Judith's blog

So the plan for today was to get up really early and get on the first lift at Masella, ski until lunch time and then drive across the valley to France and fly at Targasonne.

However, yesterday the top temperature at Masella was 16C, and today was supposed to be warmer. Mike wasn’t confident about the forecast being good for flying at Targasonne and I wasn’t feeling 100%. So we scrapped that plan and instead we went flying at Sant Pere de Rodes. Since it was my monthly day off flying, I was designated driver.

Matthias and Jesus had gone up the hill earlier and we met up with Mike and Oriol in Palau Saverdera. Once at the top, we could see the thick inversion below us. Matthias had launched and gone straight down, so we all waited around and then Jesus launched for an extended top-to-bottom. Mike flew next, but Oriol had to wait a while, as the wind started switching north and only thermals were bringing it on. He got off and had the longest flight of the day, working weak thermals under the inversion layer.

By this time it had switched north properly and Geoff walked across to the other launch and flew there, landing on the beach at Port de la Selva. I drove down to get him and we spent the rest of the afternoon sitting in the sun, looking at shoals of fish and being groomed by some shaggy dogs to be their playmates.

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We posted a message on the Parapent Girona list last night, but nobody wanted to come out to play at Bellmunt today. On a Thursday it’s too much of a lottery whether there will be anyone there and it’s too much hassle to walk back up, so we decided to do something else. Since tomorrow’s adventure is more laborious, we decided to go chill out. With a forecast of 21C at the coast, it was a bit of a no-brainer… head to the beach.

Geoff took his bike and I took my blades and we did the St Margarida – port at Roses and back trip, with a stop off for lunch on the seafront on the way. It was a good job I took some shoes in my rucksack, as the loos were up a spiral staircase, which would have guaranteed some broken bones if attempted in roller blades – if indeed they had let me into the place in them. After, we had a paddle, a snooze and read in the sun and then headed back to do some work. Less than 3 weeks before we open the next conference. Better make some progress at editing the presentations…

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More nice weather for skiing. A little windy, but not so much that the lifts were closed, and it did keep the temperatures down. We got up early to get an early start so we could make the most of the morning conditions. It was a bit icy to start off with, but once a few people had skied down the pistes and loosened up the top layer, it was actually really good snow. Much better than Monday. At the top was nicest, so we stayed there for most of the day.

There was loads of wave around, and the sky was full of crazy patterns, colours, shapes. It was like someone was painting the sky from above and we were watching it from below. The photos don’t really do the sky justice, since most of the wave bars were too massive to fit onto my camera. There were glories and sun dogs and also rainbows here or there, caused by the wind blowing snow over the mountains. Just beautiful.

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Geoff writes: tramuntana forecast, so, as usual, we planned a trip to Santa Brigida. It was dull and cloudy in the morning, and, according to Mike, raining very hard just accross the border in France (though not here). So we did a bit of work, then the sun came out, and off we went, meeting up at Santa Brigida with Roger. And it was very nicely flyable. Sunny, thermic, not rough, and easy to stay up.

Whilst I was flying, someone else turned up on a quad bike, Gerry Mayr. He is on his way – by quad bike! – from Germany to Dakar, and stopped off at Niviuk to pick up a glider. He managed to get a flight to try it out, then bottom landed. Gerry holds various world records for quad biking.

He has an amazing trailer, which includes a garage (his word) for a paramotor engine, a tent, cooker, solar panels for his computer….. and, no doubt, a kitchen sink. Hard to believe you can get so much into so little space. Though going downhill towing it behind the quad bike could be a bit of a nightmare – it’s pretty heavy. Great to meet him, and hopefully we’ll see him again on his way back.

Judith has spent the evening recording a podcast (our first for a while) with Steve Hudson of the Derbyshire Flying Centre. Still to be edited though, so will be publicised when it is ready.

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Finally we got to ski again. It snowed in the mountains yesterday and today should be the coldest day of the week, so best time to go. It was sunny at home and we drove through a layer of cloud on the way to Ribes, where it cleared again. In the Toses valley it was beautiful sunshine, but as we got to La Molina, there was thick fog! At Masella, we got on the ski lift and it took nearly to the top of La Pia to get into the sun, but once there, we were treated to a fantastic view of the sea of cloud below us. We took the next lift to the top of the resort, where the views were even better.

Eventually we had to descend back into the murk (to get to a cafe to have lunch). The cloud did start to dissipate in the afternoon, but then started to re-form in other places, so it was a really intersting day for changing scenery. Some of the sunbeams in the trees were magical.

The snow wasn’t the best (or worst) we’ve skied on. With the thaw/freeze cycle coming and going, it’s a bit lumpy and icy under the top layer, but there were nice runs to be found. Just nice to be out in the white stuff again…

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Geoff writes: a grey day, there was an outside chance it was soarable, but we decided to stay in and do some work, and Judith had to get the next LMSC newsletter out. It did spit a bit with rain too at times, so even if it had been flyable, it would probably not have been that interesting.

Next week, though, is looking nice, with lighter winds, and a little less warm, so the skiing could be ok.

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The Parapent Bellmunt group announced a Breakfast & Fly day, starting with refreshments at the monastery at 11am. Having looked at the weather, I thought it would be far too windy, but we decided to head out anyway and go walking if flying wasn’t a possiblity. It became clear as soon as we opened the door that we probably wouldn’t fly today, but you never know… Bellmunt is in a different valley system after all.

We got there later than expected. On the ground in Torrello the wind was less, but the flags were showing it too far off to the west. At the landing field it was top end and predictably, it was blown out at the top. We decided to do a walk along the spine of the ridge, then drop down into the valley behind and then have a steep walk back up to the monastery. With temperatures at the coast predicted to be 20°C, it was pleasantly warm even at 1250m and we were soon shedding jackets and jumpers. I was glad it’s been dry for a while. Some of the path goes over slippy stones right on the edge. Well, both edges… it not so much a spine back as a razor back. Big drops either side if you slip.

We had a picnic at the end of the ridge in the sunshine and then dropped down into the shady north side. The walk took about three hours and we had a coffee in the monastery on our return. It was still far too windy to fly…

See photos of today.

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