An east-wind day — a different regime. The wind is coming off the desert to our east, so it's warmer, drier, and hotter, and this easterly/northeasterly pattern holds for a few days, so hydrate and stay on electrolytes. It's blue, high-pressure, and stable with a strong inversion, so the thermals are small and sharp-edged early — they have to work through the cap. The tasks are kept short and both finish at LongSword. The sweet spot is roughly 1–4 PM (model-dependent), with the wind picking up again around 5–6 PM.

This morning's read:

• No clouds → high pressure → stable, with a strong inversion holding everything down. You could see the contrast in the morning dust looking up the valley; it's harder to judge from the ground than from the mountain.
• About 6–8 mph east on launch with super-smooth air below — but the wind had already picked up aloft.
• Thermals will be small and sharp-edged, not necessarily rowdy — they just have harder edges punching through the inversion. It's the ratio of thermal strength to cross-wind that matters, not wind speed alone: 10 mph + a strong core can still climb clean; 10 mph + a weak, inverted core is disorganized.

East day — the rules change:

• Woodrat's launch only faces north and west; the other peaks face every direction. With a new wind direction, what worked Tuesday won't work today — re-read the terrain from scratch.
• Favor terrain where the wind hits the slope head-on (about 90°) — that's where thermals climb and ridge lift works. East and northeast faces are favored today; the east bowl at Woodrat Peak should work well.
• The west side is now leeward → possible rotor. It can still throw lee-side thermals (sun-warmed pockets rising into the air spilling over the back), so a west-side climb may look nice but be rock-and-roll. The north side of the spine is the safer bet.
• Use Windy or XC Skies plus the terrain: find the faces the wind climbs straight up, and check what's behind them for rotor.

The models & the window:

• RAP: nicer window about 1:00–3:00, lift 500–600 ft/min; it'll also show whether a more northerly influence is coming.
• HRRR: sweet spot about 2:00–4:00, climbing toward 7,000–8,000 ft later in the afternoon.
• Winds: east-northeast and stronger late morning (~12–13 mph at 11–1), lightening into the sweet spot, then picking up again around 5–6 PM. We want the wind to swing more north.
• Treat the models like three friends giving different forecasts — fly the day, see which one was right, and keep changing the plan. Watch the drift, not just the launch wind.

Launching on an east day:

• There's no easterly launch. Use the north launch (or angle across it to the northeast) with a strong, well-loaded wing, and stay away from the tree line — there's rotor behind it (stronger in stronger wind). It was smooth at ~6–8 mph this morning.
• If it's light, west cycles may let you launch west — just remember the working faces are NE/E.
• Read the wind before you commit: the gust differential tells you thermal strength (5→6 mph ≈ light; 5→10 mph ≈ strong), the lulls tell you how often thermals cycle through, and compression makes it slower right at the tree line. Sit five minutes and build the picture.
• Watch other pilots: how fast they track one way versus how slowly they claw back — the slow direction is into wind, and points to where the lift is.

Today's tasks (kept short):

• Beginner task: have someone video record you doing a perfect launch, then a perfect landing.
• Short task: launch → Woodrat Peak (work the east bowl and the opposite spine) → back to Woodrat Launch → LongSword.
• Long task: launch → Woodrat Peak → Offenbacher → Wells → an upwind leg into LongSword. Time the upwind leg for the lighter window (RAP 1–3, HRRR 2–4). If you get low, stair-step — thermal up and glide forward — because you won't make it by climbing again in a strong northeast.
• Get really high over Woodrat Peak and feeling good? You can extend — but the tasks are short so everyone gets a fun window without being pushed into weird spots.

Coming into LongSword:

• Moving between valley systems, expect a westerly component. LongSword almost always blows west in the afternoon, so there's a convergence there — lots of lift, but also a possible rotor zone. Don't push too deep past LongSword if the west wind is up.
• The LongSword turnpoint is big — you can tag the river, come back to Wells, then the LongSword LZ.
• Arrive high when pushing into deeper terrain on a windy day; coming in low costs you. There's a lot going on at LongSword today.