Well I guess I'll start it off here after two excellent days on McM. No doubt some kiteophiles (Jones are you there?) have been out around SW Colorado for months already but we haven't heard from you yet. Just now getting an actual base around Silverton though. The Putney anemometer http://snowstudies.org/NRTData/PTSP_1HR_WIND.HTM seems to be working great. There's also wind data this year from Senator Beck across the highway. I haven't kited over there but we must. All the CSAS sites report wind in m/sec which is close enough to 1/2 of knots.
Anyway...McMillan. Good to go. Still some grass and rock outcrops to help with the flat light.
Today Matt and George and I kited over to US Basin and back.
Molas might have enough? Anybody wanna check it out?
1:6:13 Reconnoitering day on Molas: plenty of good snow coverage, but barely a breath of wind. Nonetheless it was good to see folks out. Forrest got his new Summit in the sky. Thanks Glickster for the tow! On the way home, Parker, George, and I got lucky on Crystal Lake. A few inches of soft pow over fast ice made for great jumping with nice steady south winds.
Also, Lizard Head has a nice ride-able wind slab bridging the rotten sugar below.
While Max and Glickster were tearing up Denver Basin, George, myself, and a few others were trying to make flukey Lizard Head winds work. I did manage to learn how to shoot a few GoPro vids and pics. Here's a few clips edited on Windows Movie Maker before it crashed (forever). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhnR3Gm_CoY
A few days earlier, a passer-by caught me out with blue skies and steady north winds.
McMillan served up a sickbird day 1-27-13. Blue skies, warm temps, SSW winds 10-25, 16" of freshness. I'm learning what not-to-do with a gopro. I got fogged footage of Glickster's fresh tracks down the Putney Pipeline. Hopefully he has some good shots of it. Here's a video still of the goods:
Yeah wicked! Didn't take many. Too busy. Here's one of Hepp in the Tube. Had to call it 'cause my elbow was cramping so much I snagged my kite in the krumholtz on the knob below. Hepp comes by with a "Holidays are over! No tree decorating!"
Parker and I snuck out yesterday afternoon to the Mac for light but steady upslope west winds. Snow conditions are still great. Not quite enough juice to venture over into US Basin on the right side of the snapshot.
