7 pilots headed up La Chabre; we didn't have an official retrieve, so this would be more typical of Laragne flying if I were to move here. Some forecasts warned about S winds and we found three gliders more or less ridge soaring, struggling to get high. There seemed more wind and maybe less thermals than on a typical day. I launched and was pleased to find good enough thermals straight away.Pretty soon, the clouds were the problem; I was at cloud-base and wanted to head W, but some clouds were blocking me. You had to always choose a route with an escape route available, so I headed N - the Buech valley was in sunshine. The flying was relatively straightforward, though I always seemed to arrive at a peak or ridge that was in shade. I wanted to wait for the other pilots, but I seemed to be either at cloudbase (and struggling to stay below it) or in shadow (and struggling to stay up). As the day went on, the wind strengthened.
Coming onto the sail-plane ridge I headed left (W) for a cloud but it gave no lift. This was a bad mistake, it left me in a position where I had to fight the strong valley wind to get onto the ridge. As I started to sink out, my concern changed to finding the LZ that would minimize the problem of the wind - I got one above the valley bottom that was OK.
I got a couple of lifts back to Laragne without any problems. The first guy asked lots of questions; I first told him I was American then Scottish and he felt Scottish was 'beaucoup mieux'.
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