Brocken Spectre

Brocken Spectre (towards the bottom left)

I had a new year paraglider flight today. I certainly didn't fly because the forecast was spectacular but a nice hike and fly seemed like a good way to start the year. There's also bad weather moving in overnight (serves me right for posting about global warming...), so flying is likely to be out for the next few days. 

I've had surprising experiences in the Alps when bad weather arrives. I remember flying at Aspres once when the bad weather was clearly coming from the north but I was ridge soaring in a strong south wind. Today was a bit less dangerous, but the wind was all over the place - very lightly from the N on the south launch, about 10 km/h from the W on the west launch and at 35 km/h from the S above the LZ.

The damper air bringing the bad weather was forming clouds as it rose over Chalvet and I took the opportunity to fly above it and snap a picture of my brocken spectre (more info here).