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Alpinism
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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.
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Lac d'Allos
En-route to the Queyras
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Lac Cenis
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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.
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Maurienne
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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.
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Towards the col de Carro
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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.
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Homeward Bound
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