France -10: St.Hilaire, Chamrousse

Moonset

Originally I had wanted to go to Montlambert in the morning and then fly Chamrousse in the afternoon.
But as I passed St.Hilaire some PG's were already flying, so I changed my mind and went there. In addition, this would save me at least an hour driving time for my intendend afternoon flight...

Funiculaire to St.Hilaire (83% gradient)

St.Hilaire - the 'famous' tapis-TO

LZ in Lumbin

It was pretty stable and the inversion could be clearly seen; I landed after 1h20min and drove to the LZ for Chamrousse in St.Martin-les-Uriages. As luck would have it, some other PG pilots were driving up to launch and they had a spare seat left (otherwise I would have needed to go down to Uriage-les-bains and then ride with the local bus up...).

LZ, can be pretty tricky, as there are (too) many fences...

Croix de Chamrousse

This summer they are improving the installations on top of the 'Croix de Chamrousse', so the gondolas are running only during weekends; Therefore we needed to walk up to the 'Aiguille'-TO and couldn't fly from the very top. This 30min hike (steep at times) is about the limit I can do while carring a backpack - but I finally arrived also.
Of course the air was also too stable here and after 40min my flight ended where I had parked my car.

Chateau in St.Martin-les-Uriages

LZ behind soccer field (just the dark green patch left of the road!)