Downwind wave flight. The goal was to fly to King Mountain in Idaho and perhaps some more to start our soaring safari to King Mountain and Nephi. The wave was quite epic with 20knots climb off tow and very reliable wave undulations downwind, with good climb every 20 miles or so, regardless of the terrain below. It was rather easy to make it to Idaho in 2.5 hours, averaging over 200 kph. However, once over Idaho, I hit a solid wall of clouds with tops at around 18K, blocking my way and requiring a detour to Sun Valley under a solid deck and no lift. The next 2.5 hours were spent trying to get up from Sun Valley using a ridge lift and rough broken thermals, which didn’t provide enough altitude to continue safely for quite some time. Eventually made it to King Mountain and even managed to reconnect with wave there. But the wave was disorganized and rough, and further downwind did not look any better with lots of moisture and rain showers, so I spent the last couple of hours yo-yoing in wave and ridge lift between Arco and Borah Peak for the 1000km and landed and King Mountain. Many thanks to my wife for crewing and making those long straight-out flights possible. It took her 12 hours to drive. Also thanks to Minden folks for the early tow and help getting setup. Quelle: ‚OLC, online-contest‘.