PWC Japan Task 1 – Mount Fuji Friday 28th May from Silvio Zugarini on Vimeo.

We finally managed to get a valid task in and with a stunning scenery..the majestic Mount Fuji..a 63.9km task with multiple clock starts. We left Hakuba at 4.30 in the morning and arrive in the flying area at around 9 am. The take off was very small (2 wings maximum) so a ranking order was established. The first pilots who took off rode to base quite easily, with the passing of time the wind increased and the broken thermals made it difficult to get established high on the ridge. I took off very late and was difficult, with the drifting, to get high, when I finally managed I was already in one of the last gaggles. Conditions were turbulent and rough at times, there were news on the radio of some reserve throwing and pilots in the trees. I was also flying rather slow today as I did not want to scratch low on the heavy forested ridge and since I was late anyway, I just wanted to make sure to get to goal. I was going to tag the penultimate waypoint when ,at 2pm the cloud base suddenly lowered to 1100mt, and a huge cloud cover arrived shutting down all thermal activity. Disappointing result for me race-wise but at least we got to fly! I enjoyed it very much, the scenery was awesome.