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Another Scorcher
The forecast today hinted at potential
difficulty in getting away and that, along with temperatures in the
mid-30s Celsius, persuaded many pilots who had spent every one of the
recent days flying to decide to have a rest day. This included Ariane,
Terry and Andy, while John, of course, decided to fly, which must come as
no great surprise to anyone.
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Near the Pointe de Charbonnel, looking into
Italy
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John Writes...
What a day!
The forecast was for good conditions but, as we learned from yesterday, that was no guarantee that they would arrive. I launched onto Trainon and made my way north with a local cloudbase of 8000ft. Dormillouse didn't offer much and Morgon nothing, which is why I ended up at Guillaume at 6500ft. After a period of 'dynamic' soaring, a thermal took me above the top and I was able to carry on north along the eastern edge of the Ecrins.
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Towards the col de Carro
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The local cloudbase was now 13,500ft and a look towards the north indicated that the base was not that much lower and, as a bonus, there were lots of good looking Cu towards the Mont Blanc.
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Passing Val Thorens
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As I crossed into the Modane valley, I was well within reach of the airfields at Solliere and Albertville. I passed over the ski resort of Val Thorens and noted the strip at
Meribel, but because cloudbase stayed above 11,000ft all the way to the lac de
Roselend, there would have been little need to even think of using it. At
this point my camera battery gave up! (Some of these photos were taken
previously, but at least they give some flavour of what I saw). |
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Mont Blanc stood relatively free of cloud and I was able to explore its southern face, closer than I had managed in the past, with climbs to 13,000ft. The dome
itself remained clear of cloud apart from some orographic wisps, but the
local cloudbase prevented me from climbing above it. That mountain is simply enormous, covered by glacier-like sheets of sloping ice and surrounded by huge vertiginous drops. Cumulus had formed further east along the southern face of the massif and I followed it into the Aosta valley, carefully putting a wing into Switzerland on the way. I turned back at my pre-chosen time of 4:30pm local, with 200km left to get me home. As I turned, I could see the Matterhorn only a few tens of kms away and, more interestingly, the conditions still further north looked excellent - anyone who knew what they were doing could easily have taken advantage...
I followed the valley that led south to the col de Carro and was soon back in the Solliere valley. After passing into the St Crepin valley via the col d'Eteche I decided to follow the Briancon-Grenoble valley to get me home, passing La Meige and the ski resort of les Deux Alps before turning south again to follow the western edge of the
Ecrins, the Pic de Bure and a gentle glide home.
The thing about today that made it so special were the high cloudbases and spacing of the cumulus. Once past the centre of the
Ecrins, the flight was really easy. No doubt tomorrow I will discover how much better the locals did, but for me this had been a highlight of the holiday. I will try not to let the fact that
failing camera has deprived the website of some superb pictures. I will just have to do it again, one day ...
Click for a map
and a logger file.
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