La Breya (Orsières/ Champex)

La Breya: a flight area I had wanted to visit for a long time. It's an ideal starting point for a 'tour around Mt.Blanc'.  >>> a flight around Mt.Blanc  (unfortunately not mine...)

Of course I had hoped for such conditions - yesterday 3 pilots did it. But the light N-/NE- wind and the inversion made such a flight impossible today. 

Launch (at approx) 2200m is reached by chair lift from 'Champex Lac', which in turn is reached by car or (in my case) by bus from 'Orsieres' (train station); it offers great views towards Lake Geneva, Verbier, Grand Combin and Val Ferret. There are options for launching direction South and North. South would have been preferable (so we laid out here first), as here we would have launched directly into the thermals but the increasing wind forced us to use the North launch.

Pano looking South: Verbier (far left), Grand Combin (center)

 

Grand Combin (4314m)

South launch (looking North-East direction Verbier)

Looking North towards Lake Geneva

Val Ferret (with Col Ferret at the end); launch (right side)

Overview (looking West)

LZ 'Som-la-Praz' (Orsieres)

Due to the northerly wind the south facing slopes were in the lee and also turbulent. Most (all?) pilots landed at Orsieres (Som-la-Praz) after less than an hour. Today have not been ideal conditions for flying here - as I know by now ;-)

Afterwards I drove back home: luckily without any traffic jams at all :-)

 

 

Good conditions - lousy flying (Plan Praz)

Probably I had just one or two bites too much meat last night for dinner and therefore slept rather badly ;-)

 

I arrived early (for me) on launch at 1000 (that's rather early for me) and hung around for about an hour watching and taking pictures.

Plan Praz launch, looking towards le Brévent

 

I never had an urge to quickly go ahead and get airborne, so I finally launched at 1130. Good conditions permitted me to get above 'le Brévent' in just a short while.

 

le Brévent

 

According to Vincent's advise I tried to fly East first - direction 'Aiguilles Rouges'. Unfortunately I didn't find much lift so I turned around at 'Flégère'.

But I was already too low and also lacked the motivation/ drive to hang-in the weak, bumpy thermals. Landing at 'Savoy' after just 50 minutes... Later (after having packed up), it looked as conditions had improved as quite a number of gliders could be seen above 'Aiguilles Rouges'.

 

If you want to hike up to Plan Praz (instead of taking the gondola) there is a nice track. It's 'just' a 1000m climb ;-)

Plan Praz (Chamonix) - some pix by Vincent

 

Merci Vincent pour ces photos!

Plan Praz (Chamonix)

Finally conditions have improved! Today I could make a nice flight together with Vincent in the Chamonix area: taking-off at Plan Praz (below Brevent) then west to Passy; turning at Varan and landing in Chamonix (Savoy) after 1hr 45min :-)) Rather surprisingly I had been able to keep up with Vincent on the transitions: speed- and also glide- wise.

 Vincent: thanks for showing me the way ;-)

 

 

Launch at Plan Praz

le Brevent

Planz Praz (looking East): Argentiere         

 

Vincent

 

 

heading towards Passy

 

Plaine Joux (Passy): launch (where we have flown yesterday)

 

Varan (turning point)

Heading back to Chamonix...

 

Chamonix: LZ Bois du Bouche (left lower corner); LZ Savoy: field on right side

the flight on ayvri.com

And to finish off a very nice day: a 'typical' French dinner (Cote de Boeuf) in the company of Claire and Vincent.

 

le Prarion, Passy Plaine Joux, Sunset

A very hot and stable day. Just 2 (extended) sledders for me, but great company by Vincent and magnificent views!

In the morning 'le Prarion', reached by gondola from 'les Houches.

Pano looking East towards Chamonix, Mt.Blanc

Pano looking North: LZ in the middle

Later in the afternoon Vincent took me to 'Passy -Plaine Joux': again great views but little lift :-(

Beautiful sunset in the Chamonix Valley

Verbier

With the promising forecast I decided to travel to Wallis. Overnight I stayed in Niederwald, just a few kilometers to the east of Fiesch.

But in the morning I decided to go to Verbier (instead of Fiesch). The main reason: I the evening I wanted to be in Les Houches (near Chamonix), so I can fly for the next few days together with my friend Vincent, who lives there.

Pano looking West

Unfortunately the thermal activity was unusally weak, even if the parameters looked good:

- post frontal,

- cold night,

- little wind.

The only thing I can immagine: as it has rained very heavily during the last two days, there was just too much humidity left in the ground, so the sun's energy was spent in drying up the ground...

Anyway, after 3 hours of parawaiting, I also launched and could fly for close to 1.5hrs. Shortly before landing I was working on my wing-overs: I had a right wing-tip collapse and when the tip reopened rather violently the stabilo line snapped :-(

Luckily I found a company nearby (in Bex/ Monthey) specilizing (among other things) in paraglider repair: Asagiri SA

Even as it already was well past 1800, the guy there agreed to wait for my arrival at 1900 and he fixed the problem right away: that's what I call perfect/ outstanding service!!  - and I have never been a customer there before...

I finally arrived in Chamonix just as the sun was setting.

Arosa

Launching from the Weisshorn was (just) a bit tricky, as there is always a X-wind from the left (caused by the thermals coming up 'Rööslihang'). But finally I managed a good launch :-)

Pano looking SW (Aroser Rothorn)

above launch

Badi (Untersee)

Just flying locally for a bit more than an hour, taking pictures and landing in 'Isla'.

For dinner Ruth invited me to Lamm&Leu (Steakhouse). Here I was served one of the best pieces of meat (filet) I ever had :-))

Bündner Rigi

Day trip to 'Bündner Rigi', near Ilanz. The thermal fcst for today didn't look too promising - and so it tuned out: 2 flights of about 30', searching for the weak lift  (and trying to center it)...

Launch: looking NE: (Ilanz), Flims, Chur

Luven; looking up to launch (appox below 3rd highest point)

LZ in Ilanz (looking West)

But I'm still pretty happy: 2 good (reverse) launches and also 2 good (spot) landings.
In the afternoon the LZ in Ilanz West can become tricky, when the valley wind (coming from Chur) gets too strong. In this case I have been advised that TOP-landing (or just anywhere below TO) would be the better/ safer option. But when I landed the base wind has been less than 20kmh.

Alp Scheidegg

A spontaneous excursion to Alp Scheidegg with Andy.
I have been here for last time in 2017 and it's actually the first flight since I have become a member of the DCZO (Delta Club Zürcher Oberland) a few months ago ;-)

At first I almost sank out, but luckily I could 'dig me out' above the LZ ;-) 

Just cruising around for about 40' before landing at LZ 'Hüebli' - this time there was no thermal waiting to safe me.... This is always a challenging LZ, as the wind can suddenly switch around.

'Hüebli'

Many thanks to Maya & Andy for the ride!