Good winds?

[elli]

I went last week with a buddy to Tahoe, we were at Grass Lake Valley on Sat and Sun snow kiting. The wind was very problematic. Because the area is shielded by mountains, the wind was an on and off deal in about 1 minute intervals. The wind shifted from over 20 to 0 in a few seconds. One minute I was overpowered, a few seconds later the kite sits on the ground looking at me. So is there a place where the wind is more consistent in the Tahoe area? I looked around and the other kites around me were also going up and down constantly.

Where is the wind?

E

[KillaHz]

The winds last weekend were WSW. I saw you guys out there and drove right passed. There is a big mountain that blocks the WSW winds at Grass lake. You get winds that wrap around the mountain and are really inconsistent. On E winds, the place is steady and super fun.

I drove on about 4 miles to the bottom of the road and went west on hwy 88 for about a 1/4 mile to the turnout on the right. That is Hope valley. The wind was more consistent and I was able to ride for more than two hours. There was the occasional wind shift, but generally much cleaner wind.

Typically on a WSW we go up to Red Lakes but it was blowing about 60 up there.

Search the snowkite section of this forum, there should be plenty of info on the spots in SLT.

[pablitotff]

I snowkited one day at Grass Lake, but have been scared to head up again since because the wind forecasts seem so low. If NOAA says "light winds becoming around 10 mph", I just figured I'd be driving for two hours each way for nothing.

I have no idea how hard the wind was blowing the day we were at Grass Lake, but I was flying a LEI 12 and was going consistently upwind (which I can't even do yet on water). It was awesome. The snow was light and fluffy and about 18 inches deep (I know that varying snow conditions make it harder to say what a kiteable day is).

I noticed noone has posted for a week or so... Has it been kiteable, and what is "kiteable" windspeed on the snow, anyway. Thanks for the Caples Link -- although I noticed that hour by hour the top and bottom windspeeds vary by as much as 10 mph. Example: If you are kiting on snow at 15 mph. and the wind drops down to 6 mph, will you still be flying, or will the kite drop?

Thanks,

Paul

[OliverG]

I haven't been up there yet to snowkite myself but I gather and have heard that so much less wind is needed for snowkiting as your planing resistance is so much less.

It also seems that the local scoop, which you can find by going through the earlier posts, is valuable as the winds, because of all the mountains, can vary quite a bit and direction plays an important as well for each location.

Good luck! I think there's still plenty of snowkiting to be had up there.