Sun Valley Nats Day 5 Task 2

Strategy session

After yesterday's great task we were all looking forward to flying today.  The climbs were forecast to be a bit higher and winds, generally light.  A cold front is headed this way, so the prevailing wisdom was to get off the hill soon to avoid any excitement on launch.

The task was a dog-leg of 66 miles to Int-so.  Basically a route to the East that crosses the beautiful ranges East of Ketchum.  The length of the task was reasonable but, for many pilots - me included, just getting across to the East side of the valley was the first crux.

The gaggle over launch was compressed into a small area again between 9500' and 10,500' and the air was, to be polite, crappy.  Many pilots left the hill with minimal altitude to make the crossing.  It was very crowded and rough on the sunny, West face of the small foothills.  Many of us had our flights terminated by rough sinky air and insufficient working room to use what shards of lift we found.

View of the chair lift and steepness of launch

The gaggle that made it up and over that first ridge was high and going downwind when I got into my ride to HQ.

I'll update with the top 5 and more info when it's available.  At this time (9 PM) I know that there were many in goal with a smattering of pilots along Hwy 93.

Unfortunately, the National Weather Service has issued a weather advisory that forecasts strong winds associated with the cold front approaching the sawtooth area on Saturday, with winds increasing on Sunday.

Results can be seen HERE when available.
A time-laps of the view at the top of Bald is HERE.

We had one incident over launch which resulted in injury to the pilot.  His injuries were limited to ribs and clavicle.  Responders were on site very quickly to stabilize and transport the pilot.