I slept in a bit and then headed off to La Clusaz, thinking I’d do a repeat of yesterday but perhaps this time I’d hike to the top for some exercise instead of taking the chairlift. En route, I took a slight detour to a town called Le Grand Bornand that Annelies had mentioned that I should visit. I saw some paragliders in the air and now it made sense from yesterday that I had seen one paraglider head in that direction from La Clusaz and I noticed a number of wings flying over that area. Why not fly here instead? I located the landing zone and then backtracked to the telecabine (gondola). There was a cute woman at a tandem paragliding outfit and I asked her whether this was the location to head up to paraglide and indeed it was. I got bit again by the French lunchtime as I was trying to go up around 1pm but of course it was shut down from 12-2. I decided to walk around town as Annelies had mentioned that it was beautiful village. I headed along a pedestrian trail and first passed some tennis courts followed by a pool and mini-golf. There was definitely a theme of “cow art” in the town. Not sure of the origins but I did enjoy some of the piece.
Cow Art:
The French sure now how to rec-reate (not recreate but the recreation “recreate”). The path followed a river and it had an exercise circuit similar to one I saw when I was stranded in Chateau Arnoux. They have various stations with wooden signs telling you to “Walk while swinging arms” or “Climb over structure”. It’s a fantastic idea and I did perform a few of the activities such as chin-ups and sit-ups. The French do exercise a fair bit as there are many cyclists, hikers, climbers etc. The funny thing is that almost everyone smokes...isn’t that counterintuitive?!?
Exercising in France:
I returned to Betty an hour later and took the gondola and then a chairlift up to launch. The view from the top was stunning. Mt. Blanc was obvious and most of the terrain was grassy with the odd lake. The skiing here in the winter must be fantastic. The launch itself was quite steep and the biggest obstacle was finding a place with no sheep or cow shit. There was no avoiding it, it was more a matter of finding a spot with no recent droppings. There were already a number of wings in the air and they were working a thermal about a kilometer away, over a treed knob. I had a few aborted attempts and then took to the air. I stayed close to launch and with the help of some other pilots, we climbed a few hundred meters above launch. I noticed a blue wing start to head north along a lower ridge and decided to follow. We both helped each other in locating lift and eventually made it to a bigger ridge that ran more east to west. I realized that it was a female pilot and another wing joined in from higher up. I’m quite sure it was a couple that I saw on launch. We had to hug the steep grassy terrain at times to gain the lift but it was all laminar flow so it didn’t seem dangerous. They both headed along the ridge and then got a boomer of a thermal and flew a few hundred meters above me. I searched for the same lift but couldn’t find it and suddenly I was left on my own. I eventually pursued them a couple of kilometers and they had reached the end of the ridge and crossed a small valley before I got there. I wasn’t too much higher than the ridge when I decided to go for it and was pleased to arrive only 50 meters below the lady. I watched as she had a bit of a collapse due to some rotor but she did all the right things and was no worse the wear. We cruised along the rock face but didn’t find much.
The "real" cows near between the gondola and the chairlift:
Taking the chairlift up:
The view from the chairlift up to launch:
The view from launch:
The steep launch:
The ridge I first flew to following the blue PG:
Flying down that ridge:
Looking at Mt. Blanc:
Around the corner was her companion and he was working a scree area that wouldn’t have fit all three of us. The woman saw me and gave me a thumbs up for having made it there and I did a wipe across my brow for a partial collapse I had witnessed that she had a few minutes prior...she recovered well though. I tried to work the rockface that faced east but that lost me a few hundred meters and I started contemplating landing zones. The other two started to glide away from the face and I could tell that they were trying to get as far as possible towards the start of the gondola which was 6-7 kilometers away. I decided to cross back over the small valley and see if i could bench up from there. I spent probably close to half an hour, eeking up 80 meters in height and then losing it. At one point, when I was only 220 meters below my launch height, I headed a few kilometres back along the ridge and contemplated landing near the bottom of an inactive chairlift with the thought of hiking to the top and re-launching but then I lost my height. In the end I landed in a farmer’s field with various small fence posts to contain cattle. I wasn’t sure if they were electric fences so I began to pack up in the longer grass that I was in but then was shouted at by a farmer in hi s barn. I wasn’t sure what he said but got the impression that I shouldn’t pack my wing there. I moved to a roadside turnout, packed up, and began my long walk back to Betty. According to my Satnav I had close to 7 kilometers to go...well, at least I get my exercise. At least it was pretty much all downhill. Just over an hour later, with sore feet setting in, I arrived at Betty. I was pleased nonetheless with the flight...well worth the price of admission!
Where I landed:
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