I was the only private pilot who flew from Truckee today. The forecast was pretty weak - 4 to 5 kts thermals up to 12,000 feet. But after releasing at 7,800 feet near Brockway, and I caught a good thermal over North Star's second parking lot, which brought me to 12,000 ft. Then I headed to Mt. Rose. There, I was able to climb up even higher to almost 14,000 ft, breaking the forecast. With that high altitude, there no reason not to venture out to Carson Valley, so I did, but once I passed Carson Valley, the air was totally dead. I went as far east as I could comfortably do, but didn't hit any clue of a lift. I turned back, decided to crawl over the city just in case those large factories and parking lots generated thermals. I went down as low as 7,500 ft, but finally caught a weak but workable 1 kts lift. After a half-an-hour test of patience, I came back to 9,500 ft. Gaining a slight hope to fly back to Truckee, I decided to use the hard-earned altitude for the ridge east of Sergio's elevator. I was just hoping a different type of airmass activities over the hills, but with a pleasant surprise, I hit a wave. The 2 to 5 kts wave gave me additional altitude to 13,000 ft, and that was enough for me to glide back to Truckee.


Working a wave (note the red line on PDA which denotes a lift)