Windy

Went out hang waiting today. We sat around watching the wind pick up all afternoon. I wasn't too worried about launch because there were lulls in the wind that were safe to launch in. It was the landing I was concerned with. It would lull down to 15 km for a minute then gust as high as 40 at times. After pondering it for a couple hours I made the realization that if I was at the ridge I would not hesitate to fly. And we land in top side rotor there. I set up and James followed. Jason played it safe and left his bagged. Launch and tow up was a non issue. Actually relatively smooth. At the end of the road I pinned off at 5000' and was soon turning in lift. It was a hurricane at altitude and 10 turns later I was at 6000 and right over launch. I was making it into the headwind but at 5km/h. I looked downwind and figured I could make the river easy from the height I had. But I chickened out and stayed put. Retrieve from that side of the river is a 45 minute drive and I didn't want to put anyone out. I watched James launch and tow past me. The drift was amazing and at 1000' over the ground I committed to landing. I took on a ton of speed and still was just barely moving in ground speed. A little rough from 50 feet to ground effect. Got the bar on the ground and waited out the gust till I could move. Like I figured it wasn't teh issue that I made it out to be in my head. I wasn't fond of the broken lift and major drift and gave up on towing again. It just wasn't that fun. James did the same. We packed up and went home. Lesson learned.