January 2011
Monthly Archive
Sunday, 23rd January 2011
After hearing how good it was at Bellmunt yesterday, we seriously considered going there today. Looking at the forecast though, we decided that today was different and that convergence was less likely and with less wind, the chances of it being really good would be less too. Some high cloud was also forecast, so we decided to go to Santa Brigida instead.
On driving past Puigsacalm (the highest peak near Olot), we could see three gliders climbing and assumed that they had flown from Bellmunt. We were kicking ourselves that we hadn’t set off earlier and given ourselves the chance of a lift share up Bellmunt, until I phoned Oriol to get a conditions report. Rather than flying to Puigsacalm, they had walked up it. It’s roughly 500m in height difference, so a long slog. We’ve known people to do it once with a normal paraglider, then they either purchase lightweight gear or go fly somewhere else. It seems Jesus, Aldric, Matthias, etc. are in training for the mini X-Alps trek they have planned for May, which goes from Batere (in the foothills of Canigo) to the sea.
We carried on to Santa Brigida, where the wind seemed light, but on. Nobody was flying, and we saw why once we got to the top. The wind sock on launch kept swinging in all directions. Geoff wanted to be first off, but waited until the conditions got a bit better. After a half hour wait, Xiliu went off first and got straight up. Everyone followed. Enric was the first to get mega high and he set off to St Helena, which he made easily. He didn’t leave himself enough margin to get back though, so bottom landed.
Marc meanwhile set off over the back, came back, flew to St Helena, across to Amer and back for an even bigger triangle than he did yesterday. He top landed back at his car full of beans. Geoff and I had several flights, getting high, then low, then high and generally playing around. For some reason I wasn’t super motivated today. Hoping to go somewhere different tomorrow, just for a different view.
Saturday, 22nd January 2011
Less windy today and the high pressure is getting closer… good Santa Brigida conditions. And so it was. We got there to find it packed. Nearly all the Niviuk staff seemed to be having a day out and were flying all sorts of different machines, as well as Dominique flying the new Niviuk proto harness. It looks like (and is probably as aerodynamic as) a kayak. Apparently you can sit up in it without creating as much drag as an open harness. It certainly seemed to carve through the air pretty smoothly.
It was a bit up and down at first and then, as usual, it just got better and better. By 2.30pm the thermals were well established, pleasant and took you through the inversion. It was cold up there though. We have a cold weather warning (cold by Spanish standards, anyway), and despite my seven layers and three gloves I got cold above 800′ ATO, so I stayed below that, although others headed up and around a triangle.
It was flyable all day, and it was a really sociable day with so many people out.
[10pm edit] Just heard from Oriol, they went to Bellmunt and got up to 2200m AMSL in thermals and then hit convergence. Some landed in Olot. Never thought that Bellmunt would work in north wind. Amazing. Spring has really started.
Friday, 21st January 2011
The strong winds forecast materialised in the night and I was woken twice by some hefty gusts. Some of the more brittle trees below us have blown over, but no damage to our house.
The wind isn’t strictly tramunata now, but a north wind due to squeezed isobars – we’re in the middle of three pressure systems. I was glad we went skiing yesterday, since today they were forecasting ‘torb’ (nevasca or viento blanco in Spanish), which is a snow/ice blizzard caused by strong winds. It can cause a temperature drop of over 20C and causes whiteout conditions. We skied in torb last year and the top of the resort was shut as the temperatures (with wind chill) dropped to -50C.
We considered going out to try and fly, but the weather stations were giving N or NNE in Angles and St Feliu de Pallerols and we can’t spare the time just to go on the off-chance that it’s flyable. We open the next conference to presenters on Wednesday and need to get everything ready, so when it’s not guaranteed flyable, we need to get on with it. Gorgeous sunny day though….
Thursday, 20th January 2011
We had the choice today of going flying or skiing. With tramuntana wind forecast, the chances were it was going to be good at Santa Brigida. On looking at the forecast more closely, we have a strong wind warning for tomorrow and according to the Catalan Met office “winter will return on Friday”. The Snowforecast is giving windchill temperatures at Masella tomorrow as -23C in the middle of the resort. That sealed it – we were going skiing today, flying tomorrow.
With the snowboarding world championships on at La Molina, it took a while to get up to Masella. Once there, conditions were really good. The termperatures were cold, but acceptable, and although the wind was increasing throughout the day, it was never so windy that they closed any lifts. There was a dusting of new snow and they have made a lot more artificial snow, so there were more good runs, and the cold meant nothing got slushy. We skied for five hours and even saw a sail plane being towed up from Cerdanya. First one we’ve seen this season.
Report from Mike this evening was that Santa Brigida was really good. Very thermic with max height gains 450m ATO. Here’s hoping we get similar tomorrow and Saturday.
Wednesday, 19th January 2011
Geoff writes: a bit dull, and we have a lot of work to do, so we stayed in. Weather nice again from tomorrow, though a few days of high winds are expected.
Tuesday, 18th January 2011
The forecast for today was for sun, but with a lot of high cloud. This would suppress the temperatures a bit and so it seemed the perfect day to go skiing! We set off in a baby blue sky and it stayed that way all day, with just a little bit of high cloud here and there. The snow has been melting and there is a lot less off the pistes, but they have done their best to maintain what they have and the snow quality was excellent until lunchtime. There’s 50km open at Masella and we set ourselves the task of skiing every open run, but by midday the sun had warmed the lower runs too much and we stuck to the top pistes.
Cumulus started to pop in the valley and we bitterly regretted not throwing in the gliders. It would have been an ideal day to ski in the morning, and then go have a fly in the afternoon. As it was, we finished a bit early. My knees were a bit sore from pushing it on some of the red and black runs. But when the snow’s nice…
Monday, 17th January 2011
Geoff writes: we’ve been out the last seven days, skiing or flying (and yesterday, failing to fly) so we decided to stay in today to catch up on some work for our fast approaching conference. The forecast was not that good either, and in fact it was cloudy here (and east of here) all day, though nice and sunny inland, including at the ski resorts. So we got a lot of work done, which was good.
The weather is getting much cooler over the next week, which is good for the skiing – even if it doesn’t snow (though some is forecast for Wednesday) the snow quality should be good.