X-Alps 2013 Team GBR: Test flying from a mole hill

Well, not a mole hill as such, but a hill called 'Le Mole' close to Geneva. The testing part refers to a prototype harness being developed by Kortel. As far as prototypes go this one was very early in the life cycle of such things, but still very impressie in both design and weight. I'd picked it Saturday morning from Max in Cluses, and then, together with Tom Payne, set off to walk up 'Le Mole'. Now despite the rather insignificant name, it is actually quite large. From the valley floor we walked about 1300m to the summit in a little over 2 hours. Small by alpine standards, but to put it into context for anyone from the UK that is equivalent to walking up Ben Nevis. From sea level.

It was pretty windy at the top, and concerned about it increasing, I threw out my gear, connected the 'work in progress' that would represnt my harness for the flight down and took off. Rather magically, the clouds were below us, so we flew out over them in rather strong winds (which, slightly concerningly felt a lot like mountain wave) before descending into the valley.

So, how, you ask, was the harness? Well initially I couldn't work out why I seemed to be facing at an angle of 45degrees to the direction I was flying in, but after I found one of the adjustments had slipped during take off and corrected it, it was rather good. It felt completely different to my other harness (the Delight from Sup'Air) and therefore took a bit of getting used too. Can't give anymore away, it is after all a protoype!

Interestingly the next evening this peak was covered in snow which fell on Sunday night down to 1500m. The seasons are changing!