Laragne Visit

Saturday looked flyable at St Andre, but only early; the afternoon overdevelopment cycle looks as though it will continue for several days. I checked Laragne and it looked a little better - further from the sea, with less humid air and lower mountains.

I left here too late to walk up the hill but too early to just drive to the top. In the end, I walked up and it was hard work. A big storm yesterday left the ground and the air just above it super humid; together with very little shade and wind, it was a sweaty hike. And, it's a big hill and not very steep; so you have to cover a lot of terrain. Eventually, of course, I got up there. The wind was very light from the N but everyone was launching from the S - much better thermals on the S side!

I had decided to fly a triangle that involved flying W along the main ridge at la Chabre; that would make retrieval much easier. Right off launch I had to work for a few minutes to get up. But my late start caused problems; there were big clouds along the ridge and I didn't fancy flying under them. So I did a sort of out and return along the ridge and then landed in Laragne when I felt the clouds were over-developing; a pretty satisfying flight, even if I didn't go far.

I had a beer before driving back to St Andre; the bar-man was busy protecting his parasols from the coming storm. Back in St Andre, thunder is rumbling and rain is falling; heading to Laragne seems like a good move!

Flight -> http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/344056
Pics -> http://picasaweb.google.com/DMMullin/Laragne26June2010#