Author: Giles Morris

Dan, Chris and myself arrived early at Sartfell on Friday afternoon (03/11/2006). With enough wind to ground handle at the bottom lander we headed up and were ready to launch around 14.30 in around 10 mph WSW.

 Didn’t seem strong enough to stay up long but weak thermals coming through topped up the lift sufficiently and we were away. Dan and I top landed after about 20 mins and Chris headed off. Wind picked up a bit and it got really smooth prompting me to get out the camera for some hands off videoing – see the link here if you’ve got broadband.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyWuaJwNQ4U

 Had another 40 mins and then headed off towards the lander taking some photos on the way down.

 
 

Monday to Wednesday guides/instructors were available but it wasn’t flyable so had to ski instead. Thursday was flyable but no guides! I hadn’t heard from "Pierre" on Wednesday night (who was keen to fleece me and get out flying himself) so I collared him as he was taking my kids off for a skiing lesson Thursday morning (he also teaches paragliding etc etc).

He could see I was keen so he hooked me up with a pair of local surfer dudes in a beaten up old peugeot wearing baseball boots and cycling helmets with goggles on smoking rollups (get the picture!) who turned out to be local la Clusaz mad bad paracrobates with not a lot of english between them.

We met up with some more local "dudes" who all got free rides up the piste after much handshaking etc (no skis required at this stage which was good) for a lovely top to bottom after a difficult reverse lauch (no wind) between two ski lifts – nice!!  This was actually two flights for me and Roddi (their leader and Pierre’s mate) because due to a translation error I landed on the piste rather than at the village which they all thought was very funny particularly as we had to leave quicky – despite the goodwill of all the ski lift people – because we weren’t really supposed to use that particular piste.

Continue reading Paragliding and Skiing in France

A chance conversation with Dan on the whisky run and the lack of a suitable car to get me onto Slieu Curn saw me on Glen Moor Wednesday 21st at about 2.30 pm with between 14-16 mph WNW.

What a great place to practise groundhandling – found it very tricky walking the glider through the rotor but learnt so much! First time off was not quite sharp enough with the right hand turn and missed the "elevator" to the cliff top, resulting in a very fast beach landing with the tide in.

Didn’t think I’d get off again after a knackering walk back and was enjoying the ground practice anyway – but managed to get to the edge again (after dumping the glider many times) and was off.

Did a beat to Glen Wyllin and back then headed back to Kirk Michael with some decent height above clifftop. Then headed off to Ballaugh. Thought about going back to Kirk Michael at Ballaugh beach but it was getting dark so landed nicely on beach as tide had gone out some.

Didn’t anticipate flying with the seagulls but perservence paid off.

Top tip Dan – thanks for the advice.