A little interview about me by Red Bull, talking about race preparation:
A NEW DAWN FOR THE RED BULL X-ALPS
Day 3 and Task 3, which means we are having great weather down here in Colombia. I got an early start to the day by hiking up to launch from the hotel, which is almost 12 miles. Even at 6 in the morning it is anything but chilly here, this close to the equator.
3 hours later I arrived at launch, started getting my gear ready, and had a very late breakfast. Conditions looked good again although the south wind was supposed to kick in later. Our task started close to launch, (whew), so no big race just to get to the starting line like yesterday. I had about 30 minutes in the air just cruising in circles trying to stay high. Which I did, until 2 minutes before the start, when my thermal died and I sank way down. I spent the rest of the race trying to place catch up, and finally did find Jim in the air as we headed north for a ways.
Turning south again wasn't as nice, as the wind had definitely kicked up. The sky was rapidly shading over and climbs were getting weaker. Many many wings seemed very low below me crossing the valley, and our little gaggle thermal hopped while staying high. We weren't making much progress, though. Paragliders aren't very speedy against the wind, and I think we went all of 10 kilometers in an hour.
In front of us, a huge cumulous cloud started growing, and then dying. Under a black sky with no lift, every wing I could see sank down an landed. We all made it about 32 kilometers for the day. Somehow the leaders were able to sneak through the sink and headwind way ahead of us, and finished the 86 km task!
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| The Start Gaggle....or a very small section of it anyway |
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