If you’re not in town it might have been easy to miss, but here on campus, it’s buggy season again! Last weekend was cancelled well in advance due to generally crappy weather and an insufficient number of caped teams, but the past week was nothing but ridiculously nice caping weather, and almost everyone got their act together. 9 orgs made it out (everyone except for SAE) to kick off the semester together with two new buggies and a robot. Sunday was called off for unsuitable weather. The wind was freakin intense on Saturday and apparently it was going to be worse on Sunday. “Wind?!” you old-timers say? Well, wind=cold.
In Attendance (buggies listed newest to oldest)
| Org | Saturday |
|---|---|
| AEPi | Robobuggy |
| CIA | #17, Frejya, Renaissance |
| Fringe | Borealis, Bedlam, Blizzard |
| KapSig | Apache |
| PiKA | Nemesis, Chimera, Knightfall |
| Pioneers | Chaos |
| SDC | Bane, Avarice, Malice, Psychosis, Addiction, Rage |
| SigEp | Barracuda, Pandora |
| Spirit | Seraph, Fuko, Haraka |
Observations (Saturday gallery) Continue reading
Rolls weren’t to be this weekend, but the BAA had a good homecoming weekend anyhow.
The cold finally showed up for Halloween weekend with rolls temperatures around 37, and with daylight savings time still in effect we’re down to about 60 minutes on the course. Sunday was cancelled in advance to make way for parties, so we’re still batting an impressive 9 for 10 so far this semester against inclement weather. Only 6 orgs made it out, so an hour was enough to get through the roll order 3 times. If I’m not mistaken, this was the first day of the year with no incidents at all, that’t not very ghoulish.
Teams must have read the 
Orgs decided that there would be no rolls on Sunday because of mid-semester break, and even Saturday was a minimal crew of the most dedicated folks (or maybe the folks least skilled at planning something fun for mid-semester break). SDC took the weekend off, and most teams had fewer buggies than normal except CIA whose 4 rolling buggies represented 25% of those on the course. The fall weather is starting to kick in as it was about 40 degrees out there, but we’re still getting lucky on the precipitation.
More perfect fall weather set the scene for a solid weekend of rolls with a SDC, Spirit, SigEp, AEPi, and the citizens of Pittsburgh stepping up and giving us some things to talk about.
One part fog and one part rain made for an interesting but brief weekend of rolls. Fog is usually an issue at daybreak that then burns off as rolls proceed, but on Saturday it was backwards. Rolls started clear and then pressed on through a thickening blanket. Sunday’s rolls were cancelled on Saturday night in light of the oncoming rain which did materialize from 5-8am.
With clear skies and temperatures in the 50s and 60s, eight teams made it out and put on a good show for us spectators. There were new drivers still meandering down the hill with a slew of bags, but also some vets putting down times that would be competitive in April. Three buggies ended up in the bales, and some others got close enough they could smell the hay on the way by.