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| Inhospitable but Awesome |
Reading these Blogs you have to adjust your perception. Each flight, just as at home, may seem to follow similar well trodden paths (depending on the weather) but even from the first climb, often difficult, hot and sweaty, the vista that opens up is truely spectacular. As we work our way along the proven routes into the higher mountains the landscape changes from spectacular to the awesome. When not fully concentrating on the task in hand ones mind begins to contemplate your surreal situation, sat in a tiny fibreglass bubble suspended above a completely inhospitable landscape carved by wind, snow and ice out of million year old rock. A landscape infinitely older than you and completely unimpressed by your presence, on one hand it will kill you as easily as you would swat a fly, on the other presents a fascinating challenge and a truly inspiring experience.
Today Matt buggered off early giving JB and I a chance to prove our skills…it took some time but eventually we found our way along that well trodden path to the Parcour the local M1 and stepping off point for a number of destinations.
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| Monte Viso with clouds billowing up from Italy |
Primary target was Monte Viso on the Italian border. By the time JB and I had worked our way to the Col de Var, a ski resort linked to Risoul, Matt had already rounded Visio which was sucking up cloud from the warm, damp air from the Italian plains to the East (see the photo). Matt patient as ever with his ducklings returned to guide us for the final 19 km into dragon territory but true to form JB decided to investigate some sink in the opposite direction.
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| Testing the Flarm |
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| Keep up Red Two |
Later investigation, over several bottles of beer, studying the downloaded traces revealed this to be part of a cunning plan whereby JB actually got closer to Visio than 611, sneaky bastard! Anyway for M5 and 611 the flight back to La Motte was truly amazing. In reality it did not require a turn for the 198k ridge top route that we did on the way back; the only exception being when Phil went the wrong side of a rock during an excursion down the Parcour to Cheval Blanc (just because we could) and had to wriggle his way up from the “weeds”. Final glide from the Dormillouse, where Phil topped up from his earlier error with a 5knot climb at 6.30 in the evening, was used for team formation photography. We all landed around 7.00pm to give time to prepare for the evening barbecue and relax after 5+ hours of flying.
Phil
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| Flight Traces, JB-red, Phil-blue, Matt-green |
