Task 4

Today was an incredible day. The task called for the Cerpel start cylinder and then a blast out to Divisadero followed by a long haul out to Lapalin which was farther than Santa Maria, then back across the mesad to Mesa Dolores back to La Casa then goal at San Ramon, 70Km or so. It was another high pressure day with slow climbs over launch and at the wall waiting for the start cylinder to open. Finally with three convergent gaggles , meaning everyone all over the place ttrying to mix in to the other gaggles we were under way. The field spread out and then cranked it out to Divisadero where it was super rough, with gliders getting tossed around until getting beyond the turnpoint and then climbing out for the long haul out over the flats to Lapalin. The Lapalin turnpoint was over some of the nastiest terrain. I deep gorge in the middle and mountains on the other side, it was committing, at least looking. We tanked up there as much as we could and drifted back towards Espina and the wall. Ridge surfing the Espina cliffs finally drifted people to the G-spot and got boosted up big time. A glide over the mesa into the convergence line was easy after that. Tanking up in the ocnvergence we blasted out to Mesa Dolores and then back to La Casa, it was an easy downwind glide to San Ramone where I landed in goal, albeit slow, it was a sweet success after 4.5 hours of flying! Lots of people in goal also. Seems like the tasks get harder and longer everyday but still lots of people manage to make it. Its all about gaggle flying in these conditions even if there's only two of you to search it out.
The top pic is the San Ramone goal and the bottom is one of the start gaggles, yeah!
SM