SAFA Skysailor Magazine

15 September | October 2022 SKY SAILOR the harness the wrong way, nothing danger- ous, but it should have been a serious warning I ignored. In the air, it was rodeo and not much progress, I decided to fly out and on approach I took my first ever proper collapse on Scala. A good one too, Chris said it was 70%, 10 to 15m above the ground. I’ve done 200 hours on Scala and took her into some gnarly places and never, ever had a collapse, was always able to catch any defla- tion before it actually happened. However, this time I was a moment too late, clumsy handling, shouldn’t have let it happen. Scala dove to the right, then my muscle memory took over, massive weightshift, arm down, up, shake, other brake and a second later I landed softly pointing into wind, like nothing had happened. Thanks for being so gentle with me, Scala! However, alltogether it was a mess, a stress- ful waste of time which put me further back than I would have been if I’d just hiked! I was annoyed at myself, this flight didn’t feel right in my guts, at take-off I should have packed and kept hiking, instead I ignored warnings, had a massive collapse close to the ground and in the end landed farther from my goal of the day, adding extra road hiking! Ross asked me if I was able to do 25km to Campo before 9pm and I treated it as a challenge, something to take my thoughts off the last flight. We were all tired, yet none of us stopped for a moment to touch base with my level of fatigue, mental state and especially, to consider the best strategy for tomorrow’s good forecast. I hiked 25km to Campo, mostly because Ross bribed me with a promise of a hotel room and a real steak dinner. In the hotel room, I looked into a mirror for the first time since the beginning of the race and didn’t recognise myself. I felt disconnected, like my body didn’t belong to me. I know this can happen when you push yourself beyond your limits and it’s okay if it’s only physical, like some big ultra-marathon. However, in X-Pyr the most crucial is to fly well on good days, and tomor- row I was about to pay the price for the stress and exertion of today. I just didn’t know it yet. Day 6 – Frustrating I woke up exhausted. The morning hike up to Cervin was slow but there was no rush. Chris and Jesse drove up and waited with yummy pasta while Ross volunteered as a wind dummy today. We cruised above take-off, waiting for the day to turn on. I could have slept two more hours. I was so nervous from the previous day’s drama that I top landed to pee. Took off again, tired and stressed. After yes- terday, I didn’t trust my glider handling, nor my decisions, whatever I tried, wherever I went, it felt forced, no flow, nothing seemed to work. What’s more, Campo was a bad take off choice for the day, Peña Montañesa that I came from was higher and a closer crossing, I could have simply stayed there and saved myself yester- day’s dodgy glide, massive collapse and 25km of road jogging... Sounds easy but when you’re racing, to simply say, ‘just sit and relax for the next 16 hours’... nah, wouldn’t happen! An amazing 605km of adventure