After a huge day 1 our task committee hasn’t backed off even a little bit and two big tasks for both Divisions have been set.
Both Adventure and Pro tasks are straightforward but there is a HUGE decision to make right off the bat from the start at Poverty Flats. Hump it farther on foot directly to Cove and try to fly all the way to goal, or hike a much shorter route up to the mid launch on Monroe peak and try to piece it together? Depending on when the day kicks in and and when the wind picks up makes this one move a very difficult decision.
The forecast looks like increasing wind as the day heats up so getting off the hill before it gets too spicy will be the key. Check out this strong wing launch off mid Monroe (only about 6 pilots were able to get off the hill here and the rest had to continue on by foot):
Meanwhile over at Cove conditions were also picking up and we also had some exciting launches. Here’s Aaron Durogati on the practice day at Cove but conditions on race day were very similar:
Sam Inouye was the only major incident of the day (Chris Lorimer and Isaac Lammers both had foot issues- one from a hard hit after launch, the other from jumping over a fence) when he got in a dust devil low on the back side of Cove but thankfully a quick reserve deployment saved him from any injury and he walked away and was able to race the next day. None of the athletes were able to fly to goal after launching Cove and the racing to the north got really interesting in both divisions. Markus Anders got the jump on the field in the air but the chasing pack of Aaron, Pal, Eric Klammer, Lars Meerstetter and Jared Scheid all scrambled up to relaunch and were able to get ahead of Markus who was now on the ground. Meanwhile in the Adventure Division only Tom Kitto got in the air off Cove and rest of the field decided to pound it out on foot. The little bit of air time as all the difference in goal with Tom running over 50 km to take first followed in short order by a gaggle of very very hard men who all did 57 km on the ground and over 8,000 feet of vertical to make goal before the cut off time. Going into day 3 these phenomenal efforts meant we had a 4 place tie for first!
Next into goal (and the only ones who made it) after Tom Kitto were Stephen Guyette, Mark Herbison, David Preston, Josh Mazza and Brandon Hopkins. Each of these beasts did an ultra today with all their gear. Here’s at the take on the day according to Ironman veteran David Preston:
Tomorrow looks really really windy so the task committee is hard at work coming up with something interesting. Stay tuned!