Snowy Hike and Fly

Another very cold night with a big blue sky and snow in the morning. Light winds made a hike and fly the obvious choice and I considered a few peaks. For a bunch of reasons (mainly avalanche risk and not having that much time) I choose the normal S launch at St Andre and took my lightest flying gear and warmest clothes.

The hike up was beautiful, with the snow getting deeper all the way up. On the summit there was essentially no wind; the S launch is not at all steep and with the deep snow it wasn't obvious I could even get off. I made a couple of take-off 'trenches' in the snow and dug a little edge to stop my wing sliding down the hill. To make matters worse, I had my little speedwing and what little wind there was changed direction once I laid out.

Anyway, I just got off and had a very short flight down to the LZ. Despite this being my first sled ride at St Andre, I really enjoyed it!

A few pics