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Near the col de Lauteret
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A solo day today; I particularly wanted to do some
experimentation to the north, and on hearing this, Ariane decided that a day
by the pool would be a much better option. A change of runway from 36 to 18
lost us an hour so I didn't get away until after 2pm. Fortunately, the
thermals were good and went high locally, so I made rapid progress via the
traditional route to the tete de Lucy, taking just over an hour from launch
to reach the tete d'Amont where cloudbase had risen to over 12,500ft.
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Sollieres
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I crossed the col d'Etroite and sniffed some thermals in the
centre of the Modane valley before heading eastwards towards Solliere. A
little moment of déja-vu as I slid downwards to 9000ft very close to where
I fell out two years ago. Fortunately, I was still in the convective zone
and quickly regained cloudbase. Still looking to reach the col de Carro, I
tried one of the ridges about halfway there but failed to make a climb. So I
was back at Solliere at 9000ft again.
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I decided that if I got away this time, I'd do well not to
rely on a third attempted getaway, so I crept back through the col d'Etache
to Bardonecchia and back to the higher cloudbases near the Ecrins. As I
passed the col de Galibier I couldn't help noticing a glider emerging into
the valley at a very low altitude. I wondered whether it might be
landing out in the field at le Casset, but no: it trundled down the valley
towards Briancon. I can only assume that the pilot knew what s/he was
doing.
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Through the col 'dEtache
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Auribeau
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At the pas de la Cavale I took the route Royale (along
the spine of the Ecrins) to the tete de Lucy and then gave the parcours a go
as far as the Trois Eveches. A large sheet of stratus-like cloud hung over
the top which did not look like it was convective, but sure enough, it was.
To round off the flight I air-braked down to the south-west facing
ridges of Auribeau and Authon for a spot of ridge-running before landing
back at Sisteron, experiment completed.
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