BB wrote:
Rules issues aside, Parowan is not a good site or contest for someone
who does not have a lot of mountain cross country experience. There
will be a full grid of hard-charging national-level pilots, high
altitude downwind takeoffs, big tasks over spikey terrain. I would not
advise this as a first contest for someone with a fresh silver badge.
It will either be scary or discouraging.

When I was a newbie cross-country pilot, I'd go to Parowan every summer
because it was a *safer* place to fly cross country than the places I
normally flew. If you look at a map of the region, you'll note that
pretty much all of the soaring sites out here are near mountains, so
even pilots with fresh silver badges learn to deal with them. Perhaps
the hard-charging national-level pilots should consider going to, say, a
Nationals, if all those silver-level pilots are getting in their way...

Marc