It was a great day Thursday with conditions being close to ideal for a challenging task. Thermal tops were not much above 7000 feet msl. Weather was sunny with a few cumulus marking thermals. The task was an 80+ km loop that took us from Burnt to Grant Pass area, then east to Gold Hill, back to Burnt, then to Jacksonville, and finishing at Donatos.

I found the task very challenging with my top height at 6700 feet msl. Not as high as I have been previously. On the training days I was climbing to 9000 feet msl.

After the start we headed toward Grant but with a strong southerly wind I found it difficult. I kept being pushed into the north valley, so had to push up wind often to stay on course. This made the first leg slow. After tagging Grant, I retraced my line along the ridge and then headed into the north valley toward Gold hill. This is where climbs were more difficult to find and broken. Trying to fly the sunny faces and staying on ridges, There were many scattered pilots working together in small groups to maximize the climbs that were there. One of the thermals had my wing talking to me, but the glider held up and finally after topping out at 6500 feet msl I tagged Gold Hill and the proceeded to head toward Burnt. Still working to get a little higher with a few other pilots we headed toward Burnt across some remote areas. About halfway from Gold Hill to Burnt I found a decent climb and made my highest gain of the day to 6700 feet msl.

I got quite a bit of sink toward Burnt and found myself at ridge height when arriving there so I was unable to tag the turn point. I had to continue and ended up super low 400 feet agl just above the bail out LZ. Finally found a good climb and was able to get back up to 5300 feet msl. Hoping Burnt would work I went a tagged the turn point, but climbs were barely there to non-existent and I was on search mode for a long time and actually losing altitude. I went back to Woodrat and got back up to the 5000 foot height and headed to Burnt again. Got a weak climb and then headed to Jacksonville. Getting the Jacksonville turn point and being a little low I saw two pilots thermaling on the way to goal. Arriving about 300 feet below them, I found broken lift and couldn't get a net climb and began to sink. I decided to work toward goal and try some of the small ridges and points, but just found small light thermals that really just maintained my altitude. At this point there was a headwind and being low ended up landing about 15 km from goal.

Still enjoy these comps as I always have my best flights of the year. Ended up with about 66 km and over 4 hours of airtime.

Today is sunny and hot. looks like there will be blue thermals all day.

Cheers