Hang Gliding that ridge provides a new perspective on weather. This time of year with snow cover, the air is as smooth as glass with no thermal convection lifting off from below. You stay up by tracking down the ridge in the region where the wind is ascending over the mountain. On a hot, dry August afternoon, air flow over the valley can be more vertical than horizontal thrusting you all the way to cloud base if you circle within a "thermal" core. Yet as evening starts to settle in and shadows grow, you might descend through a boundary where turbulence suddenly disappears and the decoupled air feels still and buoyant as the last heat of the day slowly leaves the ground.