Big Sunday, wet week.The week before the British Open at Grand Bornand a high pressure centred over the alps gave those who had gone out early epic conditions to practice in. Cloudbase (if there were clouds) well over 3000m, thermals of 6 or even 8m/s and thermic conditions that lasted till 8pm. Long distances were possible, with pilots cruising the length of the Aravis, and Ulric Jessop showing good form cruising out to Chambery and back from Grand Bornand. Interest in competition paragliding seems to be very high at the moment and the 120 places for the open were easily filled with pilots who had travelled from Turkey and Poland waiting till 10pm to see whether they could get in turning up without paying in advance is no longer likely to get you in to a British Open. The first day dawned blue and cold epic conditions and the task setting committee (Bob Drury, Bruce Goldsmith, Russell Ogden, Rod Christie and Steve Ham) showed no lack of ambition setting a 130k task from Grand Bornand take-off across to the Aravis, along past Col DıAravis to a turnpoint in the valley in front of the Etaile, then over La Tournette past Annecy to a turnpoint near Tete de Parmelan, from there back to Annecy and across the lake to Roc de Boeuf, then down to Jarzy, back to Roc de Boeuf, back across the lake and up to a turnpoint near Bonneville, then back to Grand Bornand. There was a fair amount of chaos at the briefing when the task committee discovered that some (but not all) of the gps downloads had been corrupted, so that all the turnpoint coordinates needed to be checked, and reentered if necessary. Old hands used to driving gps soon found themselves busy explaining the intricacies of the MLR or Garmin menu systems. With the start set 6km from take-off it was possible to cross to the Aravis and wait at cloudbase above the ridge, those that knew the area should have all been at cloudbase at the start, and Bruce Goldsmith, Ondrej Dupal and Russell Ogden made good starts, but I found myself in a gaggleı with Mark Watts, and Bob Drury in a climb in the convergence at the top of the la Clusaz valley when the start went. As the leaders cruised off along the Aravis at cloudbase we took enough height to be fairly sure of not going down before the first turnpoint and then raced off along the base of the ridge playing catch-up. Rod Christie was with the leaders, he writes: "Prior to the start, I went to the Aravis, while most went to the hill infront of takeoff. This allowed me to maintain height down the Aravis on glide and cross the col without climbing on the Aravis again. Bruce and Russell chased with Ondrej, who got low with Russ prior to the turnpoint. Bruce followed me out to the first turnpoint then Ondrej and Russell. I glided to the convergance over the centre of the valley, and when Russ/Ondrej could not connect, they pushed on to the Tournette. Bruce, Ulric, Russell and I got stuck at the Tournette, where Ondrej got a climb to take the lead. This is where your group caught up." While Rod and the leaders had an easy run towards the first turnpoint, Bob Drury led the catch-up gaggle low across Col DıAravis and on round LıEtaile to a strong climb which had us all back at cloudbase before the glide to the first turnpoint. Climbing up past the top of with the Mont Blanc massif beyond was a stunning sight. Strong convergence between LıEtaile and La Tournette allowed the open class wings to push ahead, but the lead gaggle got stuck trying to cross over La Tournette into the Annecy valley and later pilots were able to dive straight to the strongest climb so that a gaggle of about 40 pilots crossed into the Annecy valley at the same time. The route from La Tournette onto the Dents de Lanfon was like a motorway. Rod again: "After clearing the Tornette, Bob, Mark Ulric and I chased to Parmelan, with Bob making the pace." The long crossing form the Dents to Parmelan allowed a bit of a breather, cruising fast through smooth air in mild convergence, but when you connected with the thermo-dynamic lift along the Parmelan cliffs it was fantastic full-on racing, with anyone who even thought of turning being left far behind. Up to the Parmelan turnpoint it seemed likely that we would make it round the course in fairly quick time, but as we headed out from the cliffs towards the turnpoint it became clear that a gear-change was in order a solid layer of high cirrus was moving in and a switch from racing to XC survival mode was in order. Cruising back along the Parmelan ridge pilots stopped to take as much height as possible and then crossed back onto the Dents de Lanfon before crossing the lake onto the Roc de Boeufs. The Roc was working, and again it was possible to run straight along the ridge in lift before climbing at the end for the transition to the next ridge. At the end of the Roc de Boeufs there were two possible routes, some headed straight onto the extension of that ridge before running downwind past the Jarzy turnpoint, others climbed out from the end of Roc de Boeufs and crossed in convergence onto the Montagne de Charbon before running down to the turnpoint. Rod took the route down the extension of the Roc de Boeuf: "On returning to the Dents, Ulric, Bob and Mark climbed, I crossed going straight to Roc de Boeuf. By the end of the Roc I was at the bottom of the thermal Ondrej was using to cross to the next ridge. Mark joined and we took the climb, but did not gain enough height to cross, so I pushed on across the short crossing to the hills in line with the Roc, climbed there and let the thermal drift us back to turnpoint 3." But the gaggle I was with took the other route. Both worked, probably because the high Cirrus had shut down the valley wind making it relatively easy to push out from the Charbon ridge to the turnpoint and get back high enough to connect onto the ridge again. Of the 120 pilots who started the race less than 20 got to the Jarzy turnpoint. From Jarzy the pilots had to fly back upwind to a turnpoint on the Roc de Boeufs again. This proved to be the crux. The lead gaggle got onto the Montagne de Charbon and in a position to cross onto Roc de Boeufs, but the into-wind crossing proved to much at the first, and at the second attempts, and those attempts put a lot of top pilots including Russell Ogden and Ondrej Dupal on the deck. Much head scratching on top of the Charbon ridge left pilots with two sane options, and one used by Dave Snowdon. Mark Watts and Rod Christie took the brave decision to cross the lake to Montmin, then fly round to Dents de Lanfon before crossing the lake again to get the Roc de Boeufs turnpoint. Unfortunately when they arrived over the lake at the ridge below the Col de Forclaz which always works there was no lift at all, and they went down. Dave Snowdon decided that it was possible to fly the length of the Roc de Boeufs in the lee-side rotor. The rest of us took a third attempt to make the transition round onto the front of the Roc de Boeufs. 5 of us got round onto the Roc de Boeufs, to find no lift whatsoever. There wasnıt a bleep from the vario for the entire length of the ridge, and the only way to stay up was by kicking trees the whole way. I pulled my speed probe in after it hit trees the second time. Only two of the 5 of us made it along the Roc de Boeufs to the cliffs at the lake end where it started to lift again. Steve Ham (Gin Boomerang) was close, but went down when he was forced to turn out into the valley to clear a line of trees, metres mattered, though the sink rate and glide on the Airwave Ten certainly helped. It was a bit of a shock to get to the end of the ridge and see Snowy pop round from his run along the rotor in the lee-side. Afterwards he said he had seen someone do it before and survive so it seemed like a reasonable idea, at one point (and his track-log confirms this) he tucked in as close to the hill as possible to try to get the turnpoint (which is on the other side of the ridge). Unfortunately for Snowy the ridge is more than 400m wide so he had to climb up the windward side to get the turnpoint. Meanwhile, Ulric Jessop (Gin Boomerang) and Bruce Goldsmith had found a lee-side thermalı and managed to get on top of the ridge where they cruised along watching the rest of us struggle. Bruce was high when he took the turnpoint so he headed out across the lake towards the Col de Forclaz, to try to get up and on towards the next turnpoint. Ulric and I watched him as we climbed up the end of the Roc de Boeufs, and saw that he wasnıt getting up so we took maximum height in the weak 7pm lift, and dived straight along track towards the Plain Fait landing field. A speck below us crossing the lake was Snowy, from where Ulric and I were it looked like he would be swimming, but in fact he made it comfortably. In the glide from Roc de Boeufs to Plain Fait Ulric lost 200m more than me, but I wasnıt high enough to cross the Col into the Thones valley so I took maximum distance then turned back and landed next to Ulric in the Plan Fait landing field. 92.5km. Then it rained, blew 90kmh, then rained some more. Pilots flew somewhere on most days, and there were attempts to run tasks on the Friday and Saturday, but neither task was validated (conditions were too stable). Results: 1st Adrian Thomas, Airwave Ten 1st Woman: Tove Andersson (report by Adrian Thomas) |