Rat Race Day 2 - Nick

Today's task involved a 3km entry cylinder at Rabies Peak, then to Woodrat, Johns, Donatos, and then EMK. It was going to be difficult, because they were predicting a max altitude of 6000'. I had an easy climb out of Woodrat, and headed right away to Rabies. Almost dirted right away, but my house thermal teepee saved me. It also benefited CJ Brockway, and we climbed out together high enough to start the race at a competitive altitude (GoPro screen grab of me from CJ during the climb).

When the race started, everyone drove to Rabies Peak. I felt like I wasn't penetrating to Rabies Peak enough, so I had to turn back and tank up near the teepee again. I had a buoyant line all the way to Woodrat, and climbed out nicely there. From there it was an easy glide to Burnt. I remember Burnt being a huge challenge in the past, but today it was easy.

I couldn't get very high at Burnt, and soon had to make a decision as to the route to Johns. I could take the plains route, or go deep into the valley behind Rabies. I saw a couple of gliders in that valley but they weren't making too much progress, they seem to be maintaining. I decided to take the valley route. I left Burnt with about 5500, but hit huge sink and headwind on the crossing. When I finally arrived I was pretty low and a little concerned about rotor. I couldn't connect with anything in the valley and found a nice field to settle down in. One other pilot landed with me. I think the same pilot that lured me into the valley. Evil. :).

Turns out that nobody made goal. The race division is definitely giving me a challenge. Like the 3 bears, I need to find a race division that's just right. I'm missing the "medium" difficulty tasks of the past...