Would not call it brown sugar exactly, the wind deposited layers of sand that came to the surface on our May 29th, 2010 UpSki on Independence Pass. It did look a lot like Carmel swirls especially the last few pictures in the slide show. There is a video of this slide show with some actual video footage which shows Kristie packing up in some pretty strong gusts. A couple of kite guys were headed back in when we arrived and they caught this video of us with some fun comments.
Jon is just one of those naturals with a video camera and You Tube. I was there with the B1 test canopy and it was a good day with lots of very solid gusts, some in the 40 to 50 mph range according to the wind gauge at Loveland Ski area (which was almost a thousand feet lower at 11,970 ft and on the lee side of the ridge). His video diary of the event is fun and tells the story. The snow was ripe corn with some pretty good skiing but, according to Jon, much better riding. Still it was an UpSkiing kind of day and as Jon’s video shows, topped all other fun.
Notes on the B1: I had a packing inversion on start up that cleared when the wind got into the correct channel, Jon’s video shows me starting to inflate but he cut out the part where I spent a couple of minutes getting the inversion out. This was caused by starting the “safety chaining” of the lines too far from the lower canopy band. The new grid system has worked well and the tendency to start the daisy chain down the lines a bit can be easily adjusted. The canopy collapsed quickly, as can be seen in the video, even in the very brisks winds on top. John Standford, Kevin Passmore and I have discussed some minor changes we will incorporate this summer but the B1 and B2 designs are pretty much good to go. Kevin’s new carbon-fiber control centers are great.