Monday, May 25, 2009
up

You know when you drove out Hwy 2, as you passed Sultan, and then Index, as you just enter the North Cascades? How there are those giant craggy peaks towering overhead, stark with white snow on black granite? How it looks like a different world up there, like a big 3D postcard, not quite real?

I soared it today.

It was stunning. I left from Skykomish State airport, about 15 miles into the mountains. A very bumpy departure, because the wind rips through the valley, so when it hits the trees around the airport, it makes a turbulent mess. Once away from the trees, it was much more predictable. I played on a few ridges, then finally climbed up to a double-peaked mountain that I think was Mt. Baring. I doodle around on it a bit with the engine idling, to get a feel for things.

I arrived at around 5700', shut down the engine, and soared it. Somehow, as soon as the engine stops, it feels much more like being there. The mountain is closer, the wind is more real.

Voosh! Up the magic wind elevator. The peaks are craggy black granite, with a chute of brilliant white snow going up to the saddle between them. I see the trees turning far below. I can see rows of hoofprints in the snow, going up and over the saddle -- I'm playing in the mountain goats' meadow! I ride back and forth, trying to figure out where the lift is pushing hardest. I finally make it work consistently, and with each round trip in front of the mountain, I gain 50 or 100'; another rocky crag drops below; the peak (and therefore the lift band) gets narrower. But the wind is gathered by the chute into a big funnel blast, and it lifts as well far away from the cliffs as close in.

In a few more turns, I'm OVER the peaks! The granite gives way to the horizon -- and what a horizon! Vivid contrasts of rock and snow, jagged peaks follow all the way around the horizon. My two peaks drop away, and there's no other way to describe the feeling: I'm on top of the world.