Day 10, hiking to regain the 1000 metres I’d just lost in the air
On day ten (yes, a rather long race this year), I needed to put some points on the board after the hit and miss diversion of my northern sojourn. I slept alone at a mountain hut, waking up in time to position myself to fly literally as the 6am curfew opened. I wasn’t waiting for thermals anymore, and in fact it felt quite good to be on the move.
First glide of day 10, on my way to the same landing as in 2015!
After landing within twenty metres of 2015, a small clearing surrounded by forest on the hillside, I climbed up to repeat. Despite lots of alpine grass it can still be hard to find a take off and despite being careful I managed to break another brake line as I left to cross the valley. Coming into land I could feel that thermals weren’t far away, and on the next flight I spiralled up over a rocky spine with the whiff of mountain goats in the air. Up high over the mountains I could see the Matterhorn in the distance and set off on glide across the Tessin valley.
I crossed with just enough height to land high on a spur, surrounded by forest, but I had no reason to think that the conditions here were completely different to where I’d just been. Unfortunately I paid the price of ignorance with one thousand metres lost altitude before slope landing, rather disappointed, for another long hike. For some of it I even was bashing through the scrub. When I emerged 1200 metres higher, conditions had deteriorated further and it even had started raining lightly as I took a glide closer to the next pass. Landing just minutes later I packed quickly, walking up to the pass as a storm moved through. I was hungry and also critically low on batteries so it was into airline mode – no instagram posts today!
Inspecting the damage
Flying back to Locarno felt like quite an achievement, it was really like emerging out of the jungle. Another situation in which you’d prefer to not have to demonstrate your landing skills in tight places. The lake was always a backup option, but a few carefully executed climbs kept me out of trouble. Locarno was to be my first available possibility for a rendezvous. Some confusion on the specifics left me frustrated but in the end I was recharged.
How did that village get there?
On the hillside near Locarno I’d walked with Nelson (FRA3), who seemed to be in quite a hurry. He had pulled his night pass intending to get within striking distance of the Matterhorn from the Italian side. I made a similar evening flight as he did, a little later, but I believed we landed in the same narrow field – the forested gorge filled with cables didn’t leave many other options!
Day eleven started well, although there was some funny business with disappearing tracks and getting slightly lost in the Italian wilderness. Initially the flying was easy, but I knew things would change when I had to cross into the deep main valley over Domodossala. I spent ages trying to get up to a decent altitude but in the end I decided it was futile. Rather than push a death glide into a hot humid Italian valley, I decided to go tailwind into Switzerland. This was a really cool end to the flight (with another interesting landing, spotting cables), and with the fohn arriving in force that afternoon, I felt I didn’t miss much.
Back on the road and I made steady progress up towards the Simplon pass. Again I had a few visits from xalps fans, probably wondering what the hell I was doing there. Meanwhile Chrigel had flown into the coast and we were quite happy for him – it meant we were on track to finish the race, and make our airline flights back home!
0:00:11.160,0:00:12.280
6am on the dot0:00:13.460,0:00:17.240
too much time sitting on launches in the last couple of days0:00:20.160,0:00:21.920
it’s a good feeling to make some progress0:00:28.760,0:00:32.000
I’m a bit nervous about this launch as it’s so rocky0:00:36.540,0:00:38.500
nice breeze from time to time0:01:01.540,0:01:03.520
ah.. broke a line0:01:04.700,0:01:05.880
just a brake line0:01:22.860,0:01:24.580
I’ve got to fix that brake line, eh?0:02:21.360,0:02:23.120
the Matterhorn is that way0:02:25.860,0:02:27.780
my next move is that one there0:02:31.700,0:02:33.300
not much happening here0:02:36.760,0:02:37.820
I wonder why0:03:02.860,0:03:05.220
that is bloody annoying – I was going well0:03:06.500,0:03:08.100
so there’s rumbles of thunder0:03:08.480,0:03:11.660
I just want to make a short flight before it starts raining0:03:12.220,0:03:14.880
to get to shelter and if I’ve very lucky,
electricity and food0:03:15.760,0:03:16.760
I doubt that0:03:20.720,0:03:22.380
it’s just started raining0:03:26.740,0:03:29.420
so I’m starving. I’ve just climbed..0:03:33.400,0:03:36.060
… a thousand metres, I actually think it’s 1200 metres0:03:37.100,0:03:39.140
there’s shelter, a little bivvy cave0:03:54.940,0:03:56.440
let’s pack it up, quick smart0:03:57.860,0:03:59.780
I managed to hook up the camera backwards0:04:02.360,0:04:04.560
so you can see my launch. I did a “forward” this time0:04:06.580,0:04:08.020
what a crazy place this is0:04:09.560,0:04:10.780
look at these villages0:05:38.940,0:05:40.740
oh.. that’s a day0:05:49.980,0:05:53.720
I thought that besides wearing a helmet is probably a good idea0:05:54.220,0:05:56.160
I’ll document some of this…0:05:58.280,0:05:59.560
on ground stuff0:06:00.520,0:06:04.500
saw a deer before… I assume this is the bit I was supposed to come down0:06:04.960,0:06:08.140
still haven’t seen where it goes up on the other side0:06:08.940,0:06:10.300
but I guess not there0:06:10.760,0:06:13.740
so I think I can see little steps cut into the rock0:06:13.960,0:06:14.960
ooh, here’s a wire0:06:15.160,0:06:17.120
there we go, very encouraging0:06:17.600,0:06:19.320
someone has been here before0:06:21.360,0:06:22.980
the deer can sleep easy now0:06:25.280,0:06:27.820
(these humans getting themselves into trouble)0:06:28.980,0:06:29.980
piece of cake0:06:48.260,0:06:50.100
lovely, good to be in the air0:06:51.200,0:06:53.940
so far things are going a lot easier today0:07:04.400,0:07:05.680
stuck here for ages0:07:06.260,0:07:08.260
haven’t got above 1400 metres0:07:12.680,0:07:13.680
so either pushing south… or0:07:15.100,0:07:17.960
for better or for worse I’ve decided to go to Switzerland0:07:21.340,0:07:27.020
yeah I thought I’d have a high risk of landing in a hot, sticky, sweaty Italian valley0:07:28.160,0:07:30.760
.. if I’d kept pushing ahead. I couldn’t get very high0:07:33.260,0:07:35.340
a bit of soaring in a little nook0:07:36.360,0:07:39.240
not a lot of landings, I can see a bit of green0:07:42.260,0:07:44.580
yeah – try not to land down there eh?0:07:46.320,0:07:47.760
going up like a rocket0:07:57.320,0:07:58.920
4.5 – 5 metres per second0:08:06.000,0:08:07.800
cool bridges in that creek0:08:09.920,0:08:11.440
yeah it’s looking good0:08:11.760,0:08:15.440
didn’t get nailed going over the back, it was a bit sinky0:08:16.000,0:08:18.220
it was a little bit bumpy0:08:53.500,0:08:57.740
so Mum has managed to find the cable that I had to see when I landed0:08:57.760,0:08:59.660
Ben still can’t see it – it’s up there0:09:01.620,0:09:05.340
but you have to see these things or you can crash into them, bloody scary!0:09:07.800,0:09:10.340
Mum you believe me (there’s a cable there) don’t you?0:09:10.660,0:09:11.660
I can see it0:09:13.600,0:09:17.820
then you take your eyes off it, you’ve moved a little bit
and where the hell was that cable again?
Flying paragliders in the mountains 