Task 2 Fuerte

Today's task called for the usual Espina start cylinder then out to Divisadero (antennaes) then way out west to Santa Maria back to the Mesa and all the way across it to Los Saucos near the Butterflies and then goal was near Valle (LZ1280) again. Almost sinking out just after launching I managed to get out of there and glide under the clouds to the wall. I managed a decent start although the conditions were some of the strongest since we've been here. My glider was mushy a lot over Crazy thermal and it was hard to tell what was happening exactly. A mad start and we all 144 pilots or so pointed it to Divasedero on a mad glide. I flew right in to the notch and then climbed out of there with some friends after tagging the turnpoint. Nice one leg over and a fairly big one. Then out over the flatlands to Santa Maria. We gaggled up nicely, somehow, R. Sporrer and I teamed up again for most of the flight and were a great team. We climbed out of the flats after tagging S. Maria and then glide back over towards the Mesa where we climbed out of some nasty shit at Maguey back in to the convergence. I spotted Meredyth once back out to Cerro Gordo but a lot lower. Rob and I managed to cross to Mesa Verde on the way to Saucos and cranked it up and teamed up with some others. Managing to climb out of there after tagging Saucos we pointed it to goal. It was a 10km glide to goal with a 20mph headwind. Fun. Squeaking along on bar, I only had one blow out but ended up dirting 1.5km from goal. Just too much headwind. Rob took a deeper line and made it in to goal. Not sure why the goal is in the place it is because its all rotor. Riss Estes came in to goal and got trashed and ended up breaking his arm or wrist in the process. Impressively, Meredyth, after I saw her low managed to make it to Los Saucos but then her batteries died on her vario/gps and then landed at Saucos searching for the waypoint by braille. My flight ended up being just over 4 hours long, 2 hours of which were just spent thermalling! It was a great task. I think around 30-40 pilots made it to goal and lots landing just short in the headwind on the way there. SM
*If you blow up the picture you can get an idea of the amount of pilots there, on glide to Divisadero. Although the image doesnt do it justice, there are even more people behind me.