A Little Airtime

I got out this afternoon and drove down to the Northside. Steve and Val were already set up and ready to go. As I was setting up, Val launched and within a few minutes benched up and disapeared into the gap. Things seemed to be getting lighter so I hurried to launch only to wait, for the wind began to lighten up even more. After ten minutes or so and a few cycles, it was evident things were dying off. I launched in the next cycle and for the next fifteen minutes scratched around flying in and around a half a dozen bags. I was pinned a few times at ridge level by the bobbling flying thingies before committing to the lower LZ. John Linndberg had a similar flight but was able to top land.

Possibly Friday will bring stronger north winds!

Of Moose and Men

Today ends the week long evac training at Park City Mountain resort. All said, most everyone finished well trained and ready for a lift to go belly up! During the training, there were quite a few stories about lift evacuations when the weather was horrid. A scenario no one looks forward to. The last few evacs at PCMR was during optimal weather conditions. I can imagine a three hour evac when the air temp is -10 and it's snowing - yikes!




In short, the rescue rope is thrown from the top of the tower and worked close to the first chair. The skiers are lowered in a chest harness. Through a series of semi-complicated rope maneuver's the line is moved down to the next chair and the process is repeated.




The skier is safely lowered.



One of our local residents captured this evening on my camera.

Ski season approaching fast

The season is upon us! Today started the annual Park City Mountain patrol lift evacuation training. Over 75 full time patrolers as well as a few weekend volunteers showed up for this week long training program. The training includes rope ascending and other specialized high angle rescue tactics.

Saturday 10.12.07

Greg and I went to the point Saturday morning and managed to squeak in a bit of airtime. We got there around 10am. There were several para's in the air along with John Lindberg, flying his Falcon. We set up and waited as the wind slowly diminished. Finally a promising cycle or two coaxed us out into the waining morning lift. After a few top landings things got real light and we decided it was time for lunch. After a quick Mc d's run we returned to the Point only to find the getting light trend continued while we were gone. We hung out for a while longer hoping the predicted pre-frontal winds would manifest. No dice! We packed up and headed for downtown where we sat in on a session of the semi-annual USHPA board meetings - interesting.

Now and Then

Finally I purchased a new (well slightly used) computer. I had worked myself into a corner with my old 350 mhz G4. I picked up a powermac G5 dual 2.0 gig beast, and it seems to be the perfect system for my recording project.

My current project should be finished by Thanksgiving, if all goes well. I will post some pre-production, partial song files on the blog soon.

For your enjoyment, a few pic's from the Valle De Bravo trip this past winter


Cody and Greg chillin' at Fly Mexico's lake front LZ


The lemmings all lined up


Bruce launches after the lemmings trundle off