My first local thermal flight of the season!
The night-before forecast looked good, but the actual skies weren't looking too hot initially...a thick (from horizon to horizon) band of cloud was shading things out, and with the prevailing NE wind that meant it probably wasn't going to be anything more than sled-rides. But after an hour or so of waiting on launch we finally saw the edge of the band, and when it finally moved off, the thermals kicked in and it was good for the next 4-5 hours!
The air was still a bit ratty from the NE/cloudy conditions but it smoothed out as the afternoon went on. The best lift was to the extreme north, up past the north cliffs, where we got to 1100 m. Not quite enough to do anything with (ie head to Agassiz Mountain) as it was the only spot on the mountain it was working to that high. Had we found 1100 m in multiple spots we would have headed east for the first XC's of the season :)
Lots of pilots came out to bask in the sun and get their gear sorted after a winter of inactivity...about 20 pilots were out in the end. And the Riverside LZ has never looked so good, nice grass and bone-dry!