Sprint Rat Race 2012
By Paul Moyes
By Tuesday night, I was completely packed and ready to go.
Unfortunately, it was a full two and a half days before I planned on leaving
for the 2012 Rat Race in Ruch, Oregon. This was turning out to be a long and
painful week of waiting. The following day at work was sheer torture watching
the spot tracking of pilots flying effortlessly from peak to peak in the
Applegate Valley. A few of my friends had left a week early to get used to the air,
a brilliant move from what I could tell sitting in an uncomfortable office
chair. My wife found me that night pawing
over my paragliding and camping equipment for the hundredth time, so I’m sure it
wasn’t a huge surprise when I begged her for permission to leave a day early. I
was a sad and pathetic sight to behold. Arms stretched over the gear spread
across the floor, face contorted in a pouty grimace, I pleaded shamelessly that
I just had to go. She quietly took the whole scene in and then slowly broke out
into a small smile. “You are so cute.”… Success! By 2PM the next day I was
southern Oregon bound.
I arrived on top of Woodrat Friday morning, just in time to cook
a nice sausage and egg breakfast while waiting for others to show up. It was
shaping up to be a great day weather wise, completely sunny and 85 degrees with
a slight breeze coming up launch. Seeing a forecast of 55 and rain in Seattle gave
me a chuckle and confirmed I had made the right call to flee. By 1PM I was in
the air and climbing gracefully with other giddy pilots. I headed over to
Rabies with Randy Lettau and we caught a nice thermal up the ridge. The thermal
triggers were as obvious as I had remembered them to be, just head towards the
bald rocky slopes that face the sun and hold on for dear life.
Eventually I drifted over Mt. Isabelle and found myself
alone and wondering what the next move was going to be. That’s when I spotted
three Niviuk Artik 3 wings heading northbound towards Grant’s Pass. Making it
to Grant’s was a personal goal of mine so I quickly made the decision to give
chase. We stuck to the high ground in order to make the challenging Humbug
valley crossing and continued on with a “Get High/Stay High” mentality. It paid
off and after three hours I finally managed to sneak over the last ridge into
town.
One really cool thing happened during that flight. A huge
meteor went overhead from south to north and sparkled brightly above one of the
Niviuk gliders. I really thought it was going to destroy Grant’s Pass but it
fizzled out some 20 miles up in the atmosphere. Another interesting point I
discovered after the fact was that the Niviuk Artik 3s I followed turned out to
be DHV 2-3 Icepeaks. I’m just glad I didn’t know that at the time or I probably
wouldn’t have tailed them on a 1-2 Nova Mentor! All in all, that 1st flight from
Woodrat did wonders to bolster my confidence, and the cold beer and ride back
from fellow NW pilots Jeff Slotta and TJ Sopher put me in the right vacation mindset.
Saturday was a practice day which I desperately needed to
get reacquainted with GPS route finding. The task was called for the Sprint
group – Woodrat, Lower Rabies, Rabies Peak, Woodrat Launch and finishing at
Hartz LZ. I’ll admit that I was more than a little nervous heading into battle
that morning. During last year’s Rat Race I personally witnessed two mid air
collisions when we were all swarming together before the start. I couldn’t see it getting a whole lot better considering
there were more contestants this year than ever before. However, race director
Mike Haley instituted a staggered start approach right from the get go and it
did wonders to clean things up. Perhaps I’m wrong, but I am not aware of a
single mid-air occurring all week long.
Day 1 task was Woodrat-Rabies-Burnt-Cemetery-Donato, a
fairly good sized task to accomplish on the first day. I decided to play it
cautiously and allow others to lead out and mark lift. That left me in 7th
or 8th position most of the race, but only a thermal or so away from
the lead gaggle. After tagging Cemetery I couldn’t believe my eyes. The entire
group in front of me was on death glide, bombing out one large ridge shy of
goal! The unfathomable idea of actually being able to win this task all of a
sudden became a distinct possibility. Ok, I told myself, let’s not dart
straight down the valley like they did. Instead, veer right and claw the ridge to
maintain altitude. It worked perfectly and I managed to meet up with the Race
group heading to our goal.
That’s when it struck me. The Race group (Pro’s) didn’t have
the same goal as the Sprint group (Not Pro’s). I looked down at the Garmin that
I stopped referencing after having a “visual” on goal. It was pointing me back and
to the east. Oh no…the Sprint group in front of me did not bomb out, they
landed right at goal! I turned around and made it back, but lost about 8
positions due to that mistake. The shape of my flight track was literally a huge
question mark outside and around the 2K ESS goal cylinder…As if to say, what in
the hell were you thinking?
Day 2 task was Squires-Rabies-Burnt-Jacksonville ZL-Dark Hallow.
It was set as a modest task since less than 25% of the pilots made goal on Day
1. However, super lifty conditions were present enabling over 40 pilots to quickly
blast through the course. I once again stuck with the conservative tactic and ended
up at goal about 2,500 feet higher than needed. I was having a really good time
flying that day so I decided to keep going. Why not when you come into goal
that high, right? Instead of heading downwind I made a half hearted attempt at
reversing through the course back to Woodrat. The strong northwest wind made progress
in that direction impossible and I soon found myself back at Hallows pulling deep
spirals to get down the last 200 feet to the ground. I’m sure more than a
couple of pilots along with myself are still wondering why they didn’t continuing
downwind that day as an additional 30 or 40 miles was more than likely
attainable.
Day 3 task was Squires-Burnt-Rabies Peak-Wellington Ridge – Woodrat
Launch- Valley Winery. The challenge of the day was to push hard into the wind
to tag Wellington and then make it back to Woodrat via Rabies Ridge. That day’s
race leaders, Sandy Coleman and Randy Lettau, nearly sunk out heading across super
sinky China Gulch but they showed their true skills by managing to latch on to Lower
Rabies and spring off from it to make the dash back to Woodrat. Kudos goes to
CJ Brockway on this day, as well. She hung in there and made goal after a 4
hour fight. I barely managed to make goal myself after wafting around forever on
Lower Rabies. Finding myself a little disappointed for taking so long it
occurred to me what a marked difference that mindset was compared to last year when
I was just tickled pink to make goal. Does that mean I’m improving or regressing
in this sport? I can see it both ways…
Day 4 task was Squires-Lower
Rabies-Burnt-Squires-Burnt-Rabies Peak-Woodrat Launch-Longsword. This was a
really weird day as the lift seemed to almost completely shut down about an
hour into the race. That left most pilots clinging to the side of Woodrat to
stay up. It got pretty hectic with all the restarts and multiple crossings
through the launch area. Here’s a link to a video showing what it was like pre-start
that day…
I finally made it through the carnage and got established on
Rabies Ridge only to blow it all by thinking it was a great idea to head into
the shaded lee side of Rabies Peak. It wasn’t, and I ended up dirting out way up
in China Gulch. Let’s just say that’s not an LZ I’d like to revisit anytime in
the near future. After packing up I was happy (sort of) to see TJ Sopher, a
fellow NW DHV 1-2 pilot, fly by and tag Rabies Peak. He was on the short list
of pilots who made goal after a grueling day of flying. Excellent job!
Day 5 task was Woodrat
Launch-Burnt-Rabies-Burnt-Jacksonville LZ-Donato. After not making goal the
prior day I was completely focused on finding lift and getting the job done any
way possible. That mentality worked really well until I hit the fingers above
Dark Hollow. I figured it worked on Day 1 to stay up on the ridge so it should
work again. What I failed to take into account was the fact that the conditions
were completely different than before. Others may disagree, but it seemed to me
the air got less buoyant as the week progressed this year. Regardless, the end
result was that I soon found myself being flushed into a tight gulch with
extremely limited landing prospects. My
options were 1) land on the roof of a large house 2) land in the sunny leeside of
a small gravel pit, 3) land in a tree, or 4) go for a postage stamp sized grassy
area surrounded by tall trees. I chose the last option and went for it with all
sensors on high alert.
About 100 feet away I noticed this nasty little LZ held an
added surprise…Power lines! Not cool, but it was too late to alter course. This
may sound really weird, but I decided the plan of attack was to aim directly at
the power lines and then turn to final. The reasoning was that I would at least
know when I couldn’t go any further in that direction, then I could just turn
and deal with what’s straight ahead. Be it a tree or barbed wired fence (both definite
possibilities) it would still be better than frying on a wire. I cleared the front
trees by a foot or so, leaned right towards the lines and then immediately banked
hard left at the last possible moment. Several flares on the brakes dropped me
a few feet shy of the trees and barbed wire fence. I’ll be honest, I couldn’t
have made this landing 2 out of 10 times, but the Gods for some reason were
smiling on me that day. I’m also
thankful that I was flying a 1-2 wing because attempting it on a 2 or 2-3 with their
extended glide ratios would have ended messy for sure. Bottom line is that I
learned a valuable lesson that day. I had competition blinders on and put myself
into a position I simply shouldn’t have been in. My internal voice screamed at
me “Keep it safe for God sakes man!”… OK. I hear you. Good point. Sorry. Won’t
let it happen again.
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LZ in a gulch above Dark Hallow. Photo
by Paul Moyes
|
A link to the video of the landing…
The final two days of the Sprint race were cancelled due to
rain, so when the dust settled I managed to come in 12th place in
the Sprint Sport and 1st place in the Sprint Super Standard division
(read: 1 and 1-2 gliders). I was happy
with my performance but more importantly I had a blast hanging out with friends
while significantly improving my flying skills. Congratulations to Mike and
Gail Haley for once again holding a fantastic event in an absolutely beautiful
location. Also, a huge thanks to all the volunteers that helped make it a
success. Now the only question I have is...When should I start packing for next
year?
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