17th August - Verbier->Mont Blanc->return

With an extended period of grab flying weather approaching, trail of emails on google groups were hitting the inbox in a steady stream.
Some were up for a "Vol Visa" over the weekend, which for those who don't know, is where you take a sleeping bag, toothbrush and a bar of soap amongst your flying kit and sleep wherever you happened to land at the end of the day.

Loving the idea but not being the camping type, I decided against this plan, but instead joined the group on the first day by driving to take-off.
Plan A was to head over into Switzerland, take off from Verbier and fly a 140km out and return taking in an extended tour of the Mont Blanc with the furthest turn point being in France near Bourg St Maurice.

Plan "A"

¨Plan "B", an out and return to Belledonne

With these in mind, and obviously with the meteo predictions, a top landing on the summit of MB in either case was also at the forefront of everyone's mind.

Looking towards the Col - our route!

Our rendez-vous was at 10h00am at La Châble and then the Savolyères lift to the 2400m take-off. (I'm liking it! This should be way above any inversions). Ha...
Once at the top of the chair life, a short 10min walk to the grassy west-facing slope above Verbier village. (I'm still liking it).
We saw that others had arrived en mass which was always a good sign that "you had got the predictions right".

Steve Senior in the cable car ride up

It was about 1145am and you could feel the excitement in the air. We were ready. Layers of thermal clothes were put on - it was going to be cold at the Mont Blanc summit, lots of water, food, hand warmers, balaclavas etc etc. And then we waited, and waited.....and waited until about 13h!

The valley was very stable with not a breath on take off.
Why does that often happen when you have such a clear idea in your mind and have been visualising this day all week?

The Meteo had not predicted this. I imagined that the valley was howling under the inversion we were sitting in, we were so high up it was not possible to tell. A couple of school gliders had taken off on top-to-bottoms earlier on without any visual signs of distress.
A short while later, a couple of swiss pilots took off and made their way on the long glide towards Martigny after not finding any lift on the end of the take-off ridge. They glided for a long way before we eventually caught sight of them about 10k's away, mincing around in what looked like .5's.  After that I don't know which direction they headed.

More discussions amongst us. Possibilties, probabilities, strategies, pondering..... Jon Chambers decided that enough was enough and forward launched his X-alps glider in search of adventure. Later we were to discover that his efforts were highly rewarded (read his blog).

Tom Payne, Steve Senior and I finally decided that it was time to give it a go. Martin Dockerill, Rupert Hone and Quentin followed.
I got a bleep on the end of the ridge and radio'd to the others to come over and give me a hand to core. Seeing Steve and Tom in Martigny ahead of me turning in gentle lift, seeing no one else take off, I eventually left to join them. The long glide was smooth and velvety air£. Not a rustle! Time to take in the views, and set up the camera.
Connecting with the tree-lined valley, "V" shape leading all the way up to the Col, the valley breeze started to kick in within a few minutes. Arriving slightly lower than the other two, I had to work hard to find any lift which was not blown cross-ways up the valley. Battling in choppy, broken lift above the pines, almost kicking the tops to scrape in shot-to-shit .7's and drifting with the lift, meant that I was were not able to get high enough to connect with the granite surfaces above me. Surely these would produce some better lift. I was joined by Martin. At last, some help.

After about 1hr of searching in the heated valley temperatures, with the wind increasing, seeing 4 gliders up high trying to scrape over the Col, down below, Martin and I called it a day and easily hitched a ride back to Verbier after having flown about 30k! Steve had already decided on attempting a return to take off to retrieve the car (brave decision, but the experienced pilot never ceases to set himself a challenge and rightly so).
Tom and Rupert had managed to connect with that slab of rock-cake above us and got a sniff of something half decent. Tom succeeded in gaining some altitude in what looked like a strong climb off one of the peaks. He continued by pushing south towards Italy, the Col and the gateway to Cham. Poor Rupert on the other hand got tossed out of the side and, taking all odds into consideration, decided to push on nevertheless, below Tom.
Where the valley rose in a steep inclination and without a glimmer of lift, they both eventually ran out of any solid thermal sources, and landed.

Jon Chambers on the other hand, was the only one to get away that day, and did indeed top land on the MB (check out his blog to read his perilous story!). We caught up with him on radio on the way home thermalling above the Grands Montets, just before our pit-stop at the micro-brewery in Cham for a smooth malt "blanche". Well, someone had to celebrate!

For me, I always find it exciting to go on XC with a group of pilots rather than fly on my own.
I really love the generosity and enthusiasm with which fellow pilots eagerly share all their acquired knowledge and information. It is the only sport I have found (and I do many sports!) where this happens in such a generous manner.
So grab a group of friends, study a map, plan a route and even if it doesn't work out how you anticipated, you will enjoy exchanging stories at the end of it, regardless of any expectations. :-)