Willi Muller XC Challenge 2008

Good thing I drove back to Golden yesterday! The conditions seemed so-so, but after waiting around on launch a bit, I got my ass in gear, launched and boated around Mt.Seven for a while. It was very difficult to get to cloudbase, although at one point I was a couple hundred feet below it. Everyone seemed to be struggling, as climbs were not consistent and semi-turbulant conditions didn't make the air especially plesant.

I was about level with Mt.Seven with I left for Pegley Arrow...I arrived there just above the cliffs as I was punching a bit of a headwind on the way there, and tried my best to work with what I had. Another pilot joined me (who was on an Ozone Addict - yeah!) and we scratched around for a while until I had enough of the crappy choppy stuff and headed back towards the main LZ rather than pushing forwards.

This decision I made was strategic for the competition; the Willi has different multipliers for different things: a multiplier of 10 for straight distance, 13 for an out and return with a return of 50% or more, and 15 for a full out and return. You also get bonus points for landing in at the campground. Sooooo...to make a long story short, I flew 11k's out and knew that if I landed back at the campground, I would have the same amount of points as flying 43k's straight distance! So guess what I did...

I didn't fly as aggresively as I probably should have, but considering most people didn't cover any distance, I'm happy with my normally laughable, 11 k out in return. I should say though that a couple pg pilots did fly 50k's+ which is pretty amazing, considering they didn't get above the peaks either. Today is blown out and tomorrow the forecast is for rain. The conditions change very quickly out here, so it's hard to say what will happen over the next few days. I was hoping to get some tandems in the mornings, but that hasn't happened so far. Anyway, I'm still positive, but I think this weather is starting to test people's patience!