25 Jun 09

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25 Jun 09

Alpinism

I have just remembered something from yesterday's flight. While crossing towards the parcours I noticed another British Duo with WE4 on the tail, and I thought...hang on, I've flown that from Sisteron a few years ago. Glad to see it back!

Today's forecast was good, and the Regionals task was over 500km to the south-east, north and west, so we felt confident that we could get something out of the day. Thermals ranged from a fairly average 6 knots to off-the-clock. (Memo to 220 syndicate: when one is climbing at over 10 knots for more than a few turns, the needle on the Winter vario gets jammed in the +10 position. Funny - I've never noticed that in the UK...)

We flew towards the 11,000ft cloudbase east of Cheval Blanc to take a look at the lac d'Allos and then headed north via the Barcelonnette and Vars valleys to the Maurienne.

Lac d'Allos

En-route to the Queyras

Lac Cenis

As we crossed the Quyras we received a report from 13 that they were returning from somewhere between Aosta and the Matterhorn, so we decided to try to get to the col de Carro and take a look for ourselves.


Maurienne	I found that the winds were doing odd things in the Solliere valley, and we got low enough to beat a retreat to Mont Cenis to get enough of a climb for another go. Cloudbase was now just above the higher peaks on the southern rim of the valley and we didn't feel inclined to go any further, so we took a scenic route back to the col 'd'Etach and back towards the St Crepin valley.

Towards the col de Carro

We took a final climb at the Glacier Blanc to 13,800ft which we reckoned would be just about good enough for the 90km trip home. The summit of the Barre des Ecrins was only just touching cloudbase and, as we made a pass along its snow-covered east-facing face, we noticed two Alpinists near the summit, having climbed the mountain the hard way. Great to see that Whymper's grand 19th century tradition of scrambling in the Alps continues to this day.

The final glide was a visual treat, as we picked our way down the Valgaudemar between cumulus tops, with spectacular cu-nims growing in the distance.

After landing we had just enough time for a beer at the Pegasus before we de-camped to Mike and Angie's for an evening get-together with assorted Brits and French. As darkness fell we watched the son et lumiere (but without the son) of the thunderstorms raging in the Rhone valley to the west.

Homeward Bound