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Flight: WY: Fog, Wind, Rain, and Snow

November 6, 2015 by Garrett

The onset of winter has been nothing short of a miserable pain in the rear. Snow levels have flirted with the mountaintops, down halfway to the valley, then back up again. We just get Seattle-style miserably cold rain with an incessantly penetrating dampness down at the house. It reminds me of New York and I do not like it at all. While I am bit backlogged and will be writing two more blog posts about autumn, I just couldn’t find the sensibility in sharing some blue sky, yellow aspen hunky-dory crap when I have been baptized into a meteorological crucible of misery.

There was a sizable storm with all sorts of energy that was supposed to give us some valley snow. It did not. What it did do was bring in a messy splash of clouds, rain, mountain snow, wind, and valley fog. I did what one naturally would expect of any sane, reasoning pilot: I went flying in it.

I encountered the same phenomenon I found in September: clouds banked up against the western foothills of the Salt River Range. That meant I could skim the tops in Class G airspace (read: it was actually legal), with safe exit options to the west.

I then cruised up the ridgeline, to capture the snow and the fog/clouds sitting in between the Salt River Range and the Wyoming Range. I was surprised to find winds approaching 30 knots at altitude, though turbulence and other factors were not a problem on the windward side. Then it was a rapid descent down to Alpine (with lots of carburetor ice at the boundary layer), while we waited out another full day of crap weather, accomplishing little more than growing a day older.

I already explained what this all is in the post.
IMG_1087 (48 of 459) IMG_1200 (161 of 459) IMG_1216 (177 of 459) IMG_1233 (194 of 459) IMG_1238 (199 of 459)

This is the same thing as the preceding images, except 4,000′ higher up. It almost disgusts me that beauty could come from such foul weather.
IMG_1298 (259 of 459) IMG_1308 (269 of 459)

While many have labeled me insane, there is no way I am flying over there. Bridger-Teton National Forest (sea of nebulous death) with Wyoming Range in the distance.
IMG_1321 (282 of 459)

Salt River Range. A bit high here due to ridiculously strong wind pushing me up in an updraft. Home is over there in the black hole of menacing weather.
IMG_1379 (340 of 459)

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