Wow.
It was tricky to get away (yet again) with stable air in the Serres valley, but perseverence on Aspres, then Pic de Bure saw us at 10,000' for the jump across to the Ecrins. We (Ben, me, Dan and Mike Collett) arrived well above the tops and were able to run up a couple of feeder ridges to small Cu that gave 3kts to 11,500'. Then it was on past Glacier Blanc, the lake at Val Cenis (with awful air in the Po valley to our right) and on to the Gran Paradiso. 
By now climbs were 5-6kts and cloudbase was up to a very respectable 13,000'. We ran over Verbier and on to the ridges facing Sion, then further East past the Matterhorn and on to the slopes of Monte Rosa. An enticing view of the Aletsch Glacier made the decision at 5 o/clock a tricky one: carry on to turn it or head home. Given tomorrow is forecast to be another very good day we turned and headed for home, some 250kms away.
The run home was no problem until we reached the Ecrins. By now it was 7 p.m., we'd been airborne 7 hours and the sun had turned onto North facing slopes that take a while to heat up. Fortunately the valley breeze was setting up so when we arrived on Guillaume at 6,500' there was a weak 1knot of ridge lift. It took a while to work this up to 8,300' but we could then run down Malaup & home via the Cretes des selles. The beatups were good stuff, and the local gendarmes who were at the bar were good enough not to comment (too much).
For our Southern hemisphere readers (morning Tony!) the rollcall is: Ben Flewett, Dan Pitman, Geoff Tabbner, Mike Collett, Will Ellis, Andy Perley and Steve Archer Jones. A reduced team but quality makes up for quantity.
Cake of the day: Swiss roll (what else?)
No comments:
Post a Comment