SAFA Skysailor Magazine

13 September | October 2022 SKY SAILOR ahead. At the top, I saw them walking quite a bit down, they took off, pointed headwind and sank into the valley. They didn’t seem comfortable in the conditions and I can’t blame them, it was very windy. However, I live in New Zealand, we know windy. I waited another half hour for some thermal activity, took off, and after some searching got a lift to 3200m, joined the main ridge for a while, but didn’t feel right out there with barely any penetration, so I went a bit out... It took forever at single digits and often no speed, once you hit the sink, you basically fall out of the sky straight down, so it was slow and technical flying in search of the best lifty lines. I crossed Tena Valley and kept going, finally landing close to Broto. It was a good day, I saved heaps of walking and skipped up a few places in the ranking. I hiked out of the valley, chasing Edouard who was now only 1km ahead. On the way, I hiked Punta Aguilar on Sierra de la Corona, flew from the narrow spur into the valley using some nice ridge lift, caught Edouard, and after hiking another hour, found a perfect camping spot by the river. Not a soul around, so I went topless to wash myself in the river and of course that’s when the media crew arrived. They have perfect timing every day! Day 5 – Disconnected In the morning, despite low clouds, I hiked up to Santa Marina with Chris. Nice hike to kick off the day, but difficult to find a take-off, and hard to imagine how I would clear the very shallow, never-ending ridge with a sea of trees on one side and no road and no landings on the other, which was also in the airspace... From top: Amazing views Moments on the road Camping with Edouardo