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View Full Version : Video - Radical Lofting On The Snow


ricki
12-04-2008, 09:25 AM
Michael put a link up to this earlier but I thought it deserved its own post. It is the most remarkable case of uplift lofting that I can recall since Erik Eck's famous trip in 2002 Oahu. This case happened more recently perhaps in November 2008.

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Some details about what happened appear below:

The accident highlights the dangers of the extreme sport of snowkiting, a cross between snowboarding and kitesurfing in which enthusiasts attached to large kites harness the power of the wind to perform stunts at winter resorts.

In the footage, which is believed to have been filmed in Algeria, the snowkiter is seen travelling in circles on the ground in an effort to build up speed, when a sudden gust sucks him vertically into the air.

The man, who is named in the clip as Algerian extreme sportsman Malik Bouchenafa, narrowly avoids crashing into a brick wall, but refuses to let go of the handle as the wind pulls him higher into the sky.

Mr Bouchenafa's friends on the crowd cry out in fear as he becomes no more than a small dot in the sky, the wind buffeting and spinning his body in all directions. After nearly 30 seconds in the air he plummets to earth on higher ground, just a few feet from a formation of rocks sticking out through the snow.

Despite his ordeal it appears Mr Bouchenafa was uninjured, as later in the footage he is shown boarding back down the hill carrying his kite.

Commenters on the clip, which was posted on YouTube last week, criticised Mr Bouchenafa for risking his life, one describing him as "a person who has totally lost their grip on reality".

Another accused the Algerian, who is known as Magic Malik and made his name as a kitesurfer on water, of using methods suitable for the ocean in an entirely inappropriate situation. "You do not use sea-kite techniques in the mountains, the rangers have better things to do," he wrote.
From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3530881/Snowkiter-sucked-hundreds-of-feet-into-air-in-terrifying-footage.html

and at:
http://www.kiteforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2353030

Ridge lift has caught a number of kiters over the years usually after they're already airborne however. You can compare it to Erik's lofting in Oahu years back;

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I understand Erik hopped over some lines and then went all the way up. Other guys have been lofted then bumped up by ridge lift. It is a common goal of soaring gliders to take the elevator up in a zone of ridge lift. Not sure why it hasn't been a more common problem with kiters. It seems to be a rare thing for us.

ricki
12-04-2008, 09:26 AM
I asked for input from glider pilots on what they saw in the video. Kenny out of Utah came up with the following:

I was wondering what some of the glider pilots noted in the video?


There are a few things I noticed:
1. He has an old kite with no depower, so he had no way of controlling the altitude of his flight. When a gust picked him up, he had to go with it or quickly detach himself from the kite.
2. He was panicking while in the air. The panic was evident in his body gyrations. Fortunately, he managed to keep the kite overhead most of the time and even more fortunately, he did not land on one of those massive boulders nearby.
3. He landed fairly hard. An experienced glider steers the kite quickly back and forth to slow descent and land as soft as a butterfly.
4. He goes uphill. I have had this experience a few times when I have been out on a very large kite and the wind picked up. Fortunately, I had a lot of depower, so I could control my altitude. Guys like Alex Petersen or Billy Bordy have used these type of conditions to go well over 100 feet above the ground. The difference is that they make a decision instead of unintentionally going high - plus they do it with control.
5. The best part of the video is the guys freaking out in the background. They sound like crazed tribal warriors.

ricki
12-04-2008, 09:30 AM
Here is a diagram of ridge lift from a glider site. Given how rare this is for kiters and common for soaring gliders, I suspect there is more to grabbing a strong area of lift or standing pressure wave than readily comes to mind.

http://www.drjack.info/INFO/DELMONTE/img15.jpg
From: [http://www.drjack.info/INFO/DELMONTE/toc.page.html

When gliders drift downwind out of the area or lift, they slip into areas of wind shadow induced turbulence or rotor. They sink out there and come to earth sometimes hard. You can see this in both video clips. Soaring gliders work hard to not drift out of the lift band and into the area of rotor. If they do damaged gear and injury can easily result.

ricki
01-23-2009, 05:28 PM
Has anyone else seen or heard of an uplift lofting case like what happened to Erik and Malik? Considering how coming gliders soar conditions like this it is surprising and fortunate, it is as rare as it seems to be for kiters.