Bogong Cup 2008

Day one
Blown out and storms forecast today.. Twelve of us took a trip to Falls Creek with the French team for a look around... Nice place but not much in the way of snow!!! It would be great to see a task set over here as the scenery is simply stunning!!!

Day 2 Canned due to high winds… beautiful day for a trip to the Bright Brewery though!!! Several pints later wobbled back for an early night…

Day 3
Light Northerlies saw us set up on Mt. Emu for a 114km task via Gundowring, Ovens then Running Creek before returning to Mount Beauty airstrip. I had said I planned to be a follower today as I was new to the area (last year was too smoky to see on the one day we did fly due to forest fires). Oh Contraire! It turned out that I led the pack most of the course as the flying was so very similar to North Wales but in a much larger scale. Climbs were mostly 6 to 8up and were always above the peaks of the hills (around 4500ft). With climbs taking us to 8000ft on average and occasionally peaking at 9000’ the course was straightforward. Between the first and second turnpoints there was one valley where the glide took us below ridge height, and within attack range of the Eagles for some unlucky pilots, but the climbs were strong and we were soon racing again. On the glide to the last turnpoint I took a leap of faith when I spotted a paraglider launch into lift maybe 2km ahead and within glide, even when taking in the turnpoint..! This put me almost a minute ahead of the next guy (Oli Barthelemes) and I straight lined the next 25km across the ridge tops to make goal first on the first day.
Jonny Durand raced in ten minutes later having taken the second start so we shall have to see the results to find out who won the day!!