ODs...

According to the forecast, today was supposed to be a booming day. However, as soon as the day started (or, didn't start), it showed a sign of a marginal day. There were no clouds in the vicinity of Truckee, and only after I launched I saw clouds far east, over Pine Nuts mountains and south of it. Clouds did look good, and blue thermals over the airport quickly took me to nearly 12,000ft. I was still dreaming of Mt. Whitney at that time. But when I headed Mt. Rose to get another lift before heading to Pine Nuts.. there was nothing there. I sled down to 10,000ft, and was barely maintaining the altitude. I went back and forth over the ridge between Mt. Rose and Lake Tahoe, hoping those exposed rocks on the ridge popped out a strong lift or bubble or anything. After spending seemingly forever time, there it was, I hit a solid core, and was back up to 11,800ft. This was sort of minimum altitude to commit to Pine Nuts. But at that time, my computer indicated 20kts of wind from the west, to I guessed that there may be a wave east side of Mt. Rose. So, I decided to go. Shortly after I passed the summit, I was in the arms of a steady 5-7 kts quiet sink. This was actually encouraging to me, because it was clearly a sign of wave. I kept penetrating the sink (thank god I had water today!), and finally the vario turned plus when I came down to 10,500ft. It was more like a wavelet instead of wave, but nice 3-5 kts lift brought me up to 14,000ft. From there to Pine Nuts was just a straight flight, and Pine Nuts did treat me with a 12kts thermal which I deserved. I followed the ridge, and got up to 17,000ft over Mt. Siegel. At that time, I think I was still dreaming of Mt. Whitney.

However, as I extended my trip to the south, virgas gradually came into my sight. Firstly, they seemed to be happening in only spotted areas, but as I approach them, it became clear that they formed a wall to block be going south.

Wall of virga north of Mono Lake

Without much choices, I headed as eastern as I could, turned Mt. Grant, headed as north as I could, turned before Churchill restricted area, then flew back to Truckee. After all, it was a 362km flight.



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