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Soleil
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Barcelonnette Valley
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Ariane disappeared with Evan for another paragliding attempt
leaving 220 with an empty seat. Paul Rice was the slowest to move away so he
had to keep me company on today's exploration. Turned out to be not too bad.
The day was sunny with a light variable breeze and the thermals worked as
they should at this time of year. After getting away from Hongrie we headed
north via Malaup, Montserieux and Tete Gross for the parcours.
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Cheval Blanc
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Cloudbase was over 9000ft by the time we reached the Trois
Eveches, so we flew into the Barcelonnette valley via the Grande Seolene to
the Chapeau Gendarme on the south side of Barcelonnette town. A cu-nim was
brewing up nicely there so we continued across the valley to the Grand
Berard and the col de Vars where we recorded our best height for the day of
11,800ft.
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Although the weather was clear to towards the St Crepin
valley I was getting a little concerned about a cu-nim developing over
Guillaume, so we headed back to Morgon early to avoid getting cut off by
storms.
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A terrific glide then took us from Morgon via the parcours
all the way to the Serre Montdenier near the Lac Ste Croix. Cloudbase here
had dropped to 5500ft but there were enough cu and a working ridge to get us
back into the better conditions again.
Further north again, just as we were thinking of calling
it a day, we were advised via the Sisteron ground frequency to remain
airborne due to "hail on the runway". So we did, for another hour
or so.
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Storm
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When we returned to a post-storm Sisteron valley we could see
that the airfield had taken a bit of a hammering. Standing pools of water
were visible on various parts of the airfield and on the runway. The sky was
sparking over the Jabron valley, prompting us to land while the going was
still good. On climbing out of the glider we found that the grassy areas had
been transformed into a brown porridge having all the adhesive properties of
Evo-Stick. Summer, eh?
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