8-17
July 2016
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Launching on Green Monster is often a challenge
(all photos from CXCC 2015, by D. Masuda)
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Matty Senior had asked
C.J. and me while we were on his trip in Thailand to help out for a few days at
the PG Nationals he was running in July. We said that we’d be there. As the
date approached, the weather was looking iffy but we figured that with the
trailer to sleep and cook in, we could survive a few days in Chelan. It turned
out that there weren’t as many volunteers as had been expected so we stayed for
the whole meet. One strange thing was that the weather was unusually cool for
Chelan in July, and we had two days with some rain.
8 July, Fri – We left early enough to get to Beebe Bridge
Campground before noon (checkout time was 1300) so we could snag a campsite. We
weren’t terribly surprised to see the “Camp Area Full” sign; we had seen that
before and there had been sites available. This time all sites really were
full. We pulled into one of the sites Matty had reserved the day before. But
before we had even started setting up C.J. found someone who was leaving anyway
and who wouldn’t mind getting out of our way so we could park in the pull-thru.
Later Chris Ammonson moved his tent over to share the site with us. After
setting up we paid ($20/night for the State Disabled Veteran passholders, $30
otherwise) for 4 nights and went up to HQ to see if we were needed for
anything. Since there was nothing for us to do we went to the Chelan Chamber of
Commerce Visitors Center and picked up some pamphlets on local hikes. One was
way up near Twisp but it was in the area between Lake Chelan and the Methow
where we had never been before. So even though it was kind of late, we drove up
to Twisp and then northeast along the Twisp River approx. 24 miles to the Twisp
Pass Trail. The trail was good and the hike pleasant although there were no
wide views until we had gone more than two miles, crossed the N Fork of the
Twisp River and climbed up onto a rocky area, about 2½ or 3 miles from the
trailhead parking lot. There was a steady gain of elevation from 3600 to about
4700 ft. We saw patches of snow on the mountainside to our south and snowy
peaks west of Twisp Pass (another couple of miles farther). It was well after
dinnertime by the time we reached the car and we decided to catch a burger in
Twisp at a saloon and café. The food was surprisingly good, which was fortunate
because there did not appear to be many other choices even on a Friday night.
Despite stopping for an hour for food (and 99-cent cherries at the local
grocery) it was still light by the time we reached Beebe. Chris and Patricia
were not there yet and we did not hear them arrive around midnight.
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| CJ(B) and C.J. |
9 July, Sat – Practice day with no task and no retrieve. We
had breakfast in camp with Chris and Patricia then drove up to help out on
launch. Back down in town we hung out and had lunch at the Beebe Springs
Natural Area. There were some interesting large iron sculptures of Native
Americans. Then we went to the Visitors Center to help set up for the pilots
meeting at 1900. We had the VC reserved starting at 1800 but pilots were
filling up the place an hour earlier since flying had not been great. The
organizers provided chips and salsa and at least one keg of local beer (Stormy
Mountain Brewery). After the meeting we helped take all the chairs down and
then went back to camp for dinner – well, maybe not exactly dinner. But C.J.
had brought her famous blueberry pie and needed to get enough people together
to eat it at one sitting. Susan, CJB, Derek, Laura and Jerry (from Mexico),
Josh and Michelle, Francisco Henriquez, Brian Franklin, Alderik, and maybe a
few others brought stuff to eat and drink to our picnic table and we ended up
having enough.
10 July, Sun – First comp day. But it was windy and there
was a strong possibility of rain so the task was canceled. Susan proposed a
potluck party at her place 25 miles away in Orono. We rode over with Chris and
brought something(?), bread and maybe a fruit salad, but there was plenty of
other things to eat. CJB had made a lasagna, Frank had brought his barbecue
grill and people had brought meat. Federico Wood from Venezuela and Frank from
Argentina did a nice job cooking the meat. Tom Ceunen was there with his
semi-official daily Nats video. Federico had a trailer for the movie he and his
team are making about a year-long adventure in Africa and ? Bruce Goldsmith and
his son, Tyr, were there (I think, although I hadn’t yet met him).
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| G with a neck cooler |
11 July, Mon – The first task was a doozy! Since the wind
was forecast to be from the west all day, the task committee sent the
competitors pretty much straight west with turnpoints at WTHPIX and DRYFAL, and
goal at the Davenport airport. Heather convinced us to drive out there so there
would be someone to welcome the pilots into goal. So, after we finished helping
get everyone launched, we drove the 2+ hours to Davenport. At Wilbur we stopped
to wait in the shade while we checked XCFind, a livetracking program for the
Spot and DeLorme satellite trackers. That showed us that some, at least, were
likely to make it to goal. So we drove through Creston and found the airport in
Davenport. We were the only ones there besides a few locals working on their
planes in a nearby hangar. We hadn’t seen anyone in the sky or on XCFind but
suddenly we got a radio call from a pilot who was approaching and did not see
anyone at the goal. Josh Cohn was first in (He hadn’t turned his DeLorme on so
we didn’t know he was close.), followed by Francisco Montares (winner of this
year’s Rat Race) and Robert Vandenbegine(?) from The Netherlands. It was pretty
gusty and Francisco got dragged a bit, even getting his reserve parachute
pulled out of its container. The pilots were excited to have made the task but
wanted their “goal beer” so I ran into the nearby Safeway and got beer and
Gatorade. By the time I had returned, two more had landed and Matty had arrived
with the official beer. He still paid for the drinks I had bought (and
previously, he had paid for the campsite fees as well). We jammed three guys
and their wings into the back of the Sorento and headed back sometime after
1830 – goal closed at 1900. We passed at least three guys (including Mike Steed
and Cody Mittanck) within 30 miles or so of goal. And last we had heard, Chris
was still in the air. (Yay!) Back at camp we cooked up some spaghetti for
dinner and saved some for when Chris returned late.
12 Jul, Tue – The task was canceled after the launch window
was opened but within an hour. People were already packing up as the first
raindrops fell. Later it stopped raining and a number of people free-flew. We
bought a rotisserie chicken at WalMart and shared it with Chris for dinner.
13 Jul, Wed – Task 3 sent the pilots in a new direction
across Lake Chelan to Fourth of July Mountain, then to the Airport and up the
Columbia and beyond to Omak.
14 July, Thu – Task 4 was Butte to Withrow, then exit from a
10 km cylinder around Withrow, back to Withrow, then Farmer, then north to
Leahy and east to H17BRK. Lots of pilots got stuck on the rim. Brian F., for
example, spent two hours soaring in front of and above and below the pyramid
houses before giving up and landing in the soccer field.
15 July, Fri – The BIG day: Once again the wind was pretty
strong from the west so the task committee called a long task to the small town
of Fairfield almost at the Idaho border - about 228km with the turnpoint at
Odessa (6km cyl). Almost exactly half of the pilots made the goal, an amazing
accomplishment for a task that is the longest ever called at a PG comp. Among
others, Chris made it so we didn’t wait dinner for him. I think we just grabbed
a sandwich at Safeway.
16 July, Sat – Originally, Saturday was not looking like a
good flying day but it cleared up and a “barbecue task” was called keeping
pilots and drivers relatively close to Chelan. Early on Mike Steed caught a
downdraft on the edge of a cloud, had his wing collapse irretrievably and had
to throw his reserve. He was right over the Butte so we all got a good view of
his bright red reserve as it dropped him down to the north of the towers. The
task was a 2km exit from the Butte, Bump-in-the-road, south to Douglas (east of
Farmer), north to the Airport and then to goal at the soccer field. After
getting everyone launched C.J. and I hung out at the soccer field and ate
lunch. We didn’t have long to wait before the first pilots began to arrive. All
was going well until Brad Gunnuscio took a collapse close to the ground and hit
pretty hard. He got up but complained of ankle pain and then back pain. Someone
must have called 911 because soon we had four emergency vehicles. [Brad had no
med insurance so refused an ambulance ride to the hospital, but after Zak, our
safety director, checked him over, his friend offered to pay for the
diagnostics and he went to the hospital. He must have been okay because he was
at the awards ceremony and dinner later.] Lots of pilots made it to goal again.
We went back to camp for showers and then around 1730 went out to the airport
where the party was to be held (next to the SkyDive Chelan hangar) to help set
up. There wasn’t much to do apart from setting up a few chairs. C.J. laid out
the awards on a table in front of a big banner. There were lots of bottles and
cans and two kegs of Stormy Mountain porter and IPA. The cold water ran out
early though. Matty did a good job announcing winners and handing out the
trophies. Afterward there was a raffle for some really good prizes – Bruce
Goldsmith had donated a paraglider (!) [Susan won], Matty and Graham had given
a trip to Thailand including airfare [Owen’s girlfriend Maggie got that], two
DeLorme SEs, lots of wine (we got three bottles and two big ciders, and a
T-shirt). While I’m writing about prizes, I should mention that Matty treated
the volunteers really well. He provided a lunch every day and gave most of us a
nice, small Ozone backpack. At the pilots meeting on the Butte each morning he
had prizes for the winning pilots but also gifts for the volunteers. We got
probably the most valuable gift – two punch cards for the Tiger Shuttle [Thank
you, Michael, for donating those!]. The
Overall winner was Josh Cohn with Jared Anderson from Woodrat next and Brad G
third. Jared became the US National Champion (since Josh had not competed in
the other comp that determined national standing – the Rat Race), Tyr Goldsmith
was the Sport Class winner and his father, Bruce, took third place. Igor Tolsky
(CAN) was second. [I guess those new BGD gliders are pretty good.] Bianca is
the Women’s National Champion, first US pilot out of the ten women who
competed. [Kari Ellis from AUS was first, Nicole McLearn from CAN was third.]
While there were dark clouds all around, the weather held for the dinner
(catered by Chelan Catering Kitchen, and very good) and the awards ceremony.
But during the night it rained pretty hard…
17 Jul, Sun – …and was still raining in the morning so we
got up relatively late. Chris took us out to breakfast with Patricia at
Riverwalk Inn. It was really good and not just because it was a nice break from
oatmeal and fruit again. By the time we got back to camp it was clearing off
and there were sunbreaks. We packed up and drove down to Lone Pine Fruit and
Espresso (and ice cream, which we had indulged in on two afternoons). We bought
a box of peaches and Chris and Patricia got a box of apricots, then we shared
them so we each had half a box of each. We stopped to get gas near Wenatchee
while Chris and Patricia were getting more fruit (real Bing cherries) at their
favorite fruit stand just south of the roundabout. Since the weather looked too
unstable in the mountains for hiking we stopped at Peshastin Pinnacles State
Park for a scramble up the north side of the crags and down a ridge. Next time
we’ll have to try the more well-beaten switchbacks on the south side. There were
hardly any other climbers or hikers there – strange for a Sunday. We found out
where everyone was later when we hit I-90 – they were all on the road. It took
an extra hour at least to get home in the slow traffic. We got home just at
1800 and picked some blueberries for Chris and Patricia before waving goodbye.
Matty and Graham did a great job organizing and running the
2016 Paragliding Nationals. Teague Block of Lake Rider Sports provided the
headquarters at 510 Woodin Ave, along with his local connections. Roger Brock
was the volunteer coordinator. Tom Keefer kept the vehicles (mostly vans
purchased via craigslist by Matty) staffed with volunteer drivers, and Susan
Brockway’s many jobs included matching up vans-and-drivers with landed pilots
using XCFind. [This year each retrieve van had a DeLorme InReach in addition to
a radio and cellphone. General communications also were carried out using
WhatsApp which required connection to mobile data or Wi-Fi.] She also oversaw
the lunches for the volunteers and did the checklist for launching pilots. Zak
was the launch and safety director and we worked with him fluffing wings. There
were no serious accidents – hopefully Brad is not badly hurt – but there were
three or four parachute deployments. The Nationals team is already considering
whether to do another one next year or the year after.
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