Thursday looked like the best day to fly in the week. The basic forecast was SW low down, switching to NW around 2000m, and that turned out to be reasonably accurate. It seemed like a S launch day, which makes for a shorter hike. From the S launch, I could see around 10 people waiting over on the W launch. Conditions seemed great on the S launch - so I didn't see any reason to join them.
A quick lunch, then I launched and had no trouble at all getting high. In fact, it might have been better to get acclimatized first - right away my hands were very cold. Cold fingers in winter is normally a pest, but isn't terribly worrying because you're in smooth ridge lift (so it isn't that essential to feel the wing). So far, it hasn't been like that in St Andre; by anyone's standards conditions were active (6.5 m/s or 1300 ft / min up) and I was a little concerned I wasn't feeling the wing very well.
I headed N, pilots started launching on the W side and slowly joined me. Top of lift was around 2300m where the temperature was just above freezing. The sky was blue but XC potential was good. But my fingers were just too cold. I flew back to St Andre and landed after a little more than an hours flying. I need to order a pair of electric gloves!
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