Mary's Gash, Mineral Bottom Hang Gliding Cliff Launch with Base Jumpers

The pursuit of human flight has been a path forged in dreams and cemented in blood.  If not for the greats, Da Vinci, Lilienthal, and Rogallo to name a few, chance happenings like the one below would continue to exist only in dreams.  The fact that I live in an age where I can safely and repeatedly drive to a launch and experience flight in its most organic form is not lost on me.  It is exactly why when I had the opportunity to work with photographer Krystle Wright I didn't hesitate to drive 14 hours roundtrip for less than 5 minutes of flying.  The resulting image below, an instant in time artfully captured forever, is the realization of that dream.  Read on for the full story.

Photo Courtesy of Krystle Wright

Mineral Bottom cliff launches have long been a staple of autumn for OB, Dr. West, and myself.  Last year I had to opportunity to huck off Mary's Gash over Mineral Bottom for outdoor photographer extraordinaire Krystle Wright.  Krystle and I had been talking through the internet for months, but finally converged in Moab last October.  That's no small task considering Krystle hops continents more often than most people leave their hometown.

For me it was a typical speed run to make it to Moab in time for a sunset cliff launch.  I met Krystle at the giant conestoga wagon north of town and we headed west into the desert.  The first day of shooting was hampered by a persistent cirrus layer that flattened the light, muting the red rock walls of the basin.  We set up on opposite sides of the canyon and, quite comically, coordinated the launch by yelling at each other.  We were so far apart that our echos took over a second to reverberate.  Only the piercing quiet of the desert would allow such analog communication.  Our hope was that the sun would peak below the cloud layer on its way to the horizon and ignite a short explosion of golden-hour colors, but sadly our patience was not rewarded.

A Roadside Toyota Camry Rendition of Lightning McQueen

The Mystery Machine

Mary's Gash and Mineral Bottom

After it became apparent the sun was not going to break through the clouds I launched.  It was the first no stepper cliff launch I've done in the Wills Wing T2C.  It handled the fully-stalled exit beautifully. I kept the initial dive shallow which allowed an extended tour of the valley.  Good lighting or not, launching Mineral Bottom is a spiritual experience.  After a superb flight I touched down on the soft sand of the flood plain with my soul recharged.  Late that night Richard and Kresta met us just in time to enjoy the last embers of our fire.  Late that evening the clouds gave way to brilliant stars that only the high desert can offer.

Cloudy Solo Launch





Launch Photos Courtesy of Krystle Wright

The Sweet Smell of Burning Juniper

We woke up in the dark to stage for a dawn launch.  As first light broke over the red cliffs it was obvious the day would reward us with a good light.  Richard and Kresta were going to exit in their base rigs as I launched so we would all be in the air at the same time.   On Krystle's cue Richard and I planned a staged exit with with Kresta to follow.  I would run off so I could capture Richard exiting just ahead of me.  It went off perfectly, except that my helmet mounted Go Pro died.  That was unfortunate because watching him fall away as I dove off the cliff was a view worth sharing.  After we all exited I was tempted to swoop their canopies, but I didn't want to add any surprises to the mix.  Instead, I swooped the hill on the west side of the LZ then tested my glide to the Green River for a future river swoop.  I never zipped up harness, but with full VG I reached the river with tons of energy to spare.

Dawn Launch
Photos Courtesy of Krystle Wright







Rigged



Richard and Kresta



Launch
Photos Courtesy of Krystle Wright

Screen Shots

Video

After celebratory hugs all around it we headed back up the hill to pack up camp and part ways.  On the drive home I opted to follow the Colorado River through the canyon it carves upstream of town.  The E30 sliced up the varying radius and camber turns with ease.  Even a eighty pounds of dead weight on the roof could not unsettle the original Ultimate Driving Machine.  On the way I scoped the next project.  I had to ford a few creeks on the way, but it looks doable.  I won't hold my breath for the next time four transient souls meet on a random piece of rock in the desert, but when it happens, it'll be worth the wait.

Fording Creeks in the E30

Time Lapse of the Colorado River Canyon

My First Cliff Launch

It's winter in South Africa and Adam stitched together 3 shots from my first Cliff Launch ever off the 1000' cliff in Horse Thief Canyon. I can still remember the butterflies, anxiety, and excitement as I walked out to the edge. The glider was my old Wills Wing X/C called the pink panther. The sail was so stretched that it handled different for every last flight. That combined with a heavy nose mounted video camera made for a dramatic landing (more like just flying into the ground) in the first flying scene of Horse Thief Canyon the movie. You can see it Here. The pink panther also lives on in Hang Gliding & Paragliding Magazine. It's a small color icon in the top of the classified section lifted from another picture Adam took.

Adam's blog is linked to the right under Batman's Blog or you can see it Here.

The White Rim 2007 - A No Stepper

I'll let the pictures tell the story...

That First Step is a Doosy!

More to come soon...

Furniture Building, Cat Deck

I've spent most of the summer getting settled in with Jo in our new place (which used to be her place). I say our new place instead of Jo's place because she has made a huge effort in selflessly giving up her house to make me feel welcome and like it's both of ours. I can only hope I would be that selfless if the roles were reversed. Thank you Jo...

Part of getting settled in was the need to find a home for things. As a result my compulsive desire to organize things has shown its head on more than one occasion. This usually results in a comedy of errors, because the more I try to organize, the more complicated I make it, and the less organized I seem to be in the end. In my quest I converted the spare bedroom into an office / cat room. Here the cats can get away from the dogs, have some peace and quiet and a place to hide. Space was at a premium so I decided to combine office items and cat items. Here's what I came up with:

Book shelves on the top and hidden litter boxes on the bottom. Ingenious right! I built it eco-friendly from scratch using a recycled kitchen cabinet from Resource 2000 and pine 1x12's. Matching the stain on the cabinet doors was a killer, but I eventually got a good match.

Rusty and Jasper were never outdoor cats, but they do like to bask in the sun in the afternoon as long as they can escape to the indoors if the need should present itself. Here's a shot of rusty in action in my old front yard.

Being on the 2nd floor presented a bit of an access challenge to the outdoors so I solved the problem by building a miniature cat deck!

Pressure treated 2x4's make up the frame which is trimmed and railed with redwood pickets. A little astro-turf is as good as grass for the old boys.

The last thing I needed in the office was a place for the cat food that the dogs couldn't reach. I built this today, but it's not stained yet. It's well out of reach of the dogs and easy to access for the cats, although Jasper is a bit portly in his old age.

Overall Jo and I are settled in nicely and the boys are sleeping next to me as I finish up this post. Now I look forward to getting back to more daring adventures than building furniture with the neighbor kid in the driveway. Snooze...