More snow

I was out training up on the Voiron today, and there was fresh snow from about 1000m, with a lot of snow at the summit (almost 1500m).  Incredible, it is, after all, nearly May for goodness sake!

The day was grey but dry, however the fresh snow on the trees was melting fast meaning that it was effectively raining under the tree cover so I got soaked even though it wasn't raining!  Still, there was a pleasant surprise in store - as I ascended the last 50m to the Signal de Voiron (the summit) I came through the layer of cloud engulfing the Bassin Lemanique to see the Jura across from me and a perfect sea of cloud below. A view worth every bit of the 4 hours of walking and running through the mud and snow!

A very long day

Flying again.  3 days earlier the forecast had looked fantastic, and the emails bouncing around about which epic triangle we should attempt came thick and fast.  As the day approached, the forecast didn't look quite so amazing.  Suddenly everyone had questions, but we were committed now.  A veritable army of us were trying to coordinate getting to a launch above Ugine with as few cars as possible.  The faff factor was quite high. 

Launch seemed to filled with all the great and good - exceptional pilots from across the northern French alps.  I launched first.  Perhaps it was impatience, but it was clearly working and it was almost 11am.  Clement Latour was close behind me.  Interesting how the two X-Alpers chose to be first in the air!

Conditions were weak on launch, but we were soon up and noticed the first unexpected challenge - a really quite strong SE wind.  On we pressed, heading south on the classic route, however I soon made an error and got very low after crossing from the Col de Tamie after pushing on too fast and not stopping to 'top up' my height.  I lost precious time and Tom and Ulli who were leading the pack got away from me.  After that things got better and I blasted down to the south end of the Bauges.

Heading South - Dent D'Arclusaz behind.

We had planned to cross to the Chartreuse, but the base looked low and it looked very murky down there so we turned north instead at the Pic de Sauge.  We were moving well now and I found myself in a small gaggle with two French pilots, but I wasn't sure who they were.  We arrived together in a roaring 4.5m/s thermal with two sailplanes, coring tighter than them we soon outclimbed them, but the thermal was huge and there was plenty of space for all of us.  Suddently the day felt great.  Another 5m/s climb over Colombier and I was beginning to think it was a 'go anywhere day' after all. 

Perhaps I was overconfident, but I took a direct line to the Roc des Boeufs, ignoring a good cloud off to my east.  I arrived at Roc Des Boeufs with only just enough height and had to climb as my two friends from earlier passed me to my east.  My route was ok though, cloud base was lower than over Colombier, but I reached it in the middle of the ridge and pushed straight for Mt Veyrier.  A brave or a stupid choice, still not sure.  I wanted to try the direct line thinking that it would be faster, but Veyrier was windy and there were no good climbs so I limped over the back and struggled to Parmelan.  Hmmm, should have gone via Dents de Lanfon after all.

It didn't get better, in fact it got much worse.  Everything was shaded out now at Parmelan and I had no choice but to take a weak climb.  Impatient and still a long way from base I pushed on as there was sun on the next hill.  With a westerly wind now at this level, I found myself with a choice as I approached the next spine - cliffs in the sun or the windward side.  I chose the cliffs.  Doh! third error of the day. Suddenly in rotor and seemingly pinned by the wind I had no choice but to dive into the back of a horrid bowl (see the funny little horsehoe in the tracklog) in order to get back out.  It took for ever because, once again, it clouded over and shaded everything out.  Back up to hill top height, but still a long way from base, I pushed on again.  Sur Cou was in the sun and a gorgeous cumulus above it was being fast approached by two paragliders climbing.  As I arrived the vario started singing, it increased nicely, just as one would expect, but everything above me spread out once again, the hill went into shade and I was left working weak bubbles to try to get back up.  I could have screamed - this was getting very annoying.

I did finally get up at Sur Cou and pushed on to Pointe D'Andy (not sure how to spell that one).  This time finally, the sun and the mountain played ball and the spine I aimed for triggered a beautiful climb up to cloud base.  Phew.

Next I jumped across to Le Mole.  Funnily enough the wind was NW here so, approaching from the south was a bit uncomfortable, but I was soon established in a thermal and climbing back to base over the summit.

I looked at my options - I didn't want to go back the way I came, instead I wanted to try a new route.  I contemplated making the short glide over Mieussy to the hill behind but time wasn't on my side so instead I glided past the north of Cluses to join the after work soaring pilots launching and soaring the hill in the valley wind behind Cluses.  I arrived at the top and took a surprisingly broken climb.  I had no need to be high here - staying low suited me as the valley wind helped me on my way back south towards Sallanches. So onwards I headed past the chalets at Les Carroz.

Being low in the valley is all very well but at a certain point I was going to run out of valley.  Finding an into wind spur I climbed up and thermalled away from the top.  It was weak but the day was slowing down and I needed to be high for the next part. So I stuck with it. It seemed to take me forever to climb the almost 2000m I needed, finally arriving at base at 3100m just next to the Pic de Varan.  A horribly sinky glide took me towards Megeve with only a couple of weak scraggy clouds left to aim for.  As the shadows lengthened another weak climb took me up to almost 3300m.  I took every meter I could as I thought this was my last climb and it was an awfully long glide back to Ugine.

The 'will I, won't I' game occupied me as I glided along, but it looked good as I came over Crest Voland, a village perched on a shoulder above the Gorge De Bargy.  At least, one minute it looked good, the next I was in strong sink and not even sure I'd clear the plateau.  Worse, the gorge beyond was all in shade so I could not tell if there were any landing options if I pushed over the edge.  The last building had a clearing next to it, and I took my feet out of my pod ready to land there.  Suddenly the air felt better, the sink went and I was being pulled forward.  I tucked my feet away, cleared the trees and flew out over the gorge.  I was expecting lift here as the valley wind must be hitting this face.  After gaining a bit of height I decided to soar around the west face still lit up in the late afternoon sun.  I set off in that direction but strong sink sent me scuttling back to my small area of lift.  Only 7km away from my finish in Ugine, I thought the day was done and this one may just have beaten me.  Then all of sudden, along came that magical think - a thermal just when you need it!  I took it higher than I needed to do but it meant I did not have to push into wind through the gorge now, just glide over the last hill, arriving level with the take off I'd launched from some 8 and a half hours earlier.

Back over Ugine - note the evening shadow in the valley below

I landed, badly, next to Tom and Ulli.  Exhausted but happy.  Only a 159km flat triangle to show for my marathon time in the air, but it was after all only a 'good' day and not an 'epic' one!

Track log is here: http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/742993

Finally...

'Finally' I shouted across to Tom.  We were cranked over, wing tip to wing tip with the vario singing its 'isn't the world wonderful' 2.5m/s up song.  'Finally', because we'd just spent the last hour grovelling (listening to the rather pathertic 0.5m/s beeps of our varios) to get away from take off at Plan Fait in Annecy.  'Finally', because it was already mid April and this felt like the first real XC day of the year, rather later than usual.

It had taken a long time to get out from take off but miraculously our group seemed to reform as we all headed south against a stiff meteo wind, in search of some kilometers.  In the group were Tom and myself, Damien De Baenst, Ulli Prinz and Guy Anderson amongst others.  All fast pilots on fast wings - I felt like the poor cousin in this field on my old X-Alps wing, struggling to keep up with the clutch of R11's, Enzos and Icepeak 6's.

We worked our way south and after St Jorioz everyone seemed to momentarily lose conviction about where we were going, I'd been nearly dropped off the end of the gaggle but then caught a 4.5m/s bullet thermal next to the cliffs (vario song: oh my god... hold on tight!!) and suddenly found myself high and leading the group out to Margeriaz, against the headwind but in beautiful convergence.  I knew the lift wouldn't last as we approached the west facing cliffs against the seemingly increasing headwind, and I was pleased the others caught me at this point as we all pushed round the nose against the south wind, attempting to connect onto the south face.  Standing on the bar in turbulence getting very, very low indeed was not pleasant but we all persevered, believing lifting air was just round the next spine.  It wasn't.  Or the next...  Ulli pushed on and squeaked over the crux, he'd made it.  Tom was behind him, lower than Ulli, not going up, but higher than me.  He wasn't going to make it on his R11, so I knew there was no chance for me following the same line.

With trees thrashing in the wind below us and above some very flat terrain, I chose what I thought was the only sane option - push forwards over the fields to find better air and landing options as I was already skimming trees.  Luckily I picked up a 1.5m/s thermal doing this, it was drifting me back quickly but crucially gave me 100m more than I'd had when I'd pushed through the gap.  Tom scooted back and slotted in below me but just too late to join me pushing round behind Ulli, now climbing away nicely.  I managed to get through with about the same clearance over the last spine as Ulli had (i.e. none!) and continue south.

The rest was easy going and a nice out and return to the south end of the Bauges with a relacing tailwind back to Annecy.  Ulli, Damien and Guy continued to Parmelan and back to make a round 100km,whilst I was just happy with the flight back into Annecy landing.

The next day was good too, but I was out flying on my own this time from Plan Joux, near Chamonix.  The south wind was still blowing but it was really only noticeable high and less than the day before (15kph at 2500m).  After bagging the Pic de Varan, I followed a Gin glider south down the Contamines valley.  It was stunningly beautiful and we were soon past the resort itself and completely surrounded by mountains draped in deep snow right down to the valley floor.  I turned back as I did not want to head too far south here, instead working back to Les Houches.  My friend on the Gin pushed across to Aiguelette des Houches - an obvious route to easily connect back to a top landing by the car.  Now I was getting greedy and was enjoying the flight too much.  I glanced at my instruments and at the sun.  It was 5.30pm and the sun was round onto the Mont Blanc massif itself.  'I wonder' I thought to myself as I pushed along the mountainside into the Chamonix valley.  The inital sink did not surprise me given the wind direction and having crossed the col at Les Houches, but it continued...  Trying to find something, anything on the spines above Les Bossons, I noticed the flags at the tunnel entrance were blowing down the slope.  There was a katabatic flow, helped, I'm sure by the southerly wind.  I realised my error and dived across the valley, arriving on the other side only a 100m above the valley floor.  There was little valley wind, both a blessing and an indication that nothing much was working.  I spent 15 hot and sweaty minutes climbing 50m or so and then loosing it only to climb again, only to loose it again.  Eventually I succumbed to the inevitable and landed.  A rather beautiful trek through forested mountainside for the next 3hrs and 15mins got me back to my car about 20mins after darkness completely engulfed the alps!

Intoxicated by 2 good days flying I took Monday off too and went to Verbier with Tom.  Unfortuantely the wind on take off was behind us, and rather strong, making take off difficult to impossible.  Finally there was a lull and I got off the hill to connect with a lovely 3m/s climb to 3200m.  Tom was able to launch in the next lull some 35minutes later!  In the end we did not fly as far as planned, we were too late for our chosen route in any case, however unusual conditions presented themselves.  With so much snow high up there seemed to be strong katabatic flows of cold sinking air spilling out of high hanging valleys down into the lower levels and it was one of these that effectively blocked our path north (we'd planned to attempt to fly to Interlaken!).  Instead we got to land backwards in the strong valley winds near Martigny!

 

So, three good days in the air, but normal life called and I needed to work for the next 4 days.  There was no choice, despite excellent forecasts for Wednesday and Thursday, which proved to be true with Damien pulling off 200km flights on both days. Chapeau!

St Hilaire flying

Sunday night we drove north arriving back in Chambery late in the evening, after a quick bite, literally, at the fastest Pizza restaurant in the west, we checked in to the local Formula One hotel ready for a good nights sleep before the epic flying day that was promised for Monday, well at least that is what the internet told us. Alas the good night sleep was not to be as a fair percentage of the Polish nation seemed to be partying in the hotel and Monday, whilst dawning bright, did not immediately look as if it could be described as epic. Still undaunted we drove up to St Hilaire and after a fine breakfast at the bar near take-off we wandered across to the launch to assess the conditions. Not great, lots of pilots launching but few rising above take-off, still neither Jon or Tom are too good at waiting so when the first pilots did begin working weak thermals they decided it was time for the off. The intention was to attempt a crossing to Chamrousse but clearly these were not yet the conditions so the dynamic duo set off north along the ridge. Tom had decided to fly his Gradient Aspen and clearly in the still quite fierce north wind it lacked the performance so he managed to scrape back to the training field by the St Hilaire landing. Jon meanwhile pushed south to Grenoble seeking better weather but eventually scraped his way back north to take-off, finding some weak thermals and finally a couple of hours after taking off pushing east to attempt the valley crossing. Leaving St Hilaire at 1300m the glide took him to Brignoud but by now the conditions had deteriorated with little chance of working the slopes to Chamrousse so the players on the Brignoud tennis courts received an unexpected visitor.
 

By now it was clear that the internet had lied, epic flying was not to be had today so we decided to drive north to Allevard to take advantage of the last flying hours of the day. A half metre or so of snow covered the take off but Jon followed by Tom took off for what turned out in the flat evening conditions to be a glide south towards Pontcharra.

So some more of the route looked at and in addition to the flying some more paths checked and facilities noted.

 

Richard Chambers 
 

Pretty picture of a waterfall, scratching back up to take-off at St Hilaire!

 

Airborne at last...

Ok, it's not on the X-Alps route, but our best chance to get some flying in today was at Gourdon.  As we drove up conditions looked good but as we arrived the cloud base dropped below the launch and the locals thought it was relatively unlikely that it would lift. 

Undeterred, Tom and I went to the top landing area and spent the next 30mins practicising ground handling and even trying out cobra launches (not enough wind!).  After grabbing some lunch the cloud did miraculously lift and, being clipped into our wings already we hot footed it over to the take off and lobbed off for a play around under some nice clouds.  A short flight but probably the only flyable window of the day as just after we landed the cloud came back down below take off.

Back up north now in the hunt to find some flyable weather.  St Hilaire tomorrow...

It's grim down South

Dedication.  We're in the South of France, trying to find a way through the maze of twisty little roads, all alike. The weather isn't helping.

We started the day in heavy snowfall in Barcelonnette in the Ubaye valley. With the high mountain cols that Jon will fly through in the race all being closed, the only option was the Col de Larches (1991m) into Italy. Over 1m of fresh, wet snow has fallen in the last 48 hours and - unsurprisingly - the high mountain roads were slow going and virtually empty.

We cut through Italy, where the continuous snow became continuous rain as we dropped down to Cuneo, only to have the rain turn through sleet and back into snow again as we climbed back up the Col de Tende to break into the hideously narrow valleys of the Alpes Maritimes. The same weather system that has enveloped the Alps for the Easter Weekend is manifest as rain and fog here, near the Mediterranean coast.

Here the mountains are steep. Roads wind furiously back and forth, clinging precariously to precipitous cliffs. There are no valley floors as such, only narrow gorges where two mountains meet at a river. Power lines criss-cross the area, and the few landing options - such as they are - are small fields deep in the trees or high road and rail bridges arcing over deep gorges.

Jon led the team, checking out potential improvised take offs and scouting walking and flying routes for this last - and extremely technical - section of the race. Visibility was poor: we found open areas that could become take offs, and by peering at the map, only able to speculate whether these would or would not be usable in the race.

Finally, we checked out that roads and paths leading to the X-Alps finish in at the take off in Peille. Normally we'd be greeted by a glorious view over the sparkling sea to Corsica, but here there was only fog, as thick as London pea soup. A Red Bull X-Alps windsock was just about visible in the gloom (although the wind was blowing over the back of course).  Still, when push comes to shove, and we're racing the final straight, now we all know where we're going.

The next two days look flyable: Gourdon and the Southern Alps tomorrow (Sunday), and then St Hilare and the Northern Alps on Monday. It'll be good to get back in the air!

Tom Payne

Floundering in Snow

It's Easter, and our whole team is together preparing for the race that is now in less than 100 days time.  We're checking out the finishing straight of the race, from St Hilare to Monaco.  From last time we know the importance of taking the time to get familiar with the areas we'll be racing through - knowing the valleys and checking out possible ascents that likely could be done by foot.

The problem we have is two fold.  Firstly the weather is terrrible and secondly there is far too much snow, and fresh snow.  The later makes many of the routes we want to check out impossible, especially as the avalanche risk is extremely high with a very unstable snow pack.

So today Tom and I set off, properly equipped with snow shoes, to check out some potentially cunning routes and even more cunning launches.  Dad had the job of driving round to the other side of the mountain to meet us, whilst we spent lots of time route finding in the forest.  This proved to be more difficult than expected due to the snow underfoot, incessant rain from above and virtually no visibility thanks to being engulfed in cloud. We located one path and then skirted around to find a second route up, however we overshot and the path we found and followed took us to only 500m or so from where we needed to be but unable to get there, thwarted by either a ridge too dangerous to traverse, thick forest that was more or less impenetrable or open snow fields which made a worrying 'whuuump' noise every now and then as we gingerly skirted around them.  Common sense prevailed and we retraced our steps, dropping 250m in altitude to ascend once again on the correct path a little further along.  Snowshoeing was tough as the snow had virtually no structure and even with the shoes we were sinking in deep, making each step hard work.  Finally, we arrived at the col we were aiming for, a cunning launch option we thought, but no, it wasn't to be.  The ground was too flat and there were tall trees in front making launching here more or less impossible.  At least we ruled out this option for the race!

By the time we reached the car we were both soaked.  Tom claimed his boots were more like buckets of water due to the amount of snow that had found it's way in!  We still have 3 days of the Easter break and there are signs the weather may improve for Monday so we may get one day flying in!