On Thursday, May 15, 2014 9:53:36 PM UTC-7, gotovkotzepkoi wrote:
'TravisBrown73[_2_ Wrote:

;883604']We, up at Evergreen Soaring out of Seattle, WA., have a pilot

that recently did something that is quite phenomenal. He crossed the

Cascade Range, from the flats on the west side, to his crossing of the

Columbia River on the East side....and came back home, all on the same

flight. A true "double crossing" for us up here.

http://tinyurl.com/khz4vqe



It's only been done once before, by Fred Hermanspan, circa 1985, prior

to this (that we can think of.) Fred took off from Issaquah and went to

Wenatchee and back in his Ka-6. Further to the south and in the I-90

corridor, the nature of that flight must have been somewhat different,

though still epic!



At any rate, Ron has conjured up a truly exceptional flight, that I

thought could be shared with some like-minded types. Though a

higher-than-usual cloudbase day, it was his winter's planning and the

realization of that goal that made it special for him.



There just aren't that many spots back there to land. I haven't gotten

nearly back that far, but when I do squeak my way back a bit, I am just

left in awe by the mountains and ridges and rocks and trees and lakes.



So kudos to Ron Clark and his LS3.

I pitty the fella that actually wants to win a local cross country

challenge if Ron Clark is in the Grid.



Look at all of those pointy rocks!



~Travis

7U



Fantastic! It would be great to see a story on this flight with some

photos. Knowing the Cascades from my climbing days I recall just how

rugged, forested and stunningly beautiful the N. Cascades are. They are

by far the most impressive mountains in the lower 48. I can imagine that

the landing opportunities are very limited.









--

gotovkotzepkoi

Kudos to Ron! Very impressive.
We are trying to do something similar from California - crossing the sierras from west to east. While east to west was done many times and relatively easy from 18K over the easter Sierra, west to east was only done once as far as we know, by Brian Choate some 12 years ago. We are trying almost every year since. We succeeded crossing "around the horn" via the southern and northern ends, but not smack in the middle of the Sierras over Yosemite as Brian did. Maybe one day...

Ramy