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Overcast
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I have to say that the trip down south went perfectly. An
early start from blighty got us an early crossing to France, giving us the
opportunity to see the development of what appeared to be an excellent
soaring day. The stretch from Reims to Lyon consisted of wall-to-wall
cumulus (during which we spotted not a single glider). We arrived at
Sisteron while it was still light, around 9pm local. An early night
beckoned.
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Soarable?
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Spreadout? What spreadout?
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Warm sunshine greeted us this morning, although the club's
Met forecast warned of thick overcast during the afternoon. No-one believed
it, of course, so we rigged and got ready to go.
After launching onto the Gourass, the first problem we
noticed was, err, lack of sunlight on the ground due to, um, spreadout. This
made getting away a little tricky, especially when the next sunny ridge
always got shadowed out as soon as we approached it.
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However, by exercising a cavalier disregard for the realities
of the situation we managed to get enough height at tete Grosse to bounce
across to the parcours, Morgon and eventually Guillaume/tete de Lucy, where
we caught an extremely turbulent thermal that propelled us up to 11,500ft
and away to all points north.
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Glacier Blanc
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To be honest, there were limited possibilities in that
direction due to a veil of grey beyond Pelvoux, but we decided to follow the
route royale anyway, up the spine of the Ecrins to the head of the
Valgaudemar where, at 13,500ft, we realised that we could use the
tradesman's entrance to the Glacier Blanc, flying from the west over the top
of the Barre des Ecrins to enjoy the view.
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Homewards
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The trip home was a straight glide, dodging tops of cumulus
on the way. The last 50km were conducted under a dead sky, still suffering
the effects of the thick overcast. All in all, not the day we had hoped for
when we awoke to clear blue skies, but fascinating nevertheless to realise
what can be achieved under the most disheartening conditions.
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