We arrived late last Thursday and went to fly Tiger Mountain on Friday. Tiger Mountain is the home site for Seattle's pilots - it's only about 20 miles from downtown, thus easily and quickly reachable. Even though there is a shuttle (12$ for a bumpy 30 minute ride), we chose to hike. There is an excellent, direct trail which leads to the launch and puts you on top in less than an hours walk (it's about 1800ft of elevation gain). We arrived on top at about 1pm when the west face of the mountain went into the sun and thermal activity started to build. No one else was there at that time, so we decided to wait for a while. At around 2pm I launched, followed by Corinne quickly after. It was great to fly, there was enough lift to stay up. One could just feel that a high pressure system was lingering above the area - the thermals were narrow and had sharp edges, and due to a strong inversion, we couldn't get higher than about 700ft above launch. We had set a little task that involved getting a turnpoint on the next ridge, about 2 miles upwind. It required numerous tries, but finally I managed to navigate trough all the sinkholes and drifting thermals and got it. After about 3.5 hours we landed after these great flights. You can find some pictures and comments on my webpage at http://stat.ethz.ch/~dettling/seattle.html
On Saturday, we decided to first go for a hike in the Cascades and went to beautiful Snow Lake. Back at the car, it was around 3.30pm and we were close to the Rampart flying site. Of course we went to check it out. Three, four HGs were flying high, but no PGs. Up at launch, the conditions seemed perfect. I spoke to some HG pilots which all confirmed the good conditions. Corinne was a little intimidated by the steep (almost a cliff) and rocky (easy to have your lines snagged, I was lucky) launch, and because we had heard that the LZ can be sporty, with strong winds and turbulent air. I launched and was immediately beamed 1000ft up, just by going straight. Whew, was the flying cool there. I got up to 7000ft amsl, around 2000ft above launch. I then pushed into a very beautiful valley for a baby XC flight of about 10 miles. Given the inexistent landing options below, I didn't want to push it further, although the lift was reliable with steady 800fpm climbs. The area is so beautiful there, alpine country with lakes and the mighty Mt. Rainier in the background. It looks almost a little like Switzerland. After 2.5 hours I went landing. Indeed, it was very sporty! Although it was past 8pm and the LZ was already in the shade, I got a 600fpm climb just 200ft from the ground. There was a lot of up and down, the corresponding turbulence and very strong winds. I didn't have much penetration and was even going backwards at times. Good that the LZ has a size of about 1 square mile. Though, there are obstacles: dead trees, rocks, mudholes etc., but I hit a good spot. A few impressions of that day can be found at http://stat.ethz.ch/~dettling/seattle2.html
Sunday saw us going for another hike in the Cascades. At around 5pm we were back at the Tiger Mtn. LZ and decided to go for a flight. So we hiked to the top and quickly launched. Again, the conditions were very favorable, and we even got around 1700ft over launch. Flying here and there in the Tiger Mtn. massif was easily possible with that altitude. What was also cool was that several pilots performed aerobatics (Tiger is a very good site to do that). It was great to watch asymmetric spirals, SATs and helicopters from closeby and above. After about 90 minutes we had to stop our flying, since we had an appointment for dinner.
On Monday, we were working. Our return flight was supposed to be on Tuesday at 11am. Well, we were in the plane and went to the runway. I think on the pre-take-off check the pilots detected a technical problem, so we went back to the gate. We were rebooked on a red eye leaving at 11pm and got first class seats. And we had the entire afternoon and evening, great!!! Guess what's coming, we went to Tiger Mtn. again. We hiked to the top. This time, the winds were from the south, instead of the usual NW. Fortunately, there is no over-the-back at Tiger, it has launches facing S, W and N (easterly winds don't seem to happen there). Flying the south side is more difficult - it is shallower (thus no good ridge lift) and it goes more and more into the shade in the late afternoon. However, we both managed to establish ourselves and quickly climbed to about 1600ft above launch, whereas several other pilots sank out. Later on, there was only one chance to stay up: using the thermals coming from the NW-face which was now under full sun. This was the lee side, so the thermals were a little punchy and narrow, and there was quite a bit of sink around them. However, it was cool. We could always grab another one, and spiral up towards the sky with up to 800fpm. Finally, we decided to go landing and after more than 2.5 hours, we had a safe landing.
So, 4 nice flights and about 10 hours. That (business) trip was very rewarding
Seriously, I'd recommend to consider the NW for a paragliding vacation. It's very beautiful, the weather is reliable in summer, and the flying is great.Cheers,
Marcel