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| Col
du Carro
Today's weather brought a light westerly
wind with significant amounts of cloud, particularly to the north, but
with fewer showers than yesterday. Our escape route to the mountains was
via Hongrie, Trainon, Auribeau and Blayeul, which gave a 9000ft cloudbase,
easily enough to reach la Blanche on the parcours. Ten thousand feet at le
Mourre Froid in the Ecrins was enough to squeeze through the col de
Couleau and on towards the glacier Blanc and Plampinet. I crossed into the
Sollieres valley via the col d'Etache to find that the upper cloud was
nearly 8/8ths mid-level stratus with embedded cumulus. Italy, as usual, spewed up its
cloud from the valleys to the east. |
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Lac Cenis, on the border with a cloudy
Italy
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Near Charbonnel
Cloud Spill
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The
cumulus that I could see lay along the highest ridges to the east of the
Sollieres valley. Climbing as high as I could over Charbonel, I tracked
the high ridge of the Franco-Italian border as it meandered its way towards the col du Carro.
Upper cloud was a solid 8/8ths but each peak along the ridge carried its
own working cumulus. The mountaintops here lie at 10,000ft-12,000ft.
The fascinating aspect of flying here
today was the amount of cloud that lay on the Italian side of the ridge. A
solid sheet of stratus lay to the east, occasionally spilling over the
ridge onto the French side. At times, as I flew over the flatter ridges, I
felt as if I was flying in another world containing only rock, snow and
cloud. I constantly felt the urge to check behind me that the French
valley was still there, and I felt no incentive whatsoever to explore the
Italian side.
When I reached the col de Carro itself I
soared its nearby ridge for a while before retracing my steps along the
border to pass through the col d'Etache once more. |
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was a lot of cloud on the tops of the higher peaks of the Ecrins but there
was enough of a gap to allow passage through the pas de Cavale. I finished
the flight by burning along the parcours as far as the Cheval Blanc before
heading directly back to Sisteron. |
Cloudy Ecrins
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