December 2010
Monthly Archive
Tuesday, 21st December 2010
After weeks of sunny weather we got some precipitation today. So we worked and then I went out to lunch with the family. Japanese. Yummy.
Monday, 20th December 2010
It would have been a great flying day, but we decided to go skiing instead. Our season passes are not valid over the holiday period, so we need to ski while we can. With no precipitation here for ages there isn’t any more snow, but they’re making it when they can. The snow quality was not quite as good as the other day, but the wall-to-wall sunshine and more pleasant temperatures made it a really lovely day.
We went up to the top of the resort, but with better snow low down, we stayed in the mid and bottom pistes and dodged the ski schools until lunchtime, when the place became deserted. Seems like they were too tired to come back for the afternoon session, because we seemed to have the place to ourselves.
Bad weather is coming up from the south tomorrow, so no more fun and games for a few days.
Sunday, 19th December 2010
Geoff writes: it was a pretty bad forecast for today, but when we woke up it was sunny, and stayed that way for the rest of the day – and much warmer than recently, too. So we had another flyable day – nine out of the last ten days have been flyable here, mostly at Santa Brigida, but other sites have also worked on some of the days. Yesterday was so thermic, probably every site near here would have been good.
So today was still pretty thermic, but much less rough than yesterday. Amazingly, for a weekend, when we turned up at Santa Brigida we were the only ones there. A phone call brought Johnny out, and a couple of others turned up and flew very briefly. So pretty deserted really. Maybe everyone had been put off by the forecast. It was flyable until late afternoon, when it finally switched off.
And as for the forecast, at 8.00 am it was saying it was rubbish today. At 11.30am it changed completely, to say it was going to be sunny and warm. I guess whoever does the meteocat web site finally looked out of the window and realised what a piece of garbage the 8.00 forecast was.
Saturday, 18th December 2010
Judith 19 Dec 2010 | : Flying, Party, party, party...
We’re catering for 15 tonight, so I thought I’d better make a start with pastry cases, etc. in the morning. By the time I was ready to go, it was too late to contact the HG pilots to see about sharing lifts up El Mont, so we decided to go to Santa Brigida instead.
There seemed to be wind on the way, but when we got there it was too light to stay up. There was also a lot of cloud around. Geoff gave it a go anyway and promptly went down. He got a lift back up with Enric and Marc. By the time they were back it had picked up a lot and had become quite gusty, but the sky was also breaking up and the sun was starting to poke through. Marc did mention that he thought it would be very unstable and that any sunshine on the ground would trigger a thermal. The temperatures where certainly cold, but you could feel it rise as soon as the sun hit you.
Once we got in the air, it was very thermic indeed. I got a consistent 3m/s to 800′ ATO and then pulled out… too cold for me, despite my six layers. It was possible to get much higher and I watched Marc core a real screamer. He was rocketing up. On the ground, the wind was getting stronger and stronger. Geoff and I both had several goes at top landing, but were unsuccessful. It was too windy to go far behind the trees and anywhere near the edge had you shooting up again, and it was rough near the edge too. After four goes and nearly and hour in the air, my hands were frozen and I decided to bottom land with everyone else. Apart from the cold, the conditions were really spring-like. El Mont would have been a good choice too. The hang gliders had a great hour and a half in strong thermic conditions.
Party in the evening went well, with friends, neighbours and parents coming. And the food was a success too.
Friday, 17th December 2010
Judith 17 Dec 2010 | : Trying, but failing, to fly
The forecast was for no tramuntana, but west wind instead. The same cold front that brought all the snow to the UK was due here this evening and there was a weather warning for snow and cold weather. Geoff, who admittedly isn’t a weather guru, assured me that it would be flyable. He had it on good authority from WeatherOnline. I wasn’t convinced, but we had a bet on, so went out to see if we could get a fifth day of excellent conditions at Santa Brigida.
With clear blue skies and little wind here, I was actually more optimistic than my forecasting led me to believe, but spotting the duvet effect at Puig Sacalm gave us our first doubts. It was SE at Les Planes de Hostoles, so we got all optimistic again, but at Santa Brigida the front had come in and it was cloudy and howling from the west.
We did the shopping for tomorrow night’s annual Christmas soiree and then elved ourselves for Christmas. We don’t send cards, so here goes…
See our Christmas video. You may need to wait for it to download before it starts playing.
Thursday, 16th December 2010
Our first day of the ski season! Bit less windy today, but still very cold. The ski resort of Masella had announced that they have some fancy new machine that fluffs the snow up and can make even the artificial stuff into powder, so despite only 30km open, we went up to have a go.
There isn’t any snow off-piste, but they’ve made the most of what is open and the skiing was excellent. We skied every piste we could get to by chairlift. Strong winds closed the higher lifts and we couldn’t be bothered to take a button lift – too cold. I had on six layers, and no bits of flesh exposed, so I was actually warmer than I was yesterday.
Can’t wait to go again next week.
Wednesday, 15th December 2010
Judith 16 Dec 2010 | : Walking
We’ve been waiting for the temperatures to go down enough to go skiing and today they finally did. However, alongside the cold snap also came a hefty wind. We had a weather warning of stong tramuntana winds at the coast (gusts up to 125km/h), mistral in the Ebro valley and winds of up to 90km/h in the Pyrenees. Not much fun going skiing when the wind stops you from actually getting up any speed.
Johnny called us about going flying, and I assumed that if it was on, it would be really good at Santa Brigida. We decided to do something else though, which was go for a walk I have been wanting to do for years.
Toroella de Montgri, near L’Estartit, has a 300m, near conical hill above it, with a square castle on top. You can see it for miles. The views from the top are supposed to be stunning and there’s no road up the hill, so if you want to see them, you have to make the effort to walk up. It’s part of the GR92, so a well trodden path and well marked, no need for maps, etc.
We arrived in the town and went in search of a spot of lunch before the walk. With the incredibly strong wind, it was bitterly cold, and I realised I had not brought enough clothes with me. Crucially, I forgot a hat and gloves. We wandered around the old town and were really impressed by how nice it is.
Once on the path up the hill, Geoff took pity on me and got out his hood, so I could have his hat, since my ears seemed about to drop off. Although very windy, we were in the lee of the hill, until we came to a saddle and met the full force of the breeze. It was pretty much like walking up a volcano in Lanzarote… hold on to all your posessions or you lose them. Once at the top, the views were indeed impressive. You can see the Medes islands (allegedly some of the best diving in Europe is around them), the Bay of Roses, the plains around Figueras and of course the Pyrenees.
The wind noise inside the castle was deafening, but we went for a stroll along the castle walls and had to hang onto the railings to keep steady. Once you’re standing on the castle walls you can also appreciate why they built the castle where they did. 10/10 for defensive position!
Rather than taking the same way down, Geoff spotted some green arrows pointing over part of the steep cliffs which are under the castle. Excellent – the direct way down. Many of the rocks were so worn, they were polished and really, really slippy, and with the wind as well, it turned into quite an exciting descent. Half-way down we encountered a stunning cave, and ended up having to skid down a rock fall to get back to the path.
By the time we got back to the car, I was frozen, so we decided to go to Peretallada for a coffee. It’s a walled medieval village, with many streets too narrow for cars. One street still has deep furrows from horse-drawn carts and the whole place is very atmospheric. We’ve been before, so know it’s packed with restaurants and cafes, but just our luck, not one was open. We then tried neighbouring Palau-Sator and drew and equal blank. I was getting colder and colder, so in the end we just drove home and made our own coffee.
On arriving back in Castellfollit, there was a half moon with a double halo (red and green) around it. I’ve never seen anything like it, but wish I could have taken a photo for posterity. And we spoke to Johnny later… it was epic conditions at Santa Brigida. Very thermic, very buoyant and he’s in love with the Niviuk Zion.