Ritz-Carlton Magazine - Summer 2012 - (Page 80)

outdoors Blue skies The author and Jenna (bottom) take off from Truckee Airport on the Sierra Vista flight path, which reaches a zenith of 11,000 feet. The first impressions one has of Lake Tahoe fall into classic Western rustic categories: tall pine-tree woods, breathtakingly jagged mountains, and, of course, the bounteous lake itself. flight-path options of varying altitudes and lengths. We chose the highest and longest, the 40-minute Sierra Vista, with a zenith of 11,000 feet. Our pilot was Jan, who’d flown in the Royal Netherlands Air Force before immigrating to the U.S. in 1958. Any anxieties I might have felt about the flight were allayed by this fact, as by the disclosure that he’d landed more than 20,000 glider flights. Jenna and I did our best “Top Gun” imitation and clambered into the small back seat of our albatross-like white plane (wingspans range from 15 to 20 feet), sitting side by side. We strapped in as the clear bubble canopy clamped down on top of us. A green plane, attached by a 200-foot rope to the front of the glider, towed us along the runway before taking off and lifting us with it. It banked left while picking up altitude over gorgeous vistas of the Sierras, Lake Tahoe and Squaw Valley. When the tow plane reached our apex at a cruising speed of 65 mph, we unhooked the rope. The plane is designed to fly and land thanks to its aerodynamics. We’ve become so accustomed to flight as a noisy, fuel-burning, full-throttled battle against gravity that a “pure” state of soaring akin to that of a bird seems somehow unnatural, until one yields to its pleasures. The only other way besides a tow plane for a glider to gain altitude is by flying into thermals, the columns of rising air often found beneath cumulus clouds. Gliders drop about 100 feet per minute, but that can be countered by flying into thermals; if the thermal is pulling one upward at, say, 1,000 feet per minute, the net effect is a rise of 900 feet per minute. In long-distance glider races, pilots puddle-jump between these thermals to maintain elevation. In fact, hang around Soar Truckee long enough and you may catch a race — we watched part of one later in the day. Jan avoided thermals, letting our glider coast placidly through the thin air, a minimalist contraption that wastes no space or energy. The overall sensation was one of self-containment: your body contained within the glider, the glider requiring no foreign objects, just the lift of its wings. And it pairs two contradictory feelings: speed and stasis. There is little of the roughand-tumble jostling of a jet plane, yet the velocity — as fast as a car on a highway — seems far greater due to your airborne unfamiliarity. Gliding is a feasible activity for both the thrillseeker and her more staid counterpart. Indeed, the sensation was liberating — except for the fact that I’d unwisely peered through my camera as we made our original ascent. As someone who can’t read more than a sentence in a car without getting dizzy, I’d foolishly given myself motion sickness. Jan sympathetically checked in on me several times until he piloted us back to the runway, thrillingly buzzing a mountaintop watchtower on the way, for as soft a landing as I’ve ever had in a plane. We had conquered the air. The next element was the water, or an airy experience of water through parasailing. At Kings Beach, where the water is clear enough to see to the bottom of the shallows and stand-up paddle boaters pepper the surface, we found North Shore Parasail. It offered three lengths of ropes: 80 w w w. r i t z c a r lt o n . c o m From Top: Teddy Wayne (2); Soar Truckee http://WWW.RITZCARLTON.COM

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Ritz-Carlton Magazine - Summer 2012

Ritz-Carlton Magazine - Summer 2012
Table of Contents
Contributors
Editor’s Letter
President’s Letter
Falling in Love With ... Boston
Technology
Design
On the Boulevards
Shopping
Jewelry
Watches
Family Travel
Wellness
Outdoors
Barcelona
Istanbul
Fashion
Culinary
Let Us Stay With You
Heritage

Ritz-Carlton Magazine - Summer 2012