The 10:15 morning briefing contained the phrase "very very very good" and that pretty much set the tone for the day. Launching started around midday with gliders climbing off Early Morning, the hill on the south west corner of the airfield. I was the last to launch and discovered that everyone else had used up all the "Early Morning" lift and unceremoniously found myself back on the ground. On my second launch I managed to coax half a knot off the scree slope on Blachere (1238m hill on the eastern side of the airfield) which eventually strengthened to 5knots and got me up to join JB and Phil who had been twiddling their thumbs waiting.
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| Phil on the Parcour |
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| Lac De Serre Poncon |
From there we set off eastwards, via couple of mountain stepping stones, turning south on the Parcour and steadily climbing up to 2900m alongside the snow covered peak of Tete de l'Estrop. At the North end of the Parcour near Lac de Serre Poncon we turned east towards Barcelonnette following the ridge line around to the north and then jumping across the St Crepin valley onto Prachaval which was working very well with the valley breeze. To the north Glacier Blanc was gleaming in the afternoon sun nestled between the sheer rock faces of its valley walls. We ventured towards it but couldn't find a climb which would put us onto Tete d'Amont at a sensible height so fell back to Prachaval to begin our return to La Motte via a bit more playing on the Parour, eventually landing after 6 and a half hours of cheesy grinning epicness.
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| Day 3 Flight tracks, blue JB, green Phil, red Matt |
