After three amazing presentations from our European friends Pal Takats, Markus Anders and Aaron Durogati on Tuesday and Wednesday nights it’s time for some racing! The task has been set and at 0800 this morning task one of the 2023 Global Rescue XRedRocks gets underway!
The PRO task is an 89 km straight line course that will take the athletes out into the edge of the “Swell”. All athletes will start at the Monroe LZ and head up towards Cove, but they can launch wherever they want- from Cove or by hiking higher. Strategy plays an important part right from the get go as there is no definitive great way to hike to Cove and right away we saw some big splits in the route choices. All Divisions must get to a mandatory ground turn point in the Koosharem valley and flying there is the goal.
The Adventure task is shorter, 52 km optimized with the same start and mandatory ground turn point near Burrville in the Koosharem valley, but then goal is NE of Fremont. In the end the Adventure task proved very difficult to as the second launch was incredibly windy and with a stiff south component to the wind our pilots were unable to penetrate and all had to land and attempt to get to goal on the ground (but none made it). But the Pro athletes had more luck, with a tail wind and nearly 18,000 foot base if you had good timing off launch and were patient digging out of some really tough conditions the flight to Emery turned out to be pretty straightforward and mind-blowingly pretty. The fall colors this year are supercharged and I heard “psychedelic” quite a bit in goal. Aaron Durogati won the day, putting a late move in the air on Samuel Inouye and Pal Takats and we eventually got 15 very ecstatic athletes in goal. Click here to view all the results from each day.
Tomorrow’s task will keep the pilots in the Sevier Valley as we are going to have stronger winds from the south and more stability. Stay tuned!
