Pemberton Canadian Nationals August 9

After a two day hiatus everyone was itching to fly!  Light winds but a task was set to keep us out of any potential Whistler Express, north to Tender Mountain and then across to the Camel Hump before tagging Miller and then goal at Van Loon's.  Today's task was rather tactical as there were multiple routes people could take; you could be aggressive and stay on the more direct Miller side for part of the route, or fly the more known route and stay on the MacKenzie side and commit to more valley crossings.

Looking east to the Hurley Pass.

The lift was a bit lighter than I expected with slower climbs than usual for Pemberton...2m/s was the norm today.  I was flying with a slight gear issue (my pod closure knot popped off during launch so I was flying with my pod wide open for the entire flight) so I wasn't concentrating as much as I normally would while waiting for the start...fortunately I'm getting more and more comfortable on my IP6 that I was able to fly with my mind not completely focused on my glider and get myself more-or-less sorted by the time of the start :)

After tagging Tender Mountain I tanked up for the crossing to Camel Hump and arrived at 1400m no problem; I saw many pilots not get up on the other side and land out at the goal field below. Tanked back up to 2300m and then it was Miller Time.

I chose the more direct and aggressive route and decided to stay on the Miller side, but I wasn't able to get the climb I was expecting at Mt. Ross so I ended up scunging around the shady side.  Never got back up and ended up landing 3km short of Miller.  Bummer!

Coming up on the Camel Hump.

Meanwhile those who had chosen the more conservative and longer route had tagged Camel Hump and then returned to the MacKenzie side of the valley to do a re-crossing to Miller later on.  I think only a few pilots stayed on the Miller side the entire way back...Denis got up high and was able to do the rest of the flight on glide.

After I landed a whole pile of pilots overflew me on their way to Miller and then goal, doing the valley criss-crossing.  My big mistake today was flying too aggressively and not returning to the MacKenzie side of the valley when I realized I couldn't get high on the Miller side.  The spot where I normally get up on the Miller side wasn't working, and I didn't push deep enough to try the spot where Denis got up.  Sometimes being slow and conservative is better, as those pilots made better distance than me in the end :)