December 2008
Monthly Archive
Saturday, 20th December 2008
Geoff writes: took Judith to Girona airport at 5.00am so she could fly to Malta to spend it with her extended family, who were flying in from Israel, Ireland, Spain and England. (No worries about carbon footprints here). Later on, went flying. The forecast is much better now, and getting warm again, with 18C forecast today. Took Nils and Sasha to fly their hang gliders at Puig d’Afrou. Nil wind all the way, until we arrived there, when it was howling. Backtracked 5k to Santa Brigida, where it was nil wind again. Odd place, this.
Stood on top for a while, with maybe 15 or so other pilots, who had originally gone to Puig d’Afrou. When the sun was out – though it there was high cloud some of the time – it was T shirt weather. Very light wind, then coming consistently over the back, so they all left to go for lunch. About ten minutes after they left, it came on the hill, and I launched about 15 minutes after that, but slowly went down to join Nils and Sasha in the landing field where they were checking out their gliders. Got a ride back up immediately with Joan, and the wind had picked up – basically, it was nicely flyable for the next couple of hours, easy to stay up. None of the luncheon people came back but 3 or 4 others did, and we all flew. A great day, not an epic Santa Brigida day, but a lot of fun, and proof again that you can never write off the site.
Friday, 19th December 2008
Geoff writes: Went skiing at La Molina. For a Friday, it was almost deserted, but the skiing was excellent. A little windy on the top, but most of the resort was open so we got to ski a lot of places for the first time. A great day, completed with the usual beer in the car park afterwards. Then back home to meet up with our other German friend, Sasha, who Nils had picked up from Barcelona.
Had a really nice evening. Shame it ended with most of one of my teeth breaking off….
Thursday, 18th December 2008
Judith 20 Dec 2008 | : Trying, but failing, to fly
Geoff writes: went out to fly, but we were too late due to car problems. As we were driving there we could see people flying; when we arrived, it was very light, rapidly dropping off to nothing. Eventually, we gave up, went home, sorted out car problems, had Judith’s parents round for dinner, and our German juggler friend Nils arrived for a few days.
Wednesday, 17th December 2008
We went skiing today at La Molina. The forecast was for variable cloud, so we didn’t know what to expect. It was dreary and grey as we left home, but we climbed above the cloud as we went over the pass towards St Joan de les Abadesses. As we got closer to La Molina we could see, hear and feel the wind. It was going to be a cold day…
On arrival, I supplemented my five layers of clothing with another three and waddled up to the ski lift looking like the Michelin Man in black. The highest lifts were all closed due to the wind, but it was rather nippy up there anyway, so we elected to ski the bottom half of the resort.
Geoff’s new skis have made a massive difference. He’s a different skier. We did the big black run before our first cup of coffee, he was so confident on the Dynarods (as he calls them – Dynastar, really!). On any flattish bits he was sailing past me shouting ‘My skis are faster than yours!’. He must like them… he wouldn’t let me have a go on them at all.
So it started off sunny, but soon big wave bars started to appear. One spread into a sort of lentistratus and blocked out the sun. The temperatures dipped immediately. The other issue was that you can read the snow well when it’s just shade, but the clouds made this really weird light which made the snow look really uniform and flat. The snow quality was excellent, but it was harder to ski than usual because of the light and the wind made your eyes water too. Still, lots of fun and nice to be out after so many days stuck at home.
Tuesday, 16th December 2008
Judith 16 Dec 2008 | : Boring stuff
It’s super-dooper nice that all this snow has fallen, if only we could actually use it. The forecast radically worsened for today and then they announced that all the top lifts were closed due to high winds. Not worth going for a bunch of green pistes!
It wasn’t even flyable, with the odd shower and constantly changing winds. Nice sunset tonight though, with pink fluffy clouds above the mountains.
Tomorrow we go skiing come what may. We’ve got to make the most of it before I go away for a week and then our season tickets are not valid for the holiday period.
Geoff’s comments: actually the forecast is radically improving from tomorrow. Increasing temperatures, little or no precipitation, wall to wall sun. Should be excellent for both skiing and flying from Thursday onwards (and probably OK for skiing tomorrow). A shame Judith is off to Malta on Saturday for a week…..
Monday, 15th December 2008
Judith 15 Dec 2008 | : Boring stuff
Another grey, wet, cold day. The compensation for all this horrible weather is that there is 40cm of new snow in the mountains. Every cloud has a silver lining….
Sunday, 14th December 2008
Judith 14 Dec 2008 | : Boring stuff
The front came through late, so it was raining most of the day, as well as being cold and miserable. We couldn’t see any of the mountains around us, cloud was so low. Depressing, but good if you have work to do. Which I do, in advance of the next conference in January.