A thrilling last day

With yet another stellar forecast the task committee decided to keep things a little less aggressive on the final day with the hopes that we could get everyone back in decent time for a nice closing ceremony, some good food and a good sleep. All divisions would start the day at Monroe Mid and make their way to launch, about 7 miles up the road and couple thousand feet of vertical. Athletes could launch anywhere, that was up to them, but nearly all trudged up through the bountiful fall colors to Monroe Peak, where they would then hopefully fly all the way to goal. For Challenge goal was at the Love’s truck stop in Salina, 45 km to the north. Adventure had to get all the way to the town of Sigurd, a big stretch of 78 km through the air; and Pro all the way to the Manti airfield, 95km from launch. Conditions on launch turned out trickier than expected with cross, gusty winds, but most pilots were able to get off and get underway. The day was also more stable than we expected and several pilots unfortunately didn’t get very far. Patience once again ruled the day and once tall and away many pilots made good time of flying up to Salina, but the I-70 boneyard suck hole that has proven over and over to be a really tough place to pass once again ate pilots like a kid eats jelly beans. Fully 60% of the pilots landed in the vicinity of Salina. The Adventure pilots who arrived early set off on a solid pace north on foot, only to have pilots who took a lot more time by topping off every climb fly over their heads and sail all the way into goal. The same was true for the Pros. Tanguy Renoud-Goud came into the day tied for second place with his Niviuk Teammate Tim Rochas and was comfortably out in front and tall heading into the I-70 abyss and unfortunately it sucked him down to the ground. Race leaded Jared Scheid also landed, but he smartly side-hill landed on a little spine above town, walked up no more than 100 meters, waited for a cycle and launched. It took a solid 45 minutes to get out, but he finally did and flew into goal in 6th place, just one point in front of Tim Rochas, who placed second on the final day. All the results of each day and the overall can be found here.

This year we had 25 athletes in the Challenge Division, which was handily won by Robert Barlow. The Challenge Division is a really exciting addition to the race and we see it as a springboard for creating a strong hike and fly racing scene in North America. These are our future Pros! Hats off to all our Challenge athletes who trained so hard this year and made such great decisions. Can’t wait to see you next year in the Adventure Division!