Jackson Hole Paragliding Extravaganza: Days one and two.
Jackson is one big site: over 4000 feet of vertical served by a tram, with the Grand Teton just to the north and a big flat valley spotted with small buttes to the east. It's a great place to fly, with a very active local flying community (more PG pilots here than in the Denver!). While it's a big mountain site, it's also a good place for novices to learn skills; where else can you do a 20 minute no-lift flight? The Paragliding Extravaganze is just that, with 35 competitors entered and another 30 or so flying recreationally in the "Extravaganza" event. I really can't think of a site with friendlier launches and conditions for pilots of all abilities.
Sunday, day one
It's blowing a hoolie at altitude, so Dan Olsen, Meet Head, calls the day off early. This is good because most meat heads would of wasted our day sitting around on launch. Othar Lawrence, Mike Bellick, Todd Bibler, Bill Belcort, Nate Scales and I call our own task, a hike up the mountain, which takes about two hours or less depending on your suffering capacity. After that about 25 competitors head to the river in everything from rubber duckies to rodeo boats. Fun was had, we're all wrecked. The more of these comps I do the more I realize how critical it is to approach them not as flying events but sports trips with the possibility of flying (BTW, many competitors did get morning flights in before the winds picked up.
Monday, day two.
The forecast is for early overdevelopment, so a short (less than 15 mile task) is called. Although the site faces southeast, it doesn't really turn on until 1:00, which is strange, but we're about to learn more about the strange local conditions...
The task was basically a short flap south along the ridge to a turnpoint, followed by a shorter flap out into the valley to the high school. The wind at launch was over the back (from the north) at about 10, but the thermals were countering this enough to launch. I and many other competitors didn't feel comfortable launching in the lee, so we launched into the wind then flew around to the thermally lee side and climbed out. This is definitely interesting flying.
The meet is being scored with GPS only, which is good because you don't have to worry about sectors or your $50 camera deciding to rewind after the start tarp photo. The task was elapsed time, from the start line in front of launch to goal, so timing was key. A large rather black cloud threatened and shaded much of the first 10K to the turnpoint, and Othar and I decided to glide under it instead of heading out into the valley to escape it. The expected lift wasn't there for us, and Othar just made the first turnpoint "virtual beer can" while I got rained on and landed. Several competitors felt that the cloud was quite dangerous, but the locals basically said, "we fly in worse all the time, shut up about it." I didn't really think it was that bad (I'd chosen to glide under the problem cloud), but there was definitely some perhaps justified grumbling. Many competitors sunk out, while some got up to about 15,000 off launch and basically did the whole course on one glide. Kevin Alexander won the day, with about a half dozen competitors reaching goal. The short distance and few competitors who made minimum distance dropped the validity to 540 points.