Snow kiting the central Fells

gordie · Post by **gordie** » Tue Jan 11, 2011 11:35 pm

Managed to squeeze in a nice wee snow kite tour of the central Fells on Sunday afternoon with the dog and Mara. Snow cover was great above about 600m but we still managed to get the kites out at around 400m just above Watendlath. Went south for about 8km to just above the Langdale Pikes before turning back, just squeezing enough energy out of the failing wind to save a long cold dark walk home. As ever here's a vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKcTHyIfu_g

berow · Post by **berow** » Thu Jan 13, 2011 9:28 pm

Post by **gary stenhouse** » Thu Jan 13, 2011 10:47 pm

What's the depower like on these new foil kites? As they looked like they launched and landed well even on snow

Cheers Gary

gordie · Post by **gordie** » Fri Jan 14, 2011 7:49 am

Cheers guys its great fun and a great way to get an xc outing in on a wintery day. As for the kites you can use water kites (LEI) if you wish which do 'dpower' more then the foils but they are heavy and bulky and you have to carry a pump. Most of us use foils as you can take a quiver of kites with you. On this particular day I had a 2.5m, 4m, and 6.5m I also have an 8m for less windy days. Foils launch easy providing the lines are clean and are easy enough to pack by pulling the brake lines in to kill the kite. The new Gin kites also have some great saftey features for dumping the kite like the 5th line which snaps/folds the kite in 2 and dumps it on the ground with only half the kites size available to flap in a strong wind.

If any one fancys an outing then I do deal the Gin Kites and have a load of demos and can also offer instruction on how to use them. Just give me a shout if the snow's about.