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Follow our flight with the photo journal below, however, to find out what Dan got up to "exploring" the local mountains, click on his diary |
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Getting ready for our first launch out of Sondrio, we could see cumulus forming above the peaks in classic alpine fashion
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There was an area just large enough to fit an EB28 while preparing all our gizmos. Unfortunately it had been recently manured. Fortunately, the sun had dried it out enough that it didn't stick...
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It was nice to have 1200m of smooth tarmac virtually to ourselves
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The airfield was embedded in a golf course which was pretty, but had limited landing options - I felt safe as Robin had already been checked out on fairways from a trip some time ago |
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The valley breeze effects were quite marked as it was fairly narrow in the area around the airfield with the mountain sides rising up out of the flat bottom
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Having climbed away to the east of the airfield, we headed west to the hills on the end of lake Como, where we eventually picked up a windshadow climb
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The sky looked reasonable, with 3-4kt climbs to 10,500-11,000' and we worked our way westwards past Locarno
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We ended up in the Masera valley but the cumulus were becoming more ragged as the NW wind picked up and we could see there was a much greater amount of cloud towards Switzerland, of the stratocumulus variety
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We were discussing what our next move was going to be when the thermal we were climbing in not far from Masera strengthened near cloudbase and put us in contact with a wave system
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It looked much better from 17,000', so we made a plan to go in the direction of the Matterhorn, passing Monte Rosa
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The wind at 16,000' was NW at 40kts+, so we crept gently round Monte Rosa and the Breithorn, just keeping clear of Swiss airspace on the (relatively) clear Italian side
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The strong wind was creating banner clouds on the downwind side as moist air from the valleys was brought up behind the peaks
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We got the odd brief glimpse of the Matterhorn |
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But there was a fair amout of cloud running up the Swiss side and spilling over the top into Italy
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We tried to climb downwind of Monte Rosa but it was rather weak so ran the front edge instead
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We were treated to a scenic run along the crests in fairly smooth air
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All of the major peaks had there own little cloud forming behind
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Especially the back of Monte Rosa |
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We hit a much more open patch of sky which allowed a run along the high crests |
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Until we got to within about 2km of the Matterhorn where it became pretty rough |
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There was a mix of rotor and who knows what, which proved very difficult to climb in |
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So we moved round onto the windward side where it was much smoother but with fairly weak lift
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We tried to work the wave but the cloud amounts were increasing |
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Until only the tops were poking through |
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Eventually we'd had enough so returned to the front face of the Matterhorn |
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Where there was actually some decent lift |
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Looking westwards, there was a lot of "cumulo granitus", we'd need to get well above that before doing anything else
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There was a nice patch of air just in front of the west face that took us to over 16,000' and a view of Mont Blanc, which became our next objective
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There was decent primary wave in the Val Ferret behind the Mont Blanc massif
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Which allowed us to fly round to the NW face of Mont Blanc itself |
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We spotted several climbers trudging up the snow ridge towards the summit |
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It was blowing 45kts, so must have been quite a job to stay on the right line |
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On the SW side, we could see air being pulled up from the valley below |
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And to the NW, it looked like a reasonable cumulus day 10,000' below! |
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There were incredible icefalls and hanging glaciers |
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Which were producing so much light and contrast that it was suprising the camera coped |
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We did a pass of the snow dome on the summit, at 15,783' and 7"
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There was a group of intrepid climbers, bent against the wind, nearly at the top
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The NW side of the mountain fell away into the Chamonix valley |
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We returned to the hotspot downwind of the ridge line and took it up to FL195
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We saw an Easyjet pass not that far above but Robin was too late with the camera!
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We then turned for home after taking a few more shots |
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With quite an impressive groundspeed... As well as 8,000' over glide from 210Km out |
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We flew back past where we had worked our way up earlier |
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With just the odd pull-up in the strongest lift |
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Monte Rosa came and went at warp speed |
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We had a brief view of the Dom, at just under 15,000' one of the highest alpine peaks |
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Then overhead Masera, running east still |
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We eventually returned to the convective layer and the Sondrio valley. The southern side was producing a good energy line and we followed it east until we were just in the Bolzano valley. Looking north we could see the high peaks in the Stelvio national park
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The pass Tonale, quite flat on the top, actually has an airstrip on the watershed
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Looking south we could see Adamello and the national park associated with it |
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There was still a good line of energy, even though it was early evening |
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The low sun was creating a lot of contrast between the snowy tops and the shady valleys |
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We managed to do another 250km without circling |
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Running to the end of lake Como and back to Sondrio |
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To be met by our ground crew who had also been dicing with death in the mountains with the car, unknown to us... |