothills, south of Leavenworth, and
hopefully connect there before having to bag it and
final-glide to Pangborn. I dialed into my calculator the
altitude I had, and then monitored the remaining miles,
as they were unwinding. It probably would have been closer to head for the Icicle Ridge and hope to climb up there; in the past, I did not have very positive experience on that ridge. Instead, I glided two miles farther, 17 miles total, to an eastern-facing side-spur of the jagged ridge leading to Snow Lakes from Leavenworth (Wedge Mountain). I arrived there at only 7,000' - below the slope for Pangborn, but comfortably above it for Cashmere airport. The southwest-facing side of the spur was in the sun while the rest of the ridge was in deep shadow already. It was 5:30 pm. I felt a burble and then a mild bump, and so with as great a finesse as I could muster I worked the weak thermal.
The
labor paid off, for thirteen minutes later I was one
thousand feet higher. This was enough to safely cross the
jagged ridge to its other, sun-illuminated and
wind-exposed side (I could see its direction clearly by
the ripples on the Snow Lakes just a short distance
ahead). The instant I crossed the ridge line, the placid
pace of my movement so far was replaced by a violent
uplift in excess of 10 knots. I cranked the glider into
the thermal,
it
tossed me in and out, the resulting average climb was
only 3 to 4 knots; yet in six minutes I climbed to
10,100'. The landscape dropped down below me and
flattened. It did not look then as forbidding then as
when looking at it from 7000 upwards.The next half an hour I spent sightseeing in the Enchantments and around Mt. Stuart, taking pictures, looking at various views from varying angles, but never descending below 9,000'.
Lift was very reliable on the sun-illuminated,
wind-exposed slopes of the peaks, also, it was not as
turbulent as it usually is there, so I was able to wander
around almost to all the places where I wanted to,
including the north-face of Stuart (generally a no-go
territory).
In the
continuance of my sight-seeing, I decided to leave Stuart
on a northerly heading, following the jagged ridge line,
which after four miles turned to the northeast, to
eventually rise in the three-step summit of Mt. Cashmere.
I've
never been able to explore Mt. Cashmere from close range
before, so this time I decided to circle its 8,501'
summit several times at 8,500' and took a bunch of photos
for later analysis. The photo that looks like a picture
of moonscape is in fact the view of Mt. Cashmere's
summit, looking straight down at it.
(I took several
more photos from the side while circling it; 
they
are not as photogenic so as to be included here; plus
they would eat up server's space; but for the
technophiles and avid mountain climbers I'd be happy to
show them to.) I returned to Mt. Cashmere western slope
where I expected to tank up and climb again; alas, there
was no lift! I turned to the north and flew over the Mt.
Cashmere's north face, in steady sink! In one minute I
dropped 500 feet, and was down to 7,600' on the
mountain's east-facing promontory. There I found a weak
thermal, worked it for four minutes and gaining only
100'.
The prospects of getting back to Pangborn, 31 miles
distant, were dimming rapidly. I decided to cross the
Eightmile Creek to the north and west-facing cliffs of
Enchantments, hoping there would be some lift there.
There was none. I decided then to glide to the same spot
above the jagged Wedge Mountain ridge, where I made my
initial high climb before commencing my Enchantment
sight-seeing trip, three quarters of an hour prior. The
strategy paid off. I arrived there at 7,100' and just a
mile north of the original thermal location I found
another, which boosted me back up to 8,000'. This was
comfortably high enough for a glide to Pangborn, now only
25 miles distant. Feeling I did not need to dash for home
yet, I flew across Highway 97 and then over high ground
towards Mission Ridge, arriving there at its summit
level; after several turns I was able to continue a few
hundred feet over it, and check on the progress of the
high speed quad ski lift construction.
Then it was a smooth ride all the way out to a farm up in
the middle of the fields by Trinidad, and final glide
home. There was so much lift over the river, that after
gliding ten miles towards Pangborn I was actually several
hundred feet higher than when I started; so I extended my
glide till Sunnyslope in Wenatchee, before definitely
heading back for the landing. These evening final glides
are something else!!!
I landed at sunset. What a flight!