The XCSkies/GFS forecast was for light winds and good thermals. I didn't check the height of cloud base. The French metrological forecast was for cloud base to rise to 11,000'. It is warming up with a forecast of 30 degrees at Laragne, 32 tomorrow, and 33 the next day.

The task committee sends us first 20 km west down the ridge at Chabre, then 56 km north to Bergerie De Roch Nr Obiou, way far north of Pic de Bure, the biggest mountain around. This turnpoint is a ski chalet high in the mountains next to a 10 to 15 km long rock wall. At the pilot meeting (which we were too late to attend fully as parking takes too long) it was said that this was a mountain so I didn't get the word that it was not the top of a mountain but a building lower down.

The next turnpoint was straight line through or over Pic de Bure to a hill side that I didn't go to on the first day of the contest east of Gap, Mont Colombis. Then back to Camping Montéglin. A big task, a big circle, in big mountains and small valleys, with few places to land and a no fly zone south of Gap to avoid.

The launch was the south face of Chabre, not my favorite but okay in the right conditions. With no winds, the thermals were bringing the air up the launch and sometimes over the back. But often enough it came up the south face to get 125 pilots off the hill. I don't think anyone crashed on launch today.

A free flyer went into one of the nice cu's above launch and came out on top of his sail with a broken leading edge. He didn't throw his chute during 2000' of the descent and then chucked it at 350' above the trees. They dragged him out later.

There were plenty of thick and black bottomed cu's above launch and it was easy to get up to cloud base at 7,500' in a few minutes, so everyone had a chance to take the first clock. The entry start circle was 18 km wide and a couple of km away. The difficult part was keeping out of the clouds as there often was sufficient cloud suck.

Some pilots had gone way down the ridge and then to the south to get on the south west side of the entry start cylinder, but many pilots just hung around west of launch waiting for the first start time. The winds were out of the south, so it would be a cross wind run to the center of the start circle.

When it was time to start I was at cloud base and near the edge of the start circle so I and about 60 to 80 other pilots headed out. Zippy was a little to the south and hit a good line. Most of us just ran the ridge line until we finally found the strong lift, and it was one thermal to the first turnpoint at the center of the start circle which was home at an 800 fpm thermal for me.

Because of the south wind the pilots who came the south direction got there first and ten pilots started out ahead of the rest of us toward the second turnpoint to the north. Jeff O'Brien stayed back for the second start time and Jeff Shapiro would wait for the third one.

I was next to Scott Barrett and he missed the thermal I found but he was racing along. We got together again as we came into Bonnet Rouge and found good lift. There were cu's every where and lots of dark bottoms.

It was peaks, ridges and thin valleys with a few fields all the way into the high mountains with strong lift and light winds. The thermals were a pleasure to fly in.

Fifteen kilometers from the turnpoint we got to 8,600', the highest I had been so far and again just below cloud base. I continually had to bail from thermals to avoid the clouds and I was always searching for the edges of clouds and the little holes at the edges.

Looking ahead toward the turnpoint I saw that cloud base ahead was 7,500'. I wasn't sure if the turnpoint was in the clouds or not. The clouds were clinging to the rock face which ran along our course line.

6 km out I saw the first guys coming back. Yikes, I was 12 km behind. Zippy was just behind them. Scott said he was 3 km behind them. There turned out to be very weak lift all along the rock face and I had to jump out 3 km from the turnpoint and find better lift.

The leaders were also running back along the second leg course line and not along the third leg which was almost ninety degrees to the second course line. There was a high ridge that was in the clouds in the way.

Scott made the turnpoint and kept going to go around the ridge and go on the back side toward Pic de Bure and over the much less landable area. The lead pilots were looking for a place to jump over the ridge line and head toward Pic de Bure and the next turnpoint.

I turned around and came back along the same course line as the leaders and things started falling apart. Nine km back I found good lift and climbed back to 6,800', but I should have stayed in that to cloud base, another 800', as that proved to be crucial.

For the next forty minutes I was stuck with a few other pilots in a hole unable to climb over the ridge despite trying to run through a gap in it twice. Of course, you couldn't see the other side to see if there were landable areas or not as I would have made the ridge line by a few feet.

The lift was weak to non existent. Jeff Shapiro who started at the third start time got caught in the shadows and weak lift and landed in the valley, not even making the turnpoint. Jeff O'Brien who started third and Blay also got caught and couldn't risk going over the ridge line, after they got high enough to see what was on the other side.

Finally I just forged ahead back down the second leg course line working other rock walls then jumping over lower ridges, going into valleys that I could finally see had landing areas and just going back toward Aspres and the main valley that would take me to Gap.

I passed up Blay and then came upon Jeff and we worked whatever we could find until we got back out to the sun where Jeff hit a boomer and finally we got out of the shade and out of the sink and could head toward the next turnpoint. Of course, as we were doing this a cu-nimb was raining just behind us.

We scooted over toward Gap finding good lift in the sunlit hills with plenty of well space cu's and got back on course. The Gap valley was blue as it seems to be and we headed for the hills on the other side of Gap.

I found 200 fpm which unfortunately I did not stay in long enough. Jeff wasn't finding any thing and kept moving toward the next set of hills before the last turnpoint. He found some ridge lift up on the hills sides which I didn't find and was finally able to get up. I landed near the turnpoint while he made it and part of the way back before getting too close to the no fly zone and had to land.

Zippy powered ahead and came in third for the day. Dustin came in late. About forty five at goal.