Munich - Fiesch Open. Turbulent times.

Driving to Fiesch over the Furka-Oberalp pass was great:

Arriving in Fiesch, it was soon clear that a lot of people hadn't shown up. Fiesch has a very bad reputation when it comes to turbulences. Were people afraid, so short before the worlds? Nobody wanted to risk any injuries, that's for sure.
The first task immediately was the most turbulent flight ever for me. But what an experience it was to fly above the glacier! Here's a picture published on the OzReport:

You see the huge blocks of ice and you feel that the reserve chute is something which will only extend your life for a short while :-) It's a shame we never got to experience a high cloud base, I never got above 3000 m (although the organizers gave us a certificate telling us we participated in a comp where we flew above 4000 m, lol!).
But hey, not too much time for sightseeing, there was a race going on. The first task started with a really good start position for me, but I struggled after the first turnpoint. The rest of the task, I raced very hard and I ended up 6th, just 5 minutes behind Manfred, the Schumacher of hang gliding ;-). On final glide, the glider was rocked to all sides. The side wires slapped a few times, but I think the tail is working very, very well. Dustin flew next to me and slowed down to half VG and 80 km/h, while I could just charge on...
The second task was a big disappointment for me. I flew the first 2/3 very fast, only Primoz ahead of me and Manfred below me. When I only needed 400 m more to make goal, I didn't take a 2 m/s to cloudbase (which Manfred did take). 5 Minutes later I ended up in a sink hole and didn't react in a very smart way. I ended up on the ground and could only curse at myself...
One of the Russian girls had a bad landing and broke her hips. It was very strange to hear the organizer tell us on the briefing that she was ok because she was going to be able to fly next year. It got even stranger when he told us a few minutes later that the day was canceled because the comp didn't have any accidents and he wanted it to stay that way. Huh?
So, on the canceled day, we visited the Aletsch glacier. Pics here, they're impressive!
The third day I missed the start gate and had 2 tough moments. Ended up half an hour slower than the leaders and 26th on the task. I ended up 17th overall, but I clearly had higher expectations...