xRedRocks Challenge Day 2 2024-09-26

Day 2 task:

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This task today was pretty straightforward strategy wise: run up to Cove launch and go over the back. The adventure and pro division tasks continued into the desert, but challenge ended In the valley on the other side of the range. Weather was predicted to be light winds at the surface, increasing with altitude to be very strong at TOL. The HRRR updates kept changing between 25 to 40 kmh from the south to the east. Peak winds would be between 1 and 2 pm, exactly when I expected to be in the air.

I was quite concerned with that level of wind, and I decided to assess conditions on launch as to whether I would fly or not. We were allowed a drop bag to be brought up to cove launch, and I put my O2 system, a down jacket and my radio in the bag. If conditions were good, I hoped to be able to continue my flight on to the adventure/pro goal.

The Cove hike was hard. I went out and tried to maintain the same effort level as the day before - slightly above aerobic. HR hovered between 165 and 175 on the way up. I hiked with Keaton for a while, then caught up to a pro contingent (Sebrand Warren, Tanguay Renaux, Mark Herbison, Ben Walker, Aaron Inoyu) and when Keaton went ahead of them I stayed in the back. I hiked with them for a bit, before deciding to go up a different canyon. We met back up near the plateaus at the bottom of the last segment of the hike.

As I worked up the nearly vertical section of the hike up the last part of Cove, I saw pilots taking off and just barely maintaining altitude, so I slowed down a bit. No need to redline if I was going to need to wait at the top. Mark and Sam passed me on the way up. At this point, I realized that the HRRR model has updated again, so I checked it once more, and the winds had backed off to average of 25kmh at top of lift. With this knowledge, I was much more comfortable with flying the day.

When I got to top, I quickly grabbed my drop bag and then got ready to launch. Ben Abruzzo came over and told me I had done a great job on the hike- I checked my watch to see that I had make it up from the LZ in 1:50, a very respectable time. I setup to the side of the fly-in folks on the south launch. Tyler gave me priority to take off, and I pulled up and launched.

It was hell for 30 mins. There were no cycles coming through, and the one soarable face became packed with maybe 20 pilots, most from the fly-in. I kept trying to find a thermal- I searched triggers much further out than any other pilot, and I ended up low above the terraces because of it. I decided that I would land there and hike back up if I needed to. I sniffed out a little bit upwind on the terraces and was thrilled to feel a cycle filling in. I banked it up as tight as I could and fought hard to stay in the 1m/s core as it rose up the side of the hill, above launch and up and over cove. Damon launched then and joined me in the climb, along with Mark. When the climb petered out at the top, I fell off to higher terrain with Damon to search for a higher climb. We followed the ridge, and nothing on top was triggering. My prior climb was triggering around the canyon by the terraces, so I went to a similar terrain feature on this higher terrain and found another climb that took me (and Damon after he joined) to even higher terrain. At the top we joined in a group with a number of Pros (Mark Herbison, Tim Rochas, Ben Walker, Sebrand Warren). They had fanned out along the highest ridge and were all searching for a climb. I joined one and found myself quickly getting pushed downwind in the climb to the north east, and I left it when it started to really lean over. I arrived back at the ridge at nearly the same altitude.

I searched with the group for a while more, and Damon left on glide to the windward side of Monument peak, a little bump on top of the plateau. The prospects there looked bleak and there wasn’t much altitude to play with, so I stayed upwind and searched more on the upwind ridge. I took a climb that drifted me back more, and started heading towards Monument when I realized I wouldn’t be able to make it with my current glide ratio going crosswind. I made the split second decision to turn and run downwind off the plateau while I still had altitude to do it. The next 5 minutes were nerve wracking - I was going downwind and had a 30kmh tail wind, but was in strong sink. I pushed full bar and picked out landing fields on the way down. I remember my instrument reading 80kmh at one point. Fortunately, the terrain fell away at the same speed that I sank out and I arrived at the valley on the other side.

When I got to the valley, I immediately found a strong lee side climb that gave me plenty of altitude. Unfortunately, because I had gone downwind, goal was to my south, and I needed to fight a SW crosswind to get there. I followed a ridge in the middle of the valley which produced enough altitude for me to make it to goal.

I took more climbs than I needed, as I hoped to continue down the adventure course. Unbeknownst to me, Damon had found a climb on the plateau and flew directly from there to goal. I saw him ahead of me, apparently trying to lose altitude. He spiraled weakly for a bit (not going down), then pulled big ears and went upwind, then spiraled again. I found out later he tagged the cylinder 10 minutes (?) before me.

I arrived at goal with plenty of altitude, and I tagged the Challenge cylinder and then went back where I had been to find a climb I had passed on the way upwind. When I arrived, it had turned into a weak frisbee climb. after a couple turns where it didn’t get stronger, I turned upwind again to find the lift Damon was trying to get out of. I pushed full bar, and went down at 2:1 in massive sink and headwind all the way to the ground.

While waiting in goal with the other pilots, I talked with Chris and Lee, who had somehow arrived 30 mins before Damon and I, presumably taking first and second. As we found out the next day, Lee had the adventure task loaded, and he also tried continuing on before sinking out and returning to the challenge goal. However, the challenge cylinder was 200m, and the adventure cylinder 600m. This put Lee in 8th instead of 1st, giving Chris first, Damon second and me third. I was incredibly bummed for Lee and commiserated with him about it the next day- he flew very well, and was robbed of the win.