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Hmmm - wonder if this will
work...?
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Mont Viso
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The air today was described at briefing as dry and stable,
but there would be enough heat in the higher mountains to provide 4,000
metre thermals. The trick, as always, would be getting there.
Cock-up number 1: when at the front of the grid and a second
tug appears unexpectedly to whisk you away from terra firma, continue
to take
your time. I rather rushed it, which resulted in my drinking tube being wedged either
under my parachute or, worse, behind the seat pan. And I was getting thirsty
- this could have resulted in a return to base for a relight, and possibly
the most expensive sip of water.....in the world. Happily,
with a bit of wriggling and some light swearing, the drinking tube was recovered
and I could now concentrate on some proper soaring.
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Except that I wish I knew how to soar 'properly'. There was
some north in the wind, which on blue days is not my favourite combination.
I always felt not quite high enough to move onto the next mountain, but
after a couple of hours I had cracked it, finding a belter at the Blayeul
which launched me to 10,000ft and some kind of freedom.
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Franco-Italian border
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Cock-up number 2: when having a go with your brand new
in-cockpit GoPro HD camera, learn how to use it first. That way you won't
accidentally take several still photographs having omitted to select the
movie option. And the mounting of the camera could be improved, unless the
viewer has some interest in the contents of my right ear.
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Frozen lake, Viso
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I joined the parcours near the Trois Eveches, crossed over to
the
northern edge of the Barcelonnette valley and cut across to the the east of
the col de Vars. A large strip of thickening cirrus had damped down the
Ecrins, but the route to Viso was in full sun, so I headed in that
direction. The eastern rim of the Queyras continued to work its magic, sunny
on the French side, low cloud on the Italian.
I found some proper wave (as opposed to
yesterday's fake wave) near Guillestre. Taking it to 14,000ft, I decided I
had enough height to see what would happen if I tried to cross the central
part of the Ecrins via the pas de cavale. That was into wind, directly
towards the highest ridge-line in the area.
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Wave, 14,000ft
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Cock-up number 3: if you think that something
you are about to do might be seriously 'tricky', best not to give it a go.
That way, you won't spend fifteen scary minutes in a threshing machine
banging through huge lumps of sink and lift (but mainly sink), wondering if
you'd ever reach that col. I managed to get through with a good margin, with
the added bonus of some insight about what I should have done.
Oh well, bag of luck reduced, bag of
experience increased...
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