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| Growing clouds behind Valle de Bravo |
Having been here for a day and acclimatised from the sub tropics of Columbia to the 1745m fresh altitude air of Valle de Bravo, I was ready to fly.
I'm in "Mehico", Valle de Bravo, home to the Monarca butterfly and a pilot's paradise. An additional
tick in the box since the start of my paragliding career and another great venue to celebrate for the beginning of this 2014th year.
After a hearty breakfast of beans, omelette, fresh V8 juice and coffee, a 45 minute taxi ride out of town and through the pine forest to the main Pinon launch at some 2000m.
The morning is still chilly as we prep our gear breathing clear fresh air mingled with warm sunshine. Plugging in the dummy task the day starts to warm up around 10am. Valle delivers.
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| Looking out from above take off |
Taking off at 11h30, into strong, thermic and somewhat rough conditions, I see more than a few Enzo2 pilots with their legs tucked to break the strong lift and big sink. I am thankful to still be driving my IP6.
Briefly climbing out above launch, high enough to connect with the Pinon ahead to the right, I surf up the face and hang on to a 5m/s climb at the summit. Is this the crazy thermal I've been hearing so much about?! I think not, but "bring it on" anyway and I whoop as my glider flings itself in 360's until we reach 3100m.
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| The "Wall" |
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| Pinon |
Checking out the terrain of the bowl in my view, we move to "The Wall"into a gaggle of about 6 other pilots, Enzo2's, Booms and another Icepeak6.
I've been in the air all of 30 mins, when who should I meet but the infamous Uli Prinz! Bleeding off a dolphin wingover into our thermal, he's already looking right into his own free space and I can calculate that we will collide. I shout….loudly, but not loud enough!
Uli's smacks into the left side of my wing, swinging me violently round. My glider claps around his pod, his legs in my break lines and upper B's. As my glider reopens, breaking the imminent dive before it spirals, Uli's pod is still caught. My glider still wanting to turn with the strain, continues to tug violently when suddenly I hear the SNAP! We are free and Uli, released, ascends.
Looking up at him, dazed, I raise my hand to say that I am alright, he looks down. Then I see the flopping left side of my poor glider. Momentarily transformed into a BBHPP, the tip is upturned and lines are dangling from the A's.
Unable to gauge the extent of damage to the lines and fabric, but with an obvious difficulty to break or turn to the left, with the conditions as strong as they were I abandon the gaggle and glide away to land in the valley. Amazing how long it can take to come down from 2500m when you want to!
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| My slow descent into the valley |
No fear, no reserve but sadly no fly for me today and it's "Game Over".
I land in a nearby town in a field next to a school and the football pitch. Suddenly I hear shrieks as a mass of children come bounding through the grass and leaping over the school walls! There must have been about 60 children all wanting a piece of the action - to pack the glider, to asking questions about flying, wanting to help in any way they can. I have to ask them to step backwards for a moment as there is some shoving and pushing to get a closer touch and feel.
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| Eager school children run to greet me |
One of the small boys runs off to find a taxi for me, whilst the others beg to carry anything they can. So trying to share out equally the flight deck, ballast, rucksack et al taxi ride back to the landing field in Valle, where the word was already out!
Manned with my spare lines and tools, the glider is looked over, repaired and inflated in no less than a couple of hours.
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| Many hands make light work |
Thank you so much to Penny Hewlett, Uli and german his team-mate (name please?), for the repairs and to Goran for the extra long line.
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| "No pilots in the water!" Local canine lifeguard waits patiently in the landing field. |
