It used to be one of only two places in the US where Hanggliders are cleared to fly up to 21,000 feet and on a good day they do that.
I think your mistaken on your number. If your that high you need oxygen and a Thermal suit. The world record from what I can find on a hang glider is 13,000.
[/QUOTE]
Not mistaken at all. Been there seen it. They have oxygen. What the heck is a thermal suit? I wore a sweatshirt. I myself have been to 17,400 feet over Steamboat Springs. A few feet higher would have been illegal. It's easily possible to go higher than 13,000 feet without oxygen. You do not have to use oxygen to fly a hang glider but you will suffer pretty bad headaches later that day.
The lift in the mountains can be quite intense like 3,000 feet per minute up elevator. Launch at Steamboat Springs if i remember correctly was just about 10,000 feet. Step off into some good lift and in 5 minutes you'll be way up there (17,999').
The other place where 21,000 was allowed was Sandia Peak near Albuquerque. This was around 1995.
www.ushpa.org
"How high/far can a hang glider go?
This depends a lot on the conditions in which they are flown, but flights in excess of 300 miles in length and altitudes of well over 17,999 ft. MSL have been recorded. More typically, pilots in the summer in the western US will frequently achieve altitudes of 5,000 to 10,000 ft AGL and fly for over 100 miles."