Today was the highlight of the race for Rich despite being unwell. Starting the day with a slow hike up Peña Montanesa for what appeared to be a international para waiting party. Team Poland, Team USA, Team UK and Team Germany. Initially It was a bit touch and go for Rich as he sunk out on glide over Castejon Des Sos. He quickly packed up and hiked up to relaunch, this time making it into France. Tonight we camp high with plans of a early morning glide to tag Arbas (Rich’s personal goal for the competition). Bring on day seven!!
Today wasn’t my best day but I’m not giving up, I was able to fly this morning and stay very close to TP5, then I did a second flight and here it didn’t go well, I couldn’t make any progress and I ran out of options to rejoin so I had to walk down. I still want to move forward and do the best I can, my ankle and my right foot are pretty hurt but tomorrow I will try to give everything to finish my race as far as I can. So we continue with the war cry, VAMOOOOOOOOS!
A LEGENDARY day!!! If yesterday was RockNRoll, today is Hellfest!
Several rooms, several atmospheres!
Climb in the forest in the mist this morning, blue sky and wind at altitude. Pebbles, lakes, high mountains as we like it!
Manu’s forecasts announced strong fluxes at altitude and weaker ones in the lower layers.
The strategic choice was to cross the chain as quickly as possible to position oneself on Castejon, hoping to trace towards the next timepoint… and it was done!
A real mountain day today and a optimized strategy.
A big Pull Up for Manu BONTE today, the Evelyne Dhéliat of X-Pyr, the Candeloro of aerology. He is 100% alongside the team since Soulom.
Summary of the day:
TP6 checked
PETER IS 1ST!!!!!!!
As some have told us by message:
“Today is the X-Pierre ! “
The choice is to optimize a night in the heights tonight.
Pierre is doing well, and morale is high.
Strength and Robustness ++ the team!
We don’t get fired up, we keep the same ones and we start again tomorrow… and the day after tomorrow!
Day 6 was a superb example of “gaggle” flying! 7 pilots took off from TP3 and although 2 broke from the pack to find their own paths, 5 stayed together for the majority of the day and worked as a group. A wonderful display of sportsmanship on a blue sky day where they only had each other and the birds to show them the way to TP4!
To move from Arbas to Pic de Midi Bigorre took us 2 days. With hikes in the rain and under the fog! Due to these conditions, we deserved a treehouse for the night. But finally the effort to reach the spanish border paid off! With a beautiful flight i could reach El Corronco. Please Inigo skip the french side for a next episode! It is just pain while on the south side, in Spain it is flyable, warm and the sun shines.
I packed all my gear in the morning. Quite a lot extra today with a tent, sleeping bag, sleeping mat, food etc due to yesterday’s eventful end of the day.
My flexible Niviuk Race rucksack (50 liters) with its many pockets and flexible bands did the job even with a Vol Biv setup.
Even though I had a relatively short climb this morning, it was hard enough. I had no path to follow, and “off piste” in the Pyrenees is challenging due to vegetation. When at the top the wind was noticeable. So was the inversion. I’m not a person who is made for waiting, and now it was time to wait for the conditions to improve. Time to fight my instincts…
Solid inversion layer.
After some waiting I felt the condition were improving, the inversion was not that visible anymore, and I was keen to go. It was only a few kilometers between me and a big group of pilots in the mid pack of the race. I wanted to join that group today.
In the air the wind was present (as every day), and the thermals didn’t go very high. But it was on. Slow, but on. Still early. Or at least early for today’s conditions.
The lack of alternative landings had not changed from yesterday, and there were no options in the most direct routing. In addition, airspace restrictions made it impossible to jump one ridge further back where it would have been more comfortable to soar the mountains in these conditions. All this, together with my experience from yesterday, made me choose a safer route towards TP3. My safe choice of route, this early in the day, forced me to land way too early. I was frustrated and a bit angry with myself. First of all I was too early in the air (no one else flew in that area until 1,5 hrs later) and secondly I was probably not reset and properly rested from yesterday, and my decisions in the air were influenced by that.
Time to reset! Only one option: Hike back up! I got rid of all my camping gear, had a decent meal and hiked back up together with my supporter, Knut!
Knut is great on occasions like this. Always positive, smiling and joking. Makes it easier for me to change focus from the errors and mistakes, and rather look ahead for what we can do to improve the situation.
At the top we found a suitable area to launch. A quick setup and I was ready to go. I expected the conditions to be good since it was 16:00 and the sun was at its most powerful. We also had some strong gusts on our way up the mountain indicating thermal activity. But it was surprisingly difficult to get away from the mountain. The meteo wind destroyed the thermals and I had to spend some time before I found the formula on how to drift my way over the top.
I got enough altitude to continue my glide towards TP3. I reached Mt. Corronco low, but I was able to soar up the south side in quite strong wind. Tagget the turnpoint in the air and continued towards TP4. In the air I hooked up with Nicolas Hayes from Argentina and we flew together most of the flight this evening. We landed together in a narrow valley close to Mt Aneto, and both teams decided to stay at the local hotel for the night. Luxury, and a nice way to end an eventful day with both bad times and good times.
final glide of the daygood times in the end, after a challenging start of the day
TP6 checked
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