Bogong Cup Day 1

So a bunch of us bolted out of hot dry Hay to head to Mt Beauty for the Bogong Cup.  Actually, the day we left there were incredible rainstorms.  I have to get some of Bog Jonny’s pictures.  There was a flat bottom Cummie maybe 100 feet off the deck.  Literally a gorgeous cummie at ground level.

 

The sky looked great while we were setting up.  CLOUDS!  Who doesn’t love clouds?  The clouds looked great until about 20 minutes before launch open when some high stuff took over the entire sky!  Not good.  Launches were uneventful and the lift under the cirrus was mellow.  A few fatties before the start gate.  A bunch of good guys hung back for the second clock and Oleg even hesitated and waited for the third.  About 5 minutes into the wait he bolted.  Confused, I hung back with Little Jonny and waited for start number three.  The sky was looking better, the cirrus was clearing out, and I could see lots more blue and sunshine.  The dash to the frist turnpoint was down a gradually diminishing ridge.  Jonny and I got a good line and left the ridge for the first turnpoint out in the valley.  On our way we passed pilots from the first start retreating back after grabbing the TP.  We did the same course line and by my guesses we were at least 15 or 20 minutes faster then those pilots we had seen going the other way.  Once back on the ridge the lift wasn’t very strong.  The north west wind we had been battling was dying down fast, and turning into a west with a touch of south.  That was great for the ridge we were on but the courseline called for us to cross the valley into the wind, and fly up the center of a different valley parallel to the new wind direction.  Thinking I was relatively high I headed out when my climb got slow.  I was at about 5k and that seemed pretty high.  Halfway across the main valley I realized how foolish that move was!   The valley floor is about 1,600 feet high, and with a headwind….you do the math.  I was already in survival mode heading towards the leeward sides of a valley mouth.  No triggers there!  In a last ditch effort I ran tail between my legs to the south side of the valley.  That gets better sun here late in the day and my hope was some fingers might be working.  No good love there and I went down in the only cowless field for as far as I could see! 

 

Getting my gear out proved to be quite an adventure!  The field below me was packed with upset milk cows.  I don’t think they like Americans because they wouldn’t quit the,” I am really irritated with constipation MOOOOOO!”  The field on the other side had double rows of electric lines and some big ass bulls in it!  Luckily an adjacent field led towards a house and a driveway to the road.  The adventures never end!

 

Most of the field landed between 40 and 50k around the 70k course.  I thought I understood how the scoring system works but I guess I don’t.  I got drilled in the day’s scores for just a handful of kilometers.  Oh well.

 

Kev C