Day something (5 I think? Thursday anyway)

Day something (5 I think? Thursday anyway)
Well we actually left the hill/Mt. today! It was strong west on launch. Basically today started as a ridge soaring event. A few thermals came through but the general feeling is that we were all pretty boxed in by the other gliders and therefore less able to take full advantage of them. Since it was so windy, most thermals seemed to be blown apart just at the point of decision to run back to the face or risk a low trip over the back. Many of us tried several times, each time returning to the front of the ridge. Finally I ran into a 2 m/s with no other pilots to box me in. I started turning and watched plenty of gliders come to join. We committed to climb and rode it to cloudbase as we blew over the back. Several pilots enjoyed a little time in the white room (some even pulled big ears and continued to turn!!!). Over the back, we all raced on course hopping from cloud to cloud. The sky was filling with clouds quickly (OD) and began to shut the lift down. I made a critical mistake and spent the next 1/2 hr trying to recover from it. Finally too low to get over the lake and surrounding trees I played it safe and landed upwind of the lake. Strong winds on landing made for a bit of an exciting approach through tree rotor but all worked out well. Check out the scores as today will surely mix up the standings a bit.