The forecast was ominous. A north wind at 7 knots at 4,000' rising
to 13 knots at 8,000'. Launch height was almost 5,000' and the high mountains,
over 8,000', were just to our north. The lift looked like it would be good as
would cloud base, but would we be rotored by the north winds?

The report of the winds on launch were that there weren't any, so we all drove
up to the top to find this to be the case. I was still very concerned about
flying here, just in case the forecast proved true and what we were seeing was a
lull.

The thermals strengths picked up on the south facing launch and the winds coming
in at launch became strong and very inviting. Given the conditions a long task
was called at just before 12:30 and while I wasn't going to be the first to
launch I didn't want to be the last off. I got ready and in line with about ten
or fifteen pilots launching quickly before me. The conditions at launch were
perfect and I was off quickly myself.

Heading to the right I found smooth strong lift and soon was in 600 fpm. I must
have found something better than the other pilots because soon I was one pilot
down from the top of the stack and over 9,000'. Two early launching pilots had
headed north into the mountains and now three of us headed toward them.

The lift was friendly and I found plenty up on the steep rock faces after losing
some altitude going back about five kilometers and staying on the edge of the 33
kilometer entry circle. I kept an eye on the two higher pilots and on the others
around and below me as I worked the lift to get into the right position to get
the race start.

Moving further back into the mountains I left all the other pilots behind except
the two I was keeping my eye on. I was being tactical trying to get to the best
altitude and also the best position as I was now a half kilometer inside the
entry circle. I had to mix lift with position with the position of the two
higher pilots and I was almost at cloud base at 10,000'. Thank goodness I had on
five layers.

There were about three or maybe four levels of cloud base and I was climbing up
the sides of some of the clouds and busting through little bits of mist getting
around their edges and moving to where the air was going up in front of the
clouds. The clock was ticking down and it was almost time to go and I needed to
get just outside the entry circle.

I climbed to 10,300' and saw many pilots a few thousand feet below me. Sure they
were plenty high, but I was in a good position and it felt great to be able to
get it just right. I crossed back into the entry start circle just below 10,00'
a couple of seconds after the clock started at 1:30 PM.

As I went out on course there was one pilot out in front of me below me and
another just above me to my left further into the mountains. The idea was to
follow other pilots as I really had no idea how to fly these mountains. I was
loving the air and loving the view and loving the race, but I needed their help
to find the next lift.

After a glide of about fifteen kilometers the two pilots in front of me finally
found some weak lift. I joined them and soon was above them.

I was really missing that lift that we had over launch and back behind it.
Franco Rinaldi had said that the lift on the launch hill was generally weak and
it was better back in the mountains, but we just weren't finding anything like
what I had seen earlier. The whole valley was dark, shaded by the clouds on the
mountains.

Two pilot headed out one below me and another one above, one of the two that I
had been keeping tab on soon after launch. There was a  gaggle of pilots
below me who had come in underneath as we were slowly climbing out but I figured
I could go with these two guys and stay in the lead. That turned out to be a bad
idea for me, at least.

We glided along reasonably high starting out at over 8,200', but the lift just
wasn't there. I was counting on the pilots in front of me to find the lift as I
was unfamiliar with these mountains and they had to be locals. We headed across
a valley and after searching in a bowl and finding nothing I was a little bit
behind. I head over to a rock face where I saw them climbing slowly. I came into
the rock face 10 kilometers from the Belluno turnpoint and found nothing. What
were they climbing in?

I raced around to the west side in the narrow valley hoping that would be the
side with the lift, but I just fell out of the sky. I had to run back to the
main valley to find a reasonable place to land.

Seems to me I should have been a bit more conservative and stayed with the
pilots just below me on the first weak climb out on course. I could have waited
there for conditions to improve and I would have had a lot more help on the next
glide.