Who's a naughty boy then?

I know I promised to fix my finish line indiscretions but I guess the penalty is punishment enough. Slightly more reliable weather today with a few cu around to mark the lift. The pack split into two very shortly after the start; those of us who stayed back in a modest climb to enable safe passage to the next valley got to watch from above as several gliders groveled about in the area that got me into trouble yesterday. Safely into the aptly named “valley of death” I had a nice climb all to myself, then had a trouble free run in and out of the first turn. A high point just past the second turn had me in front and in a great position to take the high passes back to the Santiago valley. I didn’t know it at the time but I probably had final glide at that point but I was a little conservative, took another climb, then watched Mario Kiessling sneak in front. He then gave me a lesson in how to run the ridges down to the south and home. Carlos Rocca also joined in the fun; we were 10 metres apart, wing tip to wing tip for the last 5 km. At the 3km mark I glanced at the final glide indicator, it said +150 metres. Ok, good, but I forgot that it takes into account total energy and I was so busy trying not to bump into Carlos that I didn’t look at absolute altitude until it was a bit late. So, second across the line but finishing low is almost a hanging offense in this comp so I dropped a few places. Tonight we had the official opening ceremony. At the end of day four. Oh well. It was OK really; lots of locals turned out, it was mercifully free of long speeches and there was a fantastic video presentation on the big screen featuring all the pilots. Weather is said to be OK for the next few days, so the fun continues. Opening ceremony

Glider line up at opening ceremony