Sandia

I was headed to Albuquerque for a few days and decided to strap on the glider and make it a road trip. First stop was Sandia Peak. Its been blown out the days I had available to fly so I haven't actually flown it, but the set up is worth describing.
Its a high (10,300) launch just outside of town-- the LZ is in town. The peak launch is H4 only, but there is also a Sandia Crest launch for the little people(yes still including myself), actually a bit higher.
The peak is not exactly your typical hg launch. There is a tram that goes to the top (and a restaurant, giftshop,etc), and they are happy to strap your wing onto the top of the gondola. The normal ticket is $15 bucks and I was expecting you'd pay extra for the wing but actually they just charge half price since its a one-way ticket. How cool is that?
The setup area is rocky (worn smooth though) and level and immediately adjacent to the launch. The launch is a steep, narrow, but smooth "impoved dirt" ramp (actually looks like fine gravel but I don't think it could stick to that slope by itself), that falls away nearly vertical at the end. It reminds me of Walt's but steeper if that's possible. Nice ridge to either side, spines on either side but quite some distance out. I also checked out the LZ, more on that later.
Right now I'm in Santa Fe, with tentative plans to fly La Bajada, a nearby mesa (southwest of town) that takes NW wind (what we have) well for ridge lift and often good thermal potential. Weatherman sez wind will back off tomorrow but its still howling at 7 PM so we'll see. The country around here is spectacular and I'm really hoping to see it from the air. Soon.
Looking through my bag it appears I packed the wrong camera cable so I can't upload pics, which kind of sucks but there you go.