Flew 4.5 hours at Truckee, and went as south as Mt. Grant. After climbing to 12,500 ft in a thermal near Truckee airport, flew down to Carson Valley, and struggled there for about 1 hour. At 7,500 ft, I finally caught a good one over a white mine north east of Carson City airport. But still the top was 11,000 12,000 ft. I gradually headed east to Pine Nuts range, flew south along the ridge, and only after I reached Mt. Sigel, I was able to climb over 16,000 ft. It was already around 3:30pm. There, I saw a cloud street starting at Mt. Grant to the south, so I decided to at least turn Mt. Grant. As I reached there, the cloud started to dissipate, but there was still working part. I went up to 17,400 ft, and the cloud completely disappeared. I only needed to earn a few hundred extra feet over Mt. Sigel again to get back to Truckee.


Lake Tahoe in the clear air

More photos can be found here.