On to Chamonix! I arrived into this busy little town nestled in a valley with Mt. Blanc dominating one side and a ski hill on the other. At mid morning the place was already hopping and it took me quite a while to located the landing zone which luckily had the seemingly only empty parking spots in town. I donned my paragliding backpack and walked a couple of kilometres to the gondola. There was a big climbing wall, tents, bleachers and speakers set up in one square that I passed through...must be some kind of festival going on, I’ll check that out later.
The climbing wall in town:
I paid my 11 Euros and was heading up to launch. What a gorgeous view of Mt. Blanc and Chamonix. There’s a gondola station up to a point called “Aiguille du Midi” (meaning Noon Needle) which is super impressive, a building perched on the jagged peak of a mountain. Humans can create some incredible things can’t they?!? There is a paragliding flight that you can do off of there but not during July and August. The Brit Tim had done the flight and shown me the video and I was flabbergasted. It looks incredible as you fly over an awesome glacier. He claims that you can’t do it in July/August because there are too many rescue helicopters flying up there to help idiot climbers! I must return in September to do this flight...
The gondola up to launch:
Aiguille de Midi (the sharpest point on the right by the cloud):
Walking five minutes up to the launch after de-gondolaing (I know my former English teaching aunt’s going to love that one...), I noticed a tandem guy setting up and there were two guys with parachutes on their back. I’ve seen a skydiver jump from a tandem before (in Nepal) but two? One jumper was in the usual harness and the second stood behind the pilot and was just tethered on so when they launched he dangled below. It was pretty cool to watch them take off. Their sink rate was pretty high but they still had good altitude over town. Perhaps they were part of the festival’s entertainment. I never saw a parachute open but I did see the tandem all of a sudden look a bit strange with a big crease in the front middle of the glider...I hope everyone was alright. A few acro pilots came through and launched. Oh, I forgot to mention that as I was riding up the gondola I saw a dude doing an infinity tumble. This is the latest and greatest paragliding acrobatic move where the pilot is doing full on loops around his wing. “Infinity” is a bit of a dumb name for it as eventually you’ll hit the ground but the record is over a couple hundred of these loops where the pilot experiences +6 to -3 Gs on each rotation! It was the first time that I had seen this manoeuvre with my own eyes. Some other people arrived on launch and it was twin brothers piloting two tandems and an Aussie girl. I think i recognized these guys from an article I read in a paragliding magazine. They are in their early twenties and apparently quite talented and I got to see that first hand.
The launch, with the three crazies getting ready:
The three crazies in flight...notice the guy hanging off the bottom:
I eventually set up and launched. I hung around near launch trying to find the lift that I saw the twins catch but eventually headed south where most paragliders had gone. I fought my way around a corner, wary of turbulence from rotor and suddenly shot up a few hundred meters. The air got kinda funky so I decided to head back towards launch and even past it heading north. I was bummed to realize that I hadn’t charged my HD helmet cam so I was only able to take a few pics and the stunning surroundings that I was flying in deserved a lot more than that.
In flight:
A happy paraglider:
Happily back on the ground I walked through town to take in some of the festival and looked in vain for a bakery. Although I could have stayed in Betty where she was for 24 hours (and there were many other campers around), it was a busy road and it was the finals of the World Cup so it would be nice to be able to watch that. I decided to head to a campsite called Les Deux Glaciers. They did have Wi-Fi but i was dismayed to hear that I wouldn’t be able to receive it at my site. I’ll figure something out for watching the game. The view of Mt. Blanc was stunning at the campsite. Later I decided to go into the restaurant to have dinner and watch the game and I showed up an hour before the kickoff to ensure I got a spot. Forty-five minutes passed and not a single waitress asked me if I wanted anything. I finally caught the attention of the lady who had booked me the sight and she said that I didn’t have a reservation...well why the hell did you let me sit down to begin with?!? Ah, another great experience of French customer service. So I left and took my camping chair, laptop and a few beers to a spot close enough to get an Internet signal but alas it kept cutting out. I then joined some other campers with peering through the restaurant window to watch the game but eventually gave up and went to bed. I was happy to hear the next day of the winner...Viva Espana!
Walking around Chamonix:
Approaching the landing zone (on the left):
Betty happy at the campsite, in front of Mt. Blanc:
A better view of Mt. Blanc, sans Betty:
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