After the excitement of xalps, I’m now back to work, “on the bench” forecasting weather for the aviation industry from the new office in Brisbane. My shifts are day, day, night, night and then 4-5 days off, on a 9 day roster – so plenty of time off missions in southeast Queensland. I was denied a job in Antarctica due to staff shortages in my current role, but on the upside it’s not a bad lifestyle here – winter in southeast Queensland!
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Nick Neynens (@nneynens) on
Day 12 was the last day of the race. Having declared my night pass, I began at 3am (after an “early” night, it helped me escape the heat) and hiked to a high point to glide in the direction of Mt Viso. A thermal flight before the midday race finish was aborted due to stronger than expected northerly winds. I later flew down and rejoined my supporters, and we camped in Southern France. The next day I enjoyed a quick sight seeing flight in the incredible heat wave conditions on the way to Monaco for the party. We then spent a night in Milan and Munich to complete our trip in Europe.
Day 11 began in the famous Chamonix valley. First up a hike and glide to Mt Joly, west of Mont Blanc, then the heat wave continued as I pieced together a high route to St Hilaire, tagging it at the end of the day after a couple of hikes to get over high passes and a whole day flying completely alone in the mountains.
Day 10 started with a hike to a snowy pass and a beautiful glide down to the slopes of Niesen, one of Switzerland’s most famous paragliding sites. Another hot and sunny day and barely anyone around, for the most part I had the skies to myself as I flew towards France. I wasn’t able to get a climb after crossing the Rhone valley so I had to hike up for an evening flight into Chamonix.
Day 9 started by waving thanks to my dairy farmer hosts, for a quick hike and glide to the slopes of Titlis, and a long climb to reach the turn point (and extra supplies from Mum). Then to avoid airspace I took a long glide down to the bottom of the valley to start again! A hot cloudless day, too stable for thermals, with some spectacular imposing scenery on the way to Eiger. Six flights in total followed by a night in the hay in a mountain barn.
