20th August - Mont Blanc, Chamonix, FR

After having licked my wounds and joined in with my friends' celebrations of fulfilling their life time dream of top landing on Mont Blanc, I thought, right, today, Monday, is my turn.

I'd checked out the forecast the night before which admittedly did not look epic but still light enough winds and conditions looked forgiving.

There had been a storm last night which brought some precipitation and thought that would add some instability and give us faster ascension to the summit.
I'd spent the night, subconsciously visualising this flight. I had prepared in my mind what to expect. I had prepared my gear, winter gloves, food and drink, checked my survival kit that everything I may need (just in case) was there. I was ready.
The meeting point was 10h30 at Annecy North. Several of us went in convoy, others car shared, to Chamonix, Brevent. Free parking today - that was a good omen, surely.

Brevent bubble lift up to take off where there must have been over 80 pilots up there! I took off in the second wave of people around 12h30pm after graciously waiting for a friend in our group to borrow a spare helmet from someone (he had left his behind, poor sod!). I took note, that no one else waited, which I thought was quite rude considering this wan't a competition and the more we helped each other relay the conditions as a group the better chance we had).
So my friend took off and I got stuck on launch due to a struggling pilot was having problems launching and continued to dump his wing over mine a few times.  Never mind, we've all been there...
I felt very clam, the thermic conditions looked great and getting up was not going to be a problem.

The only glitch I could determine was, looking across the valley to the Aiguille and indeed further south, that cloud base was as low as the forecast had predicted.

The lift was very strong at Brevent ridge height, taking the hoofing thermal above the top of the cable car summit and feeling a slight NWesterly kick in.
Topping up to 3100m I decided to have a nice high transition to avoid any scratching around the other side of  Les Houches and also to avoid the airspace in the valley.

My friend together with a few of the others had traversed via Mont Joly for unknown reasons, perhaps they were low, so I found myself high enough to cross the valley and connect with the south side above Les Houches where a large gaggle of pilots just to the west of the pic de Miage were thermalling.

Cloudbase was indeed between 3800 and 3900m and after passing over the Col into Italy and connecting with the Col de Miage, my decision not to go any further was strengthened by growing congests and a looming black sky on the Italian side.
Not knowing the way and looking down at the committing glacier just ahead of us and and below a hostile scenery, I remember hearing stories of previous efforts to not get flushed down by the cold air in this part, that remaining at least 100m above was the key.

The couple of other pilots who were with me at the time did not seem to know the route either and were also not committing to the crossing of the glacier.
Through the inversion on the Italian side, I could barely see the ground and through the clouds above me, could not make out the summit or try to pick the route through the wispy clouds to continue.

After only an hour but flying at around 3800m altitude, air sickness started to set in and my decision had already been made to turn back as it was quite clear that landing on the White Lady today would be a "no-go".
Instead I topped up at cloud again over Les Houches, and went on a loooong glide down the valley making sure to keep out of airspace, taking some pictures of the Aiguille du Midi which was now also under cloud, and a towering Cunim forming over Mont Joly. I was happy with my decision making.

If it had not been so rough towards the north of the Cham valley by Les Grand Montets, I would have ventured further into the Mer de Glace, but I wa getting tossed around by thermals being blown over the Brevent ridge and convergence in the valley. Strong lift of +5 and roughly the same in sink, it was time to call it quits.
Between the helicopter pad and the main landing field I managed to shed 2710m of height (that's roughly in about 5km's!), returning to the big sink holes time and time again in order to get down. Eventually big ears and speed bar through the chop was the final glide, and riding the crest of the wind-wave as I came into land was captured fairly successfully on my GoPro.
Pleased to be down on the ground and just so elated at having flown to close to my goal - I am absolute ready for next year, and will not miss the opportunity to also fulfil my dream.

No doubt you have all seen the footage - it was a huge party up there.
I missed the "Big Day Sunday" because I had sold my harness on Saturday and only been able to collect received my new one on Sunday morning, did not have enough time to get it rigged up and drive to Cham, so I flew the Aravis as a warm up.

I thought that by sacrificing the Sunday for the Monday, the weather would hold.
However I am glad that I didn't try to fly in my new harness up to the summit, as it is taking some getting used to. Flying the Aravis was somewhere I had never flown until yesterday.
So no regrets.....bring on August 2013 for another try. I'm ready!

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. :-)

4 August - Accro Twins at Planfait

The internationally renowned "Accro Twins", Ant and Tim Green were here today to enjoy the great flying conditions we have been experiencing. It was great to catch up with them again, before they took off for a long flight into the Bauges.  Nice to see you again, Boys!

Timothy (left), Self (centre), Anthony (Right)

Classic conditions in Annecy

Ant having recently achieved a fantastic 180km+ cross-country flight in the South of France, I wonder how they both got on today.

Tim preparing his wing

3 August - Annecy - Tandem at Planfait

Take-Off at Planfait

As we had some guests to stay at home, we thought a little Tandem Flight would be fun for them as the conditions these past few days have been perfect.

Airborne heading towards Veyrier

The slight cross-wind on the take-off at Planfait together with strong thermic conditions made for a fairly technical launch.








But everyone got away without any problems and had a lovely "Tour du Petit Lac", small circuit of Lake Annecy (Dents de Lanfon, Roc de Boeuf, Forclaz, Perroix).

Getting comfortably seated 

Coming in to land at Perroix

Competition Flying Equipment

Above is a photo of the key items that I pack each time I travel to a competition. I pack them all in a clear Tupperware travel box, so that I ALWAYS know where to find them. My packing is meticulous and systematic.
Aside from the bottom lefthand corner of "stuff", (chargers, flight log book, competitions file, download cables, laptop and my orange notebook), all the items you can see are taken with me on each and every actual paragliding flight.

Note, the indispensable items are :
My Compass C-Pilot
Grabber hand warmers
Rab goosedown jacket
Tena daipers
Kenwood radio
Lazer helmet
FAI License and Insurance documents

You can zoom in and have a closer look at everything too. Amongst the other stuff which are permanently in my Kortel Karmasutra pod harness  is my First Aid kit which contains everything from medication, bandages, a Multi-tool, zippo lighter and extra line etc..

I like to take an electronic book to read too. Its easy to pack and you never know how long you are going to be waiting on take off or whether you will need a retrieve. I'm trying to learn Portuguese and Spanish at the moment, so audio books offer great possibilities for that.

NB. Items marked in RED are trademarks.

This season's Trophies to date 2012

From left to right:

1st Place Women's - Nordic Open, Ager 2012
1st Place Team - British Open, Meduno, 2012
1st Place, British Ladies Champion - British Championship 2012 (and Gold Medal)
2nd Place Women's - Portuguese Open, Serra da Estrella 2012
2nd Place Women's - Belgian Open, Annecy 2012
1st Place Team - PWC Montalegre, Portugal 2012
2nd Place Team - British Open, Pedro Bernardo 2012
3rd Place Team - Belgian Open, Annecy 2012

1 August - Annecy

After having slept 9hrs am now fully recovered and time to unload, unpack and prepare for the next comp. A big clean of everything is a "must" after 4 weeks of dusty launches and farmland goal fields. Time to check over all the kit, particularly the wing, and make sure there is no damage to either.
Unload my flying box, clear that out, and reload it so as to be ready for my next comp which is in a few weeks' time.

TLC for my equipment. Nettoyage de mon matos.

Trophies so far this season

My flying kit (I'll detail this in another Blog for those who are interested)

In the meantime, I'm enjoying being back home in Annecy, watching all the seasonal paraglider pilots enjoying the fine weather we are having.

The skies are littered with colour. Beautiful.... :-)

Je rattrape enfin le sommeil perdu. Une nuit de 9hrs m'a bien reposé, maintenant l'heure du nettoyage et rangement après 4 semaines et 4 compétitions non-stop sur les décollages et conditions poussiéreux. Eponge et sceau d'eau tiède a la main, étalage de la voile et équipement dans le jardin.
Le ciel est rempli de voiles de vacanciers sur Planfait et Forclaz et le bassin Annecien.


Entretemps, si contente d'etre rentrée a la maison, c'était une tournée longue mais avec avec pleins d'émotions et des résultats positives. Je récolte des trophées... :-)