Nordic Open 2004 – Day 6

It was blue and no wind in the morning. We went first to Vole, but the wind was southeast and conditions seemed quite stable, so we drove up to Salknappen which is further up the mountain and 400 meters higher.

The task was 90 km, to Heidal, north to Otta, back south to Kvam, and to goal in Vågå. The clouds indicated a nice day, but the first pilots were struggling to get high. I took off quite early, and spent quite some time getting high. I finally got to cloudbase, and took the 4. start time. I glided to Lalm, got up with Johannes and Jon, and got over to Heidal. It was weak and difficult thermals and I hoped it would improve later. In Heidal it was even more difficult, with little to no lift over the peaks.

I took the TP, and went straight south around to Sjoa to ridge soar back up to Otta, there I crossed over to the east side of the valley and go a nice lift to cloudbase, the first since Lalm. When I came back the lift was weaker as the cirrus was now thick, and I could not get the last 50-100 meters to cross over to Kvam and the last TP directly. It was nice clouds at Kvam, but I had to take the long way around Sjoa again, and landed there in totally dead air. Geórgia picked me up, and we got Nils Åge on the way back who landed just a few km behind me.

I might have won the day, only Andreas might have gone further that we know of.