SAFA Skysailor Magazine

SKY SAILOR 15 September | October 2019 I run Planet Paragliding, so putting the right gear together was fairly straightforward, but the route planning and navigation was something that took more research, and continued on a daily, almost hourly basis during the trip. I opted for the mid-June to mid-July window to hopefully avoid the spring storms as well as the late summer stability. On 13 June, I arrived in Nice, lugging my pack out of the airport and heading for the coastal hills overlooking the Mediterranean coast to start my journey. Day 3: Ancelle to Crolle, France I scoffed down my daily morning pain au chocolat in Ancelle village with some mates from home who had found me the previous afternoon. Afterwards, we promptly packed and left our camp to slog up a steep one-hour hike which had us laying out at 1500m with a good forecast. Clouds and a tailwind promised progress as I bid farewell to the lads at 3000m and made my way around the western side of the Ecrins, across repetitive cross-valleys that gave long transitions. The jagged peaks were working well as I skirted around Grenoble airspace, I had hoped to reach the base of St Hillaire for the next morning’s launch, but overshadowing and rapidly developing storm cells had me landing after about 85km. I started the long hike down off the shallow foothills through hiking trails and roads to Crolles in the valley, not far from St Hillaire. By this time, thunderstorms were raging all around, and I was cowering in bus stops and under shop awnings, completely drenched. This was the most difficult night of my whole trip, ironically surrounded by civilisation. I was stuck after dark and with hammering storms in a developed area with no open spaces, no camp grounds and the few hotels booked out. Eventually, I found a park with a picnic shelter and bivvied at 11pm after a massive 14-hour day since leaving camp in Ancelle at 9am, but I’d covered over 100km, so day 3 was one to remember. My afternoons were spent endlessly navigat- ing, every day, figuring out where my next launch should be since most of the lower slopes are fully forested. The ‘Meteo Parapente’ app is a brilliant weather forecasting tool for flying, the Garmin hiking app was invaluable for finding trails up the forested slopes, and the FFVL Spotair app showed known launches and live wind readings from every weather station in Europe. Between these, and general mapping apps, my research each afternoon and evening was constant, figuring out where to head, where next to launch, how to get there and where to stay. Sometimes, I just plain failed and slept in a park shelter… Nice – Col de Bleyne – St Andrés – Ancelle – Allevard – Col de Aravis – Chamonix – Loriaz – Crans Montana – Disentis – Davos – Merano – Kronplatz – Sesto – Obertilliach – Kameritsch – Villach All photos: Gavin Zahner