GETTING HIGH IN PAROWAN UTAH
I had been to a couple of the Marfa spring wave camps sponsored by Dick Johnson in the early 2000's so I knew what a Shear Wave was/is. Got to 23k+ in my 1958 Ka6CR. Great fun, some good story's from those meets.

Fast forward to a few years later in a early Region 9 contest in Parowan Ut..
Flying my aSW 20 XS.
Due to a 1st day navigation error I was about last on the score sheet.
We take off on this kinda windy blue day, Top of the start is around 10k.
Well I climb up super high for no real reason, waiting for the start gate to open. I'm up over 17k in the blue, when my thermal peters out and I bump into what I recognize from Marfa is a shear wave. I want to exploit this thing so I think real quick and turn off my logger, and slowly s-turn my way up to over 22k and drift way back to the NE. Then someone comes over the radio and says " Hey isn't that a glider super high about 15 miles NE? Jeez I was spotted. I pulled my hat low over my eyes.
The start gate was going to open in about 15 minutes so I lowered my gear and flaps and opened the dive brakes and descended down to 10k to get a start.