Charley Warren
This flight started a long time before it actually took place. It started with all the preparation, buying oxygen, studying maps, getting survival supplies and packing things into my harness. Being sure that all my gear was in top shape and that I was physically and mentally in top shape as well. I had been abstaining from a lot of beer to stay hydrated and going to bed early the whole trip to stay mentally sharp. I was ready, and this day I was not to be denied.
John Ryan, the evening before, had advised us to get "our People" up to launch early. Leo and I rode up with Matt, who was going to take the day off to fish and hike with his family. After John's "advice" the night before I was a little intolerant of the foot-dragging that went on in camp in the mornings. Also having taken the day before off while my friends flew 70 miles motivated me to want to get going a.s.a.p.! We arrived on launch at 9:00am. We were the first ones there and began to set up right away.
The forecast for the day was good, with freezing level to be around 15,000'. Winds aloft were forecast to be generally out of the south and light. It didn't sound like there would be a strong westerly influence, which is the one condition that can lead to uncomfortable turbulence the quickest.
I was very anxious before the flight. I had to pee five to six times between the time we arrived on launch and when I took off. I was the first one with all my gear ready. I had set a goal of being ready to go by 10:00. I was right on time, taking about five minutes less to set up my glider, prepare my harness, pay the launch fee, eat a power bar and take another pee. Having only one previous flight from the site I was reluctant to launch first, but after being ready for about 30 minutes I was seriously considering it. Luckily Larry Smith showed up late and John Ryan asked for help getting Larry ready so John would not have to wait so long to launch. I seized the distraction. Three of us set up Larry's glider while he prepped his harness. By the time we were done Mike Kunitani had gotten ready and said he would go first. I was ready to go as soon as I saw him go up. Andy snuck in front of me so I had to wait a little longer. Mike went to the right and didn't find any lift. Before long he was low over the switchbacks on the road up to launch. Apparently Andy didn't like the looks of this and to my amazement he backed off of launch. I stepped up to the edge and saw that Mike was low, but he was working lift and at least maintaining his altitude. I gathered my wits and was off. I launched at 10:50. Walts Point is a really nice launch, very steep. I went to the left, straight for the switchbacks. As soon as I got over the spine I started finding workable lift. Before long I was over take-off. I guess I encouraged a lot of people cause they all began to launch as soon as they were ready. Andy was the first to get up to where I was and he was soon on course after that. Next came Leo, who I think launched right behind me. When Leo started to go out on course I figured that if I didn't go with him I might get left behind. With my glider being slower than all my friends' I decided that I better try to race or they would all get away from me. So, at 11,800' over Wonoga Peak, I headed north.
The air across the first bowl was fairly buoyant and I lost only about 800' getting around it. There was nice lift on the north end of the bowl. After not seeing the tall mountain peaks Monday I made it a point to stop and take some pictures. I took a couple around the Lone Pine area then moved on. The lift was very good and soon I was higher than the highest peaks of the Sierra! Flying north, I took some time to orient myself on the map and figure out which mountains were which. By the time I figured out exactly where I was I was approaching Mt Whitney.
The drivers were down in the valley by now and were reporting very light and southerly winds on the ground. There was a very humorous bit of radio chatter around here. John Ryan asked if one of the drivers could call his wife on the phone and ask her to switch to our radio frequency. Annie or Jackie, I don't know which, misunderstood him to say that he wanted them to call his wife and ask her to make him a sandwich. We were trying to keep radio traffic to a minimum and it was all I could do to not respond with some funny reply. Leo was telling people to shut up on the radio all day. Turns out he couldn't hear his vario over the radio and couldn't reach it to turn it down.
Here again, I stopped to take a couple of pictures. The view was indescribably awesome! There were glacial lakes littering the Sierra fed by melting snow, that even the first week in August was laying in huge patches all over below me. Some of the snow patches had turned pink, apparently due to some type of algae. I found myself saying "Wow" out loud, over and over during this flight. By now everyone had launched and many were on course. Some gliders that launched behind me were already past me. Now I concentrated on keeping up for awhile. I would skip any ridge that I flew across that wasn't producing lift at that time. There are ridges that stick out into the Owens Valley all up and down the Sierra. Most of them have an area where they are steep coming up from the valley floor, then change to a flatter slope angle as they run west to the mountain range. Flying from one ridge to the next was a great experience. These ridges are generally around six to eight thousand feet high. Some of them have sheer granite faces two thousand feet tall. Diving in on these faces looking for lift was an awe inspiring experience. Sometimes I would think I was getting pretty close to the ridges only to keep going and discovering that I still thought I was getting close and never getting to where I felt like I was too close. The point where the angle of the ridge flattens out is often a point where thermals break off of the land and spring into the air, "trigger points". I also got pretty good at picking out good trigger points. Most of the points I flew at were producing lift. As I neared Onion Valley I slowed down and got a little higher and a little further back in the mountains. Cloudbase was around 16,000' by now. I would have liked to have been higher now, as this is where I began to lose it on Monday. A tip I had read from Bob Mackey said not to work around this area trying to get higher before crossing Onion Valley. The trick is to conserve what altitude you have and get across then try to get higher. So I headed across Onion Valley at about 13,500'. The air was not very sinky going across and I hit lift right away on the other side.
I hit the Kearsarge Peak area around 12,000' and climbed right back to 13,000'. This is where I caught up with Larry. He and I flew together quite a bit after here. I began trying to get a little higher and further back in the mountains at this point, I wanted to start getting ready for the valley crossing. While thermaling between Kearsarge and Lookout Peak a Golden Eagle gave me a close look. He came in toward the nose of my glider and flew the length of my right wing a mere foot from the leading edge. again, Wow! I could see his eyes and he flew in a mild bank the whole way. On north toward Lookout Peak the day was improving.
I was cruising closer to cloudbase now and staying there easier. At one point I went right up into a cloud. I had been pulling out of thermals as soon as the lift weakened most of the time up to now. I was now enjoying trying to stay at cloudbase to Tinemaha. I came under a medium sized cloud and was climbing under it in light lift, there were whisps all around below me. Since the lift was not overpowering and since I was well clear of everything I circled right up to the bottom of the cloud. Upon encountering thick whisps I leveled out and pointed toward the valley and the edge of the cloud. I whited out and a few seconds later popped out of the side of the cloud about 200' above the bottom. From here it was a cruise to Tinemaha. Somewhere around here is where I met up with Mike. I had gone on course before him, he passed me by a short time back, now we flew together for awhile.
As we neared Tinemaha Mike said he was going to go on north to Birch Mtn due to the light wind and cross the valley from there. For me, there was this nice cloud right in front of Tinemaha and more forming out in the valley beyond it. I circled toward it and leveled out when I got close. I took a moment to look south down the Sierra, where I had just flown over 40 miles in the last three-plus hours. I snapped a picture of the countless snow-covered peaks and glacial lakes. I flew toward the edge of the cloud and reached the base of it at 16,200'. Once again I allowed myself to get pulled up into the whispies at the bottom of the cloud, but this time I didn't go into it. I flew in whisps to the edge of the cloud and was off to cross the Owens Valley! John, Leo, Larry and Andy had already made the crossing.
Before crossing I invoked the spirits for help. I called on my Dad's spirit because he would like to be with me on this flight and my guardian angels, to help me find lift and make it up onto the Whites. After the flight whenever I closed my eyes for the next three days there was a picture of me soaring above the White Mountains. I realized later that it wasn't my picture but that of another spirit which I was having a psyic exchange with. I believe that it was my fathers' spirit. The vantage point of the picture was from about 18,000' high seven miles northwest of Bishop. How did a view from there get etched so vividly into my mind? The closest I got to Bishop was ten miles to the southeast!
The crossing itself was relatively uneventful. The clouds that were forming in front of me were now dissipating. I took a track to the left of Crater Mtn anticipating lift from those clouds. I stopped to circle in lift a couple times but never gained more than 400'. I passed to the left of Big Pine and as I approached Big Ears the satellite dishes were looking pretty big. I pulled into Black Mtn at 6800' having lost 9600' of altitude going 18 miles. That's a 9.9 to 1 glide ratio. It took about 50 minutes to cross which works out to about 22mph. I came into Black on the left flank right at the top of the dark band. As I neared the mountain I encountered lift. I continued on to see what was right on the mountain and found nothing. I turned around and flew away from the mountain and there it was again, lift. This time I began to circle. At first the core was tight and powerful but well defined. Thinking about all the stories I had heard about how hard it can be to get up on Black and how scrappy the thermals can be there, I stuck with my little core. It was going up nicely and the satellite dishes began to fall away. On the way across I heard Andy on the radio hanging out over Black. As I climbed I could see him. I also saw Larry. He was lower and way off to my right. Leo was here too. I had caught up to all of them on my slow old glider. As I climbed Andy took off, north. I flew with Leo for a short time here. I finally topped out in my first Black Mtn thermal at 15,000', an 8200' gain! There were big, well developed clouds the whole length of the White Mountain Range. I sunk for a bit as I headed north, down to about 13,500' by the time I reached the south end of the Bristlecone Pine Forest, where I started to climb again. I got close to Leo as we both climbed out to around 15,500'. A safe distance below cloudbase. Now I was thinking about dolphin flying. In lift I pulled in and headed north. Leo left seconds before me and 500' higher. Here's where I wish I had a faster glider.
I raced along the White Mountain Range passing over the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest toward Boundary Peak and eventually goal at Basalt, Nv.. Earlier in the flight it seemed that the towns were passing right along, but slow, at first. Lone Pine, Independence, Big Pine, Bishop. Seeing each of them fall behind me. Wow!. Now it was beginning to accelerate. Bishop,Chalfant,Hammil,Benton,Boundry,Basalt...
The Whites were incredible!!! This is where I learned the scope of my significance in the universe. I don't amount to diddly! Even hooked into my huge glider, hah! The Whites are HUGH! Mountains! Nicely rounded off and flat on top. There are very large flat fields at 10,000' and 11,000'. I couldn't make out the species of trees from my vantage point, but they were Bristlecone Pines, mostly. I had covered the last 55 miles in around four hours and was just about to cover the remaining 53 miles in an hour and a half. Like I was saying things were starting to happen a bit faster.
As we neared White Mountain Peak Leo had pulled away from me by a couple of miles. He called on the radio that he was, "nearly at 18,000' and runnin' for meh life from the cloud". Shortly I discovered what he was talking about. As I flew under the cloud the lift was increasing the whole time to well over 1000ft/min. I pulled in more and more on the control bar until finally it was pulled in all the way to my thighs. I flew this fast for literally ten minutes. Elbows locked, flat out. With the extra weight of oxygen, water, gear, etc. I was topping out at 48 to 50 mph airspeed. With about a five to seven mph tailwind my groundspeed would be 55 mph. Approaching White Mountain Peak I began to feel like I was getting sucked into the cloud!! I had already turned toward the valley and the edge of the cloud. Eventually I came out of the lift at 17,781', way out past the foot of the mountain, into the valley. And now all of a sudden I was in heavy sink! I was down to under 13,000' by the time I got back to the mountain. I was north of White Mountain Peak having flown a huge detour around it. As high and as scared as I got that cloud was still probably 1000' above me. I hope!
I had spotted Basalt earlier as a white spot in the desert. Now as I climbed back to 15,000' I began to focus on Basalt and Boundary Peak. Somewhere around here is where my oxygen ran out. It started to feel as if the nasal canula was just stuck up my nose, whereas earlier it was very comfortable to have in my nose. The flight path was supposed to be to Boundary Peak, then off the Whites, into the Nevada desert. By the time I got to Boundary I had been looking at Basalt so much that I just cut the corner and never flew directly over the peak. It was way cool to go off the end of' two major mountain ranges! I left Boundary Peak at around 14,000 or 15,000', I think. Remember, I was out of oxygen.
There was tons of sink off the end of Boundary to Montgomery Pass. I had to work lift over a mine to climb over the pass and glide into Basalt. Andy and Leo had gone off the end before me. They were about five miles ahead of me. As I approached Montgomery Pass they were around Basalt. Leo was chattering ceaselessly to Andy, I think he was mildly hypoxic, so I told him to shut up on the radio. They kept going and when I got to Basalt they were north of it. I landed first at Basalt. Andy landed next seven miles north and Leo landed with him within a couple of minutes. Not too long after that Larry came in and landed at Basalt and finally Mike landed a mile north of Andy and Leo. My flight was 5hrs 29min.. I probably could have made it five hours if I had a fast glider like Andy's.
Basalt is an intersection in the desert. No town. Seems like there are no towns in Nevada, only roads outta the place. Our driver, Annie, was waiting there with a wind streamer by the time I arrived at Basalt. Cool. The wind was east and I was gliding into a headwind. I gained 2000' at Montgomery Pass and judged that it would be plenty to glide in, but it was just enough. I barely had enough altitude to glide straight in and none to circle the LZ to set up a proper approach. I ended up just short of the good flat spot in short scrub brush and foot high boulders. Fixating on the rocks I flared high and bent a downtube. Damn! That really put a damper on a nice flight. The dampness went away quickly when Larry pounded in way harder than I and I started to think about what I had just done. Flown 108 miles in a hang glider, flown within 200' of the legal 18,000' ceiling for hang gliders, gained 8581' over launch, gained 10,981' from my lowest point in the flight, and I had flown five and a half hours, a personal best! The first thing I did upon landing was pee, then I ate an apple and a power bar while breaking down my glider. It was well over 100 degrees on the ground, but the heat was pretty tolerable when mixed with a strong dose of euphoria.
The retrieve was really too easy. Like I said before Annie was waiting at Basalt when Larry and I were packed up we threw our gliders on the truck and drove north seven miles to pick up the other three pilots. No standing in the desert for hours wondering if I would ever be found. There was even beer in the truck! even though I didn't have any at this time. We drove through Nevada, which was certainly more desolate on the ground than it had been in the air. Past Sopers Casino to the border where there is a fruit quarantine check point. It seemed unreal to go through the checkpoint after having circumvented it the way we just had. The guard had obviously seen trucks full of gliders before, as he asked if we had been, "just hanging out"? then waived us through.
Annie lived in Bishop so we dropped her off at her house and paid her. We then stopped at a Chinese Restaurant and had $100.00 worth of Chinese food to celebrate our flights. It was such a big deal that Andy Long had a beer for the first time in two years! The food was excellent. Most likely the best Chinese food I've ever had. It seemed to take a long time to get back to camp. We rolled in about 10:00 pm., about 13.5 hours after leaving to go to launch. Leo and I stayed up for another hour filling Matt in on the details of our flights. John Blacet woke up and asked us to kindly shut up, although he was more diplomatic than that.
There are no words to describe this flight or the things I felt and saw and experienced. These words I've written only tell a fraction of the tale, the fraction that mere mortals can understand.