Std Class Nationals Day 1

Well Day 1 was somewhat a test of the size of one's family jewels. The task was a 3.5 hr AAT, running down the west side of the valley, then crossing past Mt Shasta to the east way out into the badlands, then returning by a similar route. Unfortunately the convergence line did not develop as forecast, so we had to creep across onto the lower slopes of Mt Shasta, which are very shallow. The few clouds girdling the mountain did not work well, and when we did finally connect with the clouds at 10,000ft we still only had about 4000ft ground clearance flying in over the forestry and lava lakes. You had to take every thermal just to stay in touch with an escape route! A lot of people were lower than me and that was my only consolation. I made a lot of silly mistakes but apparently fewer than everyone else, as the preliminary scores show that I've got a narrow lead of about 9 points. I don't know if I can face 10 days of this!

Here's a photo of one of the lava lakes - the nearest landing option is off in the far right distance. Ground clearance about 4000ft. By the way the internet here is so slow that it has taken me over an hour to load this photo...