I'll have to catch up on the pictures another time... I am pressed for time before it rains.
The great news is- I was second into goal today! Right behind Corinna! I actually landed first but I do believe she had already crossed... The not so great news is the task had been stopped (cancelled) and I flew OTB to get to the Sigillo LZ for ease of retrieval and proximity to headquarters. The launch for the day was at North Monte Cucco (back-side)- like yesterday's that was cancelled before we launched. When it blows north it needs to be somewhat light but today it was a little gusty at launch and some OD was going on around us. But I got off in a decent cycle, a few behind Lisa, and had a hard time getting up. I watched Lisa get low and I desperately hung onto some crappy stuff close to the ridge while she landed. It was hard to get any altitude and it was harder still not to hit any one or anything. I went to zip up and broke my already broken zipper again and decided that trying again was pointless in this kind of air. The bunch of us girls out there just sort of hung in, trading places and bouncing around- every so often someone would hit a core and then have lots of friends, but the climbs were brief and I saw rain just a few miles off. We pressed on a little down the ridge and then someone came on my freq. and said the task was cancelled. Stopped, whatever. I tried to confirm with Nicole but she was impossible to hear. I was not completely convinced that whoever called me was correct, and I was trying to confirm it for around ten minutes. Finally, I just made the decision to get down based on the way the sky looked and the fact that Corinna had zoomed away, presumably OTB to go land. I was just 300meters above the ridge when I dove over, and I got my ass handed to me in a big way. I wondered how Corinna handled it being on a bigger glider. I thought I would sink out right in the middle of Sigillo but I wound up surfing some serious rotor to make it to the LZ. Landing, of course, was just another adventure! But I looked around and saw that Corinna was just landing behind me and she was okay, other gliders came in but i think most people landed on the other side of the mountain.
I have no clue what the weather is supposed to be like here (and I am going to go out on a limb here and say that no one else does either!) for the next few days, but I am really hoping to get some big fast flights in. Preferably with a new zipper in my harness. My back is feeling pretty great so that hasn't been a big problem- just this damn zipper!!!!!
Okay, enough said- we are having a blast and Nicole is a really good dancer.