Saturday, March 9, 2013

Katabatic Winds

One of the hazards we will face on our trip to the South Pole is katabatic winds. Katabatic winds are created by the force of gravity pulling the cold air from the Pole down the slope toward the coast. This means that all routes from the coast to the Pole will have a prevailing headwind.
Katabatic-wind hg
This has changed my attitude about biking in the wind. Usually I complain when I have to bike into the wind, but now a headwind is just a way to look forward to The South Pole Epic.

This morning there was a 30 mile wind out of the north. We were suppose to have a group ride at 8am. Given the cold wind I wasn't surprised when nobody showed up. It would have been easy to not go myself and just get some work done around the shop, but now with my expedition in mind I figured it was a good chance to bike into the wind.

On the way into the wind I was going about 9 mph, but when I turned around to go back to the store, I was going 30-40mph. It was a great group ride of one.

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