Sky Camping March 11th-12th 2013. Pokhara - near Kathmandu

Stan parking at the camping spot.

Sky Camping March 11th-12th 2013

March 11th  flight: http://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:mitchriley/12.3.2013/06:14#discussionv

Wil Brown and I had grand plans of heading to Dicki Dande early in the morning and starting a big flight to the east from there, with our bivy gear.  I checked in at the office and they had one tandem flight booked for me, so much for starting xc early.  Wil said he would wait and that we could start from Sarangkot the second round, thanks Wil.  The tandem was nice, and I got above the towers, showing the day had good potential.

When Wil and I arrived at take-off we found Pawel Tomaszewski getting ready for a night out.  His plan was to topland Korchon, but we let him know that he was welcome to come with us.

Take off- Torrie Panni- Dicki Dande- Green Wall- Green Wall East.

On the East Peak of the Green Wall, I was flying near Claudio Mota and Egor Terentyev, and a little ahead of Wil.  East of the Green Wall is a non-standard Pokhara flight, and I really enjoyed being with a Green Wall gaggle then tearing off towards the unknown.  In the next thermal Pawel came on the radio and said he was coming with us, it was good to have another friend and good pilot along for the adventure.  Its rare to see other gliders east of the Green Wall but sure enough we saw Mac Zietera putting together a large free triangle.  Stan Radzikowski came on the radio saying that he was crossing Besisahar, about 13 km ahead of us.  

Pawel, over some un-landable terrain.

In a few crossings we were planning our route over Besisahar.  I preferred fueling up at Gally Gown and then pushing across the valley to a big SW facing rocky face, after which I would have to push into the valley wind to get back on course line.  Wil wanted to fuel up at Baglum Panni and follow a more direct route.  I made my choice because I have been stuck at Baglum Panni, without useable thermals, a couple times and this time looked that same.   No clouds at Baglum Panni.  So I went to the clouds above Gally Gown and Wil went for Baglum Panni.  Pawel made the best decision and hung back waiting till our choices bared fruit.  I was able to climb and make the crossing to the big SW face, which had some rowdy thermals, a fact I latter learned was considered in Wil’s decision.  Crossing Besisahar was going into new country for me, a vast area that I had not flown (exciting).  Wil was the only member of the group who had flown past Besisahar, in a 90km flight tour S.E. one month ago.  

Pawel followed me and I watched Wil jump over the back of Baglum Panni super low, catch a thermal from a valley spur, and get back in the game, impressive.  Pawel and I were rocketed aloft and made the upwind push to meet Wil.  Stan came on the radio saying that he had waited for us, and our group grew to four pilots.  In a couple more crossings we found ourselves on a long ridge with a lower cloud base and a 10km glide to the next usable terrain.  We found a place to land and Wil and Pawel landed.  The place was soarable so it allowed multiple attempts at landing while the crowd of local spectators grew and grew.  Once all on the ground, safe, and glowing from a great flight we hugged and high fived, and passed around some whiskey, celebrating a great day of flying.  4 hours and 70km straight distance, and toplanding at 2000m with a perfect SE face right in front of a nice takeoff.

I cant help but laugh when I think of him now.

I tried my limited Nepali on the locals, then pretended I didn’t understand when marriage to an attractive young women was offered.  We had running water near by, and started collecting wood and water for a fire and cooking.  One boy stuck around when all the other locals.  He helped us collect firewood and asked a lot of questions containing the verb to fly (udne).  I shared some chocolate among the group, including the boy.  The boy’s chocolate tolerance must of been pretty low because after that he was bouncing off the terraces.  When we just wanted a small cooking fire the energized boy would put giant piles of dry leaves on the fire and elated in their fiery demise.  When we wanted to sit around and talk out the day, the boy wanted to dance and do acrobatics. 

We split into two cook groups.  Wil and I had a great meal of noodles, pasta, cheese and crackers.  As we ate great food, in a place we didn't even know the name of, under a crimson sky, it was easy to appreciate how good life is.  Much of our communication and thinking is concerned with names.  When someone asks about the trip they ask where we spent the night.  I don’t know the name of the place, and its not on maps I’ve seen, and I like it that way.  There is a freedom of thought that comes from defining a place based on your experience of it and not based on a name.  When you have a name you automatically store the memory of a place within certain boundaries.  When you do not relate a place to a name your memory of your perception is clearer and more real.

Camp made

I slept in the open, under the magnificent starry sky.  Hanging out next to a campfire and sleeping under the stars feels right, feels natural.

Day 2.  Flight:  http://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:mitchriley/13.3.2013/04:18

Photo: Stan Radzikowski

Stan was nice enough to wake us all up to see the sunrise.  The coals were still hot enough to restart the fire and start making tea, oatmeal and noodles for breakfast.  After breakfast Wil, Pawel and I walked into the village and bought food for the next night, noodles, fresh onions, potatoes, tomatoes and hot peppers.  The small store had everything we wanted, at a cheaper rate then the Lakeside shops we frequent.  Once back we all decided that we would try to fly as far East as possible.  After packing my harness it seemed like a good time to launch.

I launched first from a small SE facing clearing above a large SE facing cliff.  Once flying I explored the area for lift while Stan launched and flew straight to a strong thermal.  We were soon at cloud base.  We glided in slightly different directions to explore the 7km glide that awaited us to the East.  Once low we went back to the launch thermal and repeated.  This lasted for 1.5 hours as Wil and Pawel struggled on the ground with changing wind.  Eventually they listened to out insistence that there we good take offs further down the ridge.  They finally got airborne.  Its interesting that I felt frustrated and impatient up there in the air, hanging out at cloud base, while my friends sweated their asses off trying to just get airborne.  On any other day spending an hour and a half at cloudbase flying a new site would be wonderful, but on this day I allowed my plans for the rest of the day to take more importance then my joy in the presence.  If I had been able to stay in the present then the time would have felt well spent.  Instead I kept looking at that next crossing, trying to will Pawel and Wil into the air so that we could travel.

Eventually we were all in the air and on glide over another spectacular river gorge.  We climbed again and worked our way around the mountain.  While fueling up for the next crossing I left a thermal near cloudbase and pointed a straight line for the crossing, while getting lifted up inside the next cloud.  No one was near me so I let myself get the extra altitude while alerting my friends that I was going into the cloud.  I rose 200 meters in that cloud, in a straight line.  When I came out there was another cloud in front and below me.  I was able to soar that clouds windward side then fly through a tunnel between it and another cloud.  WOW.  I went out on glide feeling immense gratitude for that experience, and 200m higher then everyone else.  The next mountain was more shallow then others and it was difficult to find an established thermal.  Wil arrived low and he and Pawel were soon scratching, and struggling to stay up.  They would land down in the narrow river canyon, and have to spend the night near by, walking 3 hours and catching 4 busses the next day to get back to Pokhara.  Stan and I got high again and made another crossing, that put us low in a windy shallow bowl.  I eventually got up by soaring a shady, windy face.  At the top of this face people were watching me from their front garden.  I was very close to them when I pointed in the direction I thought Kathmandu was and said “Kathmandu?”.  They pointed in a slightly different direction and said “Kathmandu”.  I then connected with a lee side ripper, climbed 1000 meters and flew in the direction they pointed.  It feels good to blow someones mind.  Exposing someone to something that would seem impossible then braking the definition of possible is special, and I like to think that paragliding has the ability to brake the boundaries of possibility.

We were very close to Kathmandu, and had decided that getting near there was our goal for the day.  The next crossing was about 10km crossing a big valley with a paved road, probably the friendliest bottom landing spot we had seen all trip.  We made it to the other side, didn’t immediately find a thermal, and choose to push out and land in the nice valley rather then fight our way up another mountain.  Latter looking at a map, I realized that from the top of that mountain we would have had Kathmandu on glide.  Neither of us had an airspace map, or any idea of the airspace around Kathmandu, so it was probably best to land where we did. 

We packed out gliders while a crowd of people watched, then walked to the road, waved down a microbus, and were soon in Kathmandu checking into a guest house.  Great trip.  Thanks Stan, Wil and Pawel.    

Stan's Blog:http://parakros.com/2013/03/15/bivy-east/

Nepal Open Paragliding Championship, Task 4. March 3rd 2013

Nepal Open Paragliding Cup Task 4

March 3rd 2013

We had another good, long day of flying today.  The task started with the now usual ridge run, then to landing field, then to East Peak of Green Wall, then to a point WSW of the Green Wall, then back to landing field, then a point SW of Korchon, then E of Korchon, then speed section at the tip of the Dumpus ridge, then Korchon, then Matradunga landing, then End Of The Lake landing.  This task had me excited because it was not racing up and down a shallow ridge, but mountain flying, with big glides and strong thermals.  I purposely had the Fleetwood Mac song “Gypsy” stuck in my head (“I have no fear, only love), which allowed me to get into a relaxed joyous headspace.

Climbs before start were toping at about 2200m, so we had a substantial gaggle waiting near the start 20 minutes before open.  The thermal cycles were short, so we would all climb up then have to spread and search again, and repeat.  It was fun, and tricky to stay at the top of the pack.  I had a good start, tagging the cylinder 6 seconds after time.  I was impressed by Jamie Messenger’s ability to time the start perfectly, just as my  FlyMaster indicated start Jamie was turning and heading to the first turn point, I don’t think it could have been calculated any better.  

Gliders low on the SW side to Korchon

Being with the lead gaggle was exciting, and I reminded myself to he highly attentive to what the pilots around me we doing, and learn from them.  We tanked up at Torrie Panni then went on glide for the landing zone turn point.  On the way back myself and a BoomX got a climb that allowed us to skip the Torrie Panni scratch fest.  I knew that the fast move was to glide directly for the East Peak, but I did not feel good about my chances, so I did the typical Green Wall route, watching Jamie glide away from the East Peak just as I was approaching the Wall.  East Peak - SE of Green Wall - Main Peak - Sarangkot.  Some pilots choose to go directly to Sarangkot from SE of the Green Wall, I saw one of them throw their reserve parachute while getting spanked by rotor in the lee of Sarangkot, and a couple others that looked to be bombing out, but Im sure some made it and shaved off time on course.  When I got to Sarangkot the main bowl was shaded and a gaggle were scratching below launch, I was just above the towers and Torrie Panni was still sunny, so I dived over there, and hooked into a nice thermal.  Diving over to Torrie Panni can work great, with bubbles all the way to the main thermal, or it can sink you right down and force 20 minuets of scratching.  I am thankful it worked great this time.  By the time I was gliding to landing  turnpoint, some of the Sarangkot gaggle had gotten up and were tagging it.  Another climb at Torrie Panni, and glide for Korchon.  I set out on glide with Ajay Kumar, he must have gotten stuck somewhere he is usually way faster then me.  Ajay choose to glide straight for the turnpoint SE of Korchon, I played it conservitive and went to fuel up on Korchon.  After refueling I tagged the turnpoint and glided back to Korchon, watching some that had glided straight to the turnpoint struggling below me.  After getting high again I set out with Elli Mota and Denis Kulikov for the turnpoint to the WSW of Korchon.  I choose to use my Peak 2’s top speed to beat them to speed section.  I was able to pass Elli but not Denis on his Nova Factor 2, an impressive glider, and pilot.  

After tagging speed section I breathed a sigh of relief and told myself to just play it super conservative and make goal.  I fueled up again at Korchon,  Ajay and I taking turns cutting each other off in the strong tight low cores. There was very light rain, a drop hitting my face every five seconds.  At that time the rain did not seem dangerous because there was no indication of wind coming off the mountains, or strong cloud suck.  I could also see the clouds above and behind the Green Wall and they were not tall thunderheads.  At base some pilots went straight for the Sarangkot ridge, others went toward the Green Wall.  Since we were no longer racing I went with what I thought was the conservative decision and glided towards the Green Wall.  On this glide my speed system broke, bummer, but at least I had already made SS and just needed to boat my way in.  The green wall was mostly shaded but working and I took a glide from the Main Peak to Sarangkot.  Just when I was getting to Sarangkot the meet director Egor stopped the task because of rain on Korchon.  I had a 7 to 1 glide ratio into goal, but as Egor had explained earlier in the day your glide from a stopped task would be calculated at 5 to 1 glide.  So on paper I did not make goal.  In hindsight I should have kept racing, and flown fast to make goal.  People who made it to the Speed Section later then me and received fewer lead and arrival points scored better on the day.  Well I’m just in the comp to have fun and learn more about flying efficiently, so a few points on a piece of paper should not bother me to much.  I had a fantastic day of flying, with great pilots in great conditions.  Thank you organizers and thank you Nepal.  

Nepal Cup Task 3. March 2nd 2013

Nepal Open Paragliding Cup Task 3

March 2nd 2013

Today was another great day of flying in Pokhara, Nepal.  The set task was long and challenging.  First it sent us down the Sarangkot ridge to tag start, then back to the Russian camp (S.E. side of main bowl), then back down the ridge and out to the south-facing spine above Pame, then to East Peak of Green Wall, then Main Peak of Green Wall, then Antenna Hill, then Korchon, then Russian Camp, Then below Matradunga for speed section, then end of the lake for goal(it takes a long time just to type it).  The lift near start was plentiful and toping out at 2200m with small clouds.  I exercised patience and made a good start.  The dolphin flying upwind on Sarangkot Ridge worked great and I was with the leaders at Torrie Panni.  I noticed that Jamie Messenger and Wil Brown were fueling up, but had taken a different line and thought that I could manage the turn point and come back without a problem.  Well after tagging the turn point I was struggling with about 10 other gliders to climb above the Sarangkot Towers as Wil and Jamie glided by high and comfortable.  Lesson:  Don’t try to outsmart the good guys, if one of the worlds best pilots on one of the worlds best gliders thinks he  needs more altitude then I definitely need more altitude.  

Eventually we made it back to Torrie Panni and high again.  Surfing down the ridge, and fueling up at the Red Temple.  The turn point was a long glide from the ridge and a few gliders were deep in the turn point therrmaling, maybe 200m higher then me.  I choose to tag the cylinder and run back to the ridge.  David Hanning was gliding at the same time as me and choose to go upwind to a spine where I choose to go crosswind to a different spine.  I watched him and many other gliders climb out while I sweated, low and stuck for more than 30 minutes.  Lesson(repeat):fly with the group Mitch, use the hundred plus pilots out on course, don’t go anywhere alone.  After the sweaty, turbulent, scratch fest I was back on the ridge dolphin flying to Torrie Panni.  At this point I have flown around Pokhara a fare amount and I find it humbling that the hardest slowest section to fly for me is the main Sarangkot ridge that is SW facing and beginner XC pilots usually wet their teeth on.  I obviously need practice flying windy shallow ridges.    

Climb-Green Wall West-Green Wall East-Main Green Wall-Green Wall East- Antenna Hill-Dicki Dande- Green Wall West.  It was now 4pm, I launched at 12:25.  The lift was topping out at 2150m and I followed David Hanning, who had left 3 minuets earlier, on glide to Korchon.  The glide was boyant and I arrived at the front knob at a decent altitude.  David and a few other pilots were below me.  I looked at my wind indicator and decided it might be feasible to soar up the shady E. side with the valley wind.  I tried and failed landing right next to a retrieve jeep.  Jessica Love landed near me and we had a god 2 hour jeep ride through rivers and beautiful gorges to pick up David Hanning and Nathen Persont.  We saw monkeys and a guy who did not know how to use the brakes on a motorcycle crash it into a wall at slow speeds.  Thank you retrieve, Ill try not to use you tomorrow.  

Results for the day can be found here: http://nepalopencup.org/.  Jamie Messenger has been keeping a huge lead.  Elina and Claudio Mota have made it to goal on EN C gliders, great pilots.

Nepal Open Paragliding cup task two. March 1st 2013

Nepal Open Cup 2013.

March 1st, 2nd task Day

Another great day of flying.  The task was an entry start at the end of the Sarangkot ridge, then back to the main bowl, then to highish on Korchon, then SSW of Korchon, Then to the Antenna Hill SSE of Green Wall, then to Green Wall Peak, then SS around Pame, then goal at end of the lake.  87.9km on the task board.

As I geared up for the day, I had the Lynyrd Skynyrd song “Double Trouble” on repeat in my head.  Humming a song to myself on launch helps me ease tension and remember that I’m here to have fun.  My goals for the day were to make goal as usual, and fly “with the pack”.  Yesterday my biggest lesson was learned by choosing a different line then every glider in front of me, it cost me a lot of time.  Before the launch window opened I spent a few minuets visualizing using other gliders around me to find the best glides and climbs. 

Photo Lisa Dickinson

I took off soon after start and spent some time getting high enough to move down the ridge.  The start cylinder was towards the end of the ridge in descending terrain, and I struggled to stay above ridge height just before start time.  I tagged the start 12 minuets after start time, and dolphin flew back to the Sarangkot bowl.  Soon I was back at Torrie Panni fueling up for my crossing to Korchon.  I was in a gaggle of friends, Harve Bundet, Binod Bomjan, and Robin Gurung, with a great thermal that drifted us towards Korchon.  I left at 2200m and my friends followed close behind.  I made it to the front of Korchon and right into a strong thermal, that allowed me to meet the next gaggle on the front peak.  My friends that followed would struggle low in front of Korchon for 15min, after arriving there 20sec behind me.  

There are some flights, or periods of flights, where everything is just in sync, this was one of them.  Every time I planned and expected a strong thermal there was one waiting for me that took me up to the altitude I wanted to be at quickly.  The human mind-body is a powerful thing, and on flights like this I often wonder if the thermal is there at that moment with that strength because I expect it to be there, scientists are learning more and more that our thoughts effect things at the most basic sub atomic level (spiritual teachers have known this for millennia).  The opposite can also be true with negative thinking.  Lesson: Be careful with your thoughts.  I was very “in the zone”, focused on the task at hand and the decisions to make, it felt great (but was not good for in-flight pictures).

Photo Lisa Dickinson

I tagged the Korchon turnpoint, fueled up and tagged the turnpoint out in the valley.  I choose to go back to Korchon and fuel up again before crossing to the green wall.  I was now flying with my friend Kristain Wajs.  We took a climb high over the East Peak and went on glide to the antenna turn point.  Back to the East Peak, tag Green Wall Peak, fuel up and glide to Sarangkot.  I arrived at launch altitude and caught a thermal with my friend Pawel Tomaszews.  At this point I was watching my glide to goal calculator and once it said 8.2 I went for it with Pawel, mistake.  I figured that we would have a downwind buoyant glide to SS that would make up for the upwind valley glide to goal.  I landed 2km short of goal.  Lesson: recognize when its time to slow down and stay high, and DO IT.  It was late in the afternoon on the Sarangkot ridge, and I should have known that staying high and taking my time was the way to goal.  Instead I was still in full power fast race mode, and the flying had been working great, so I flew into the ground.

Many other pilots landed near me, thanks guys.  We watched Harve Bundet and Elina Mota exercise great flying and patience and make it into goal, great job guys.  6 pilots made goal today but 45 reached the end of speed section.  

What a flight.  Tomorrow my goal is to make goal.