Where's Mike?

Section 19: Rich Visits the Alps

Click here to see Section 18: Back to the Alps

Click here to see Where's Mike 2005 with more on the Alps

Saturday July 1st

Thonon Les Bains, France: This morning Bruno and I decided we had time for a flight before I headed out to pick up Rich in Geneve. We went up to the Indian Club's Launch and watched a while as a fly-in and tandem introduction day was happening, and then set up for a sledder. By the time I launched, a couple of people were stratching around in various areas and I too gained a bit off launch. I tried to stay away from everyone else so we all had room to maneuver in very light lift.

I was the low man on the totem pole when I hit a boomer of about 30fpm up! Topped it out at about 100meters over launch and then watched as other came in below to join me. The first was a blue tandem who was turning the wrong way. I never changed direction, since I was there first, and neither did he. We were watching each other pretty closely as he got closer, and I started to worry that maybe today was supposed to be a specific turn day and I was all wrong??? When he was about 10 meters below me, I headed out, thinking that he is either ignorant of the airspace rules, or an asshole. I guess the other option is that I screwed up on a specific turn day/site, which would make me the asshole.

After finding one more nice (strong and maintainable) thermal I spiraled down for a landing, and the tandem pilot came over to apologize. Not a huge deal as I had to get to Geneve anyway. We headed back to Bruno's place for lunch with Barbara and the kids and I then headed north. Crappy traffic in Annecy slowed me to a crawl, and then construction near the airport slowed me further. I got in about an hour after Rich's flight landed and we headed out of town. He is wiped out from the flight, but we still managed to BS till late.

Camp Fee from prior night/s: 0

Fuel: 0

Tolls: 2.4e

Food/Drink: 23e

Supplies: 0

Misc: 0

Odometer: 109877

Sunday July 2nd

Saint Jean D'Aulps, France: Since Rich only has two weeks, and wants to fly as much as possible, he is in charge of navigating a route for us. We were initially headed toward the Montreux and Villevnueve area to get a flight at the end of the lac Lemon, but Rich noticed Morzine on the map, remembered something about a flying site being there, and we detoured.

It was a slow and steep climb to arrive, and we found strong afternoon valley wind, and strong conditions in general. We also found that nearby Mt Cheri usually has lighter valley wind, and a European comp is taking place. We headed a few clicks over to Les Gets and grabbed a gondola to Mt Cheri, where about 100 pilots were in a gaggle off to the west.

Only a few recreational pilots on launch and the wind was splitting the spine projecting south. We launched the eastern side, which seemed to still have the better cycles, and started working. I ground skimmed, and slalomed some trees, in order to keep right on the crest until I lucked out and got a couple beeps a hundred meters along the ridge. This thermal was enough to get me over the gondola station where I was able to climb out to 3k+ over launch for an hour long flight and a tour of the valley.

Landed in rough conditions in a small, and sloping, LZ where Rich was waiting. He wound up sinking out, mostly from just the luck of the draw, but I would bet jet-lag didn't help any.

Europe has terrific cafés in their LZ's, and we enjoyed a glass of Rosé as we packed our gliders.

Camp Fee for tonight: 16e

Fuel: 0

Tolls: 0

Food/Drink: 0

Supplies: 0

Misc: 0

Odometer: 109951

Monday July 3rd

Leysin, Switzerland: Left our lame campground intending to head for Montreax to camp and fly. We stopped first at the LZ and met up with Valiton, a local tandem pilot, who helped arrange a shuttle to launch.

It was very strong, very steep, and very rough, on this newly cut slot in the trees facing north. We all decided to wait an hour or so until one tandem pilot decided he would make a go of it. Sort of a sketchy launch as he got quickly pulled off his feet and flung into the air, but he made it look good from then on, with several close passes, wing overs, and spirals, where it looked as if he could touch the trees.

Valiton then prepared to drive down because of the strength and needing to meet another person in the LZ, but I decided to give it a shot anyway. I actually had a perfect (getting back into the swing of things!) launch into the strong conditions. I flew around for about 15 minutes before Rich came out and joined me. Initially a FUTO slowed him down a bit as he continues to recover from jet-lag. We then had another 25 minutes in the air together before we landed to avoid the wrath of building thunder storms.

The local campground was full, so we headed around the mountains a few clicks to Leysin, a flying site Valition highly recommended.

Camp Fee from prior night/s: 0

Fuel: 0

Tolls: 0

Food/Drink: Rich got some food

Supplies: 0

Misc: 16e for shuttle up the hill

Odometer: 110057

Tuesday July 4th

Leysin, Switzerland: Rich wanted to head up the hill for a morning sledder and I reluctantly went along. On top, the wind was still OTB so we wound up waiting a couple hours for things to improve. While we waited, we met a bunch of kids from America on a tour of CH. Today's task was riding fat-tired scooters down the hill. One of the kids offered me a try for 30-40 vertical meters, while they all waited for their group leader to arrive. It was fun, but I may have had a better time than some of them, once they finally got going.

A bit after the kids from America left, a chopper came through, and we were initially concerned for them, thinking it may be a rescue operation, but it wound up being a work-crew hauling new decking for the peak-top restaurant.

Once the chopper was done working, and after we had two VERY pricey cokes on top, we finally got our gliders out and took a flight.

Rich launched first and headed out for, what is supposed to be, the house thermal. He was not getting much of anything, so I headed to the right/north instead. Nothing. I chased Rich to the wide open valley to our south, and a couple others, who were now well above launch, and struggled to get up to their altitude.

Mission accomplished, and then Rich and I headed back to the ridge behind the gondola top and started working our way east up the valley. I lost it for a bit as I concentrated on some photos of a climb I was wanting to do, but Rich came back to wait till I got back up.

We were then went leapfrogging leads from cloud to cloud and peak to peak for 12-15 miles out. Lots of tall cumulus development, lots of hazy views, lots of strong climbs, lots of great saves, and a relatively small amount of rough air! Great flying, really!

As we got way up to the end of the valley, I saw, in addition to a few pilots paragliders coming at me from some unknown peak, a couple of sail planes, and more choppers than I can count, a nice peak I decided to call a turn point. It was a peak behind yet another gondola and just above a large horizontal glacier with an interesting network of roads on it. It was WAY cool! :-)

At this stage Rich was thinking about continuing on to Gastaad, but the skies were getting darker, we still had a long way to get home, and he was way below me (you can barely see a yellow dot down by the hanging glacier in the photo where I am 3,609 feet above launch) so I opted for an out-and-back. Rich agreed.

I hung out above my turn-peak and climbed to 4000+ feet (10,300 feet ASL) over my launch altitude while I waited for Rich to come back from his glide along a beautiful ridgeline extending from the flat glacial plane.

We headed back to the west, but on the south side of the valley so we could make a nice little circuit of the valley and we had one long, lonely, crossing of a plateau before crossing the steep canyon to the shelf housing Leysin.

On account of the increasing rain clouds, and strengthening wind, we were forced to declare an emergency landing next to the ice skating rink (which also is immediately next to our camp site) a couple hundred feet lower than the official LZ.

It was nice to be able to walk a few feet, drop the wing in front of the MoHo, and pack up at our leisure.

After not experiencing a terrific flight for so long, getting, 4000+ feet over launch, 10,300 feet ASL, two hours and 45 minutes of airtime, 1500 fpm climb rate, and a 1300 fpm sink rate was incredibly rewarding!

Later this night, the students of The American School, and The American College, lit off a bunch of fireworks on the ridge top and we had a great view from our camp.

Camp Fee from prior night/s: 0

Fuel: 0

Tolls: 0

Food/Drink: 9e

Supplies: 0

Misc: 22e for lift tickets

Odometer: 110057

Wednesday July 5th

Leysin, Switzerland: Rich and I headed up the gondola for another flight but the sky was already starting to OD. We decided to take a flight down to the main valley and catch a cog-train back to Leysin. I was off first, and was waiting for Rich after a FUTO (jet-lag still?), when it started to rain and the smoke in the valley went horizontal. Rich just got air born and was heading out for me when this happened and we made the turn for the closer, and more protected, LZ in Leysin.

Managed to only get a couple hundred feet over launch and 23 minutes, which was more than enough for me given the weather, and hard rain that fell shortly after getting back to camp.

Headed into town to meet up with Lizzy (Brit teaching English Literature at the Japanese school) for the football game and drinks. A nice little American bar, to go with The American School & college, had the match on in English.

Camp Fee from prior night/s: 16e

Fuel: 0

Tolls: 0

Food/Drink: 25e

Supplies: 0

Misc: 0

Odometer: 110057

Thursday July 6th

Sanen Switzerland: The wet weather last night continued on through today. We took a day off from flying and drove to Gstaad to check the scene. Bennita, at Camping Saanen "Beim Kappeli", is nice and keeps a very clean camp. It is also great to have communal BBQ with fire wood supplied.

Camp Fee from prior night/s: 0

Fuel: 60e for 55l at 11092/419km

Tolls: 0

Food/Drink: 0

Supplies: 0

Misc: 0

Odometer: 110106

Friday July 7th

Sanen Switzerland: Another off-day with the only interesting (confused the hell out of me) thing we did was wait 50 min for a 2 click train!!! Rich wanted to ride a train.

Camp Fee from prior night/s: --Rich got it.

Fuel: 0

Tolls: 0

Food/Drink: 7e

Supplies: 0

Misc: 2.8e paper

Odometer: 110106

Saturday July 8th

Sanen Switzerland: We headed up for a morning sledder since rain had ceased. Rich launched first and basically sank out, as expected, and then I followed. I caught up to him about half way down and we popped into a bit of a thermal, but nothing too significant. I managed almost 31 min.

With little encouragement we decided to head up the gondola for another one.

On this flight we walked down to a different launch area getting the later sun and definitely had a better flight as things were turning on. All the other pilots struggled in punchy thermals before sinking out, but I managed to get up and over the top of the mountain, then, with Rich on the ground, and the WX not looking stellar, I flew out for a landing as well after about 40 min of fairly ratty lift. The LZ is fairly tight, sloping, and has a fence cutting the middle of it, so it was a challenge in the thermic air.

After the fight we had a couple beers with a group of fun pilots we met on launch, before heading back to camp for a large communal BBQ with Wendy, a precocious seven year old which introduced us to her brother Nico, and parents Roberto and Juliet. Several other campers came over to take advantage of the hot coals as well.

Roberto, a few days later, sent me the two above photos. One of him and his plane, the other of the whole family in Langkawi.

Camp Fee from prior night/s: 0

Fuel: 0

Tolls: 0

Food/Drink: 34e (and Rich got some groceries)

Supplies: 0

Misc: 14e lift tickets

Odometer: 110106

Sunday July 9th

Grindlewald, Switzerland: After finally getting our flying tickets punched for Gstaad & Sannen, we headed east for Interlaken to find a crowded LZ with lots of pilots taking sledders under the darkening, low-level, stratus. Does not look good.

After chatting with some pilots, we heard the WX was supposed to great for the First Gondola in Grindlewald on Monday. That sounded good to us so we headed into the mountains.

As we were searching out the LZ we were lucky enough to witness the sound, and dust, from a massive rock slide down one of the nearby canyons. Very cool!

Chatted up a couple nice pilots in the LZ, snagged a Swiss Aviation Chart, and called it a day at Camping Eggishorn.

Camp Fee from prior night/s: Rich got it.

Fuel: 0

Tolls: 0

Food/Drink: 0

Supplies: 0

Misc: 14e for aviation map

Odometer:110206

Monday July 10th

Grindlewald, Switzerland: On advice from the locals, we tried to get an early start up First, the LONG gondola on the north side of the valley, which offers great views of the Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau. However, a longer than expected walk to the gondola, the longer (and more expensive) gondola ride past the three stations, and then a couple hundred vertical meters of hiking took it's toll.

Once we did get up to the grassy knoll, we were easily able to see down where the normal launch is...but we needed the exercise and it was fun talking to a couple other pilots as we ate lunch, sat in the grass, soaked up some rays, organized our gear, and waited for better conditions.

The other pilots were both off first, as a few gliders from the lower launch started to stay up. Rich wanted for us to fly together (easier, and more fun!) but a minor Futo had us launching about ten  ten minutes later. Once air born, Rich headed left to check out that area, as I immediately

headed right, catching a small bump in the wide hanging valley. After his eastward explorations, Rich joined me in my thermal and we then both quickly worked our way to the west where the sun was now baking some rock faces. Along the way, he chose to stay and work one of the better thermals out front, while I basically ridge soared my way as far as I could along the steep cliff bands...climbing all the while.

It was definitely a bit rough, and I never dug out my camera until I was well above the ground. Unfortunately this meant there were a few clouds obscuring the best views of the mountains. At this stage Rich and I were about level, but he was farther out in the valley, and seemed to be climbing better. I headed out, down the ridge, to join him and a couple others in a boomer that took us back to cloudbase.

After a bit of work, we both managed to get up over the peak and I began to periodically have vision problems as I approached cloudbase. We were deep in the range and lift was overly abundant so we decided to continue west and north toward Interlaken. At one point I looked down at Rich and saw his left wing in a very sloppy mess that took a while to sort out. He never made it back up from that point on, as we headed out to (one of) our earlier discussed goals of Interlaken. We both encountered some huge sink leaving the mountain range, but Rich was reporting much worse, and was not sure if he would make it out of the canyon...a canyon no one would want to land in. Being a bit higher, and farther out over the main Interlaken valley, I had no problems.

After 1.25 hours, 2100 over launch for 9200+asl, we landed at the airport with another pilot we were flying with, and then hopped on the train back up to Grindlewald for 8f each.

Camp Fee from prior night/s: 0--

Fuel: 0

Tolls: 0

Food/Drink: 15e

Supplies: 0

Misc: 13e for two train tickets and Rich got lift tickets.

Odometer: 110206

Tuesday July 11th

Grindlewald, Switzerland: Both Rich and I wanted to do the tourist trip up the cog-train to the col between the Jungfrau and the Monch. We contemplated packing our gliders up, but in the end were just tourists, and enjoyed the 125 franc (this is the discounted early-bird special) train ride, with it's multiple stops at view points punched in the rock wall of the tunnel. It was really pretty interesting, even though the views were all glassed off.

As we got to the top station, there were multiple tourist attractions and restaurants. There is one huge passage-way with various rooms filled with ice sculptures...oh, and the floor and walls are solid ice. It was fun to run and see how far you could slide, but most were carefully holding the hand rails. Definitely something you would not see in the US. There is also a media room, museum, and multiple displays.

What started as a quick trip to the glacier for tossing a few snowballs, turned into a 40 min trek to an alpine hut for lunch with Max and Sarah, whom we met along the way. That trip caused us to miss our 12:45 appointed train back to the valley floor, and neither of us realized we could spend so much time there, but both of us thoroughly enjoyed it. Highly recommended.

On the ride down, we both were feeling beat from the late night, early morning, and high altitude, but, as we reached the valley floor, Rich started to get a wild hair about taking an afternoon flight. It was not looking great to me, and I would have been happy to call it a day, but he was keen, so off we went.

On yet another train ride from camp to the gondola I pointed out two wind socks standing straight out in the LZ. This did not seem to faze Rich. Walking from the train stop to the gondola I pointed out two parked pilots trying to beat their way into the wind coming from the NNW. This did not seem to faze Rich either. Once on the gondola I pointed out the wind socks blowing OTB, and suggested we just stay in the gondola and ride it back down, and perhaps save the cost of a return ticket, but Rich was optimistic.

We hung out on launch for a while, as over the back conditions increased, and then bought another round of tickets for our ride home.

Still a great day, and I had fun reading up on the Canon PowerShot SD700 IS Digital ELPH Rich gave me! Thanks again, Rich. My old Pentax had a scratched lens, and a beat body, so needed to be retired. This new one has many more features, including image stabilization, color options, 6 Megapixels, and bunch of minor ones too.

Camp Fee from prior night/s: 0

Fuel: 0

Tolls: 0

Food/Drink: Rich got lunch.

Supplies: 2.5

Misc: 70e for two tickets up and then back.

Odometer: 110206

Wednesday July 12th

Fiesch, Switzerland: Headed down to Interlaken and saw no pilots at all. The forecast for the next few days is strong north wind, and we got a little taste of that in our flight attempt last night.

We continued south through the Kandersteg-Goppenstein tunnel for the car-train, and when we hit the main east-west road, Rich finally decided we would go to Fiesch. We also realized that there has not been ONE day where we have actually followed any type of plan. In fact we have specifically left camp with the intention going to X, but have NEVER done so in the past ten days. Good way to travel.

The tunnel was fairly fun, and cheap at 20 francs, and was a new experience for me. Once we got underway, we made lunch and relaxed in the MoHo great room till we popped out the other side of the mountain range.

In Fiesch I set up camp as Rich talked to pilots and checked the forecast for the next few days.

One of the pilots he met, Andi, was invited over for an evening BBQ and we had a good time keeping the camp awake as a few other campers asked to use our grill and came bearing gifts of beer.

Camp Fee from prior night/s: Rich got it

Fuel: 0

Tolls: 14e train ride

Food/Drink: 28e

Supplies: 0

Misc: 0

Odometer: 110323

Thursday July 13th

Fiesch, Switzerland: Rich and I met up with Andi for a trip up the Gondola and short hike to an "alternitve" launch area. Andi said the normal launch is always too crowded and there is better soaring at his.

Andi gave us the skinny on where the house thermals were (the best one seemed to be right at the main launch) and talked about a couple of possible routes. Essentially the plan was for him to launch first, if he got up easily, we should follow. He would then lead us on a tour of the valley right up to, and beyond, if possible, the Furka Snake, a huge glacial induced sink-hole at the Furka Pass.

He wasn't getting up so easily, so Rich and I hung out for an hour while a few pilots worked it east of us by the main launch. When we finally did get going, the lift was rough and ratty. Initially I got up well and Rich was sinking out, but by the time we got over to the house thermal, I was contemplating the LZ as Rich slowly worked his way up to the avalanche protection (a VERY good thermal area) and then on to cloudbase. A half an hour later, I finally crawled up to the avalanche protection and was at cloudbase five minutes later...looking for Rich.

By this time, Andi had made the first valley crossing to the east and was waiting there for us, Rich was lurking near the peaks above launch, and I was finally feeling up to snuff, and starting to fly worth a damn.

We made the first crossing with what we thought was plenty of altitude, but it was still a struggle to get back up. From then on it was an easy flight, with the only concern being to stay out of the clouds, (and don't loose it while snapping photos. Rich's yellow/gray wing can be seen off my helmet) as Rich and I leapfrogged our way behind Andi to the Furka Snake.

With the sink in full force at Furka, and lots of overdevelopment starting, Andi decided to fly back to Fiesch for the landing. Heading back with a touch of a tail wind was a snap. I stayed high and watched the other two below me until I realized I made it home with about 3000 vertical feet to spare. With their Flytec 5040's they knew they did not have to waste time climbing.

Lots of sail plane activity on this ~40km out and back, 10,700 feet asl, 4000+ feet above launch and 2:18 on the time.

Landed at the main LZ, next to our campground, just before the wind shifted and the rain started to dump on us

Camp Fee from prior night/s: 0

Fuel: 0

Tolls: 0

Food/Drink: 0

Supplies: 0

Misc: 16e for 1/2 price lift ticket ala Andi

Odometer: 110323

Friday July 14th

Zermat, France: This morning as we got off the gondola I suggested we go to the normal launch instead of hiking to the "Andi Special". It wasn't that I minded the short, and level, walk, but it seemed to me the house thermal is right there and it would give us a better opportunity to both socialize and to watch other pilots work it. Everyone agreed, and, with only one minor attempt at a detour once headed that way, we met up with a group of about 15 others.

This normal launch area also provided a great opportunity to see things you would never see in the USA...like a ten year old operating a backhoe.

It was slow going for me yesterday, but today I was feeling much better, and was eager to get going and explore a little bit more of the area.

Once a couple pilots started staying up, Andi launched with Rich and I close behind. We both did a good job of climbing out to cloudbase over the peak behind launch and then wasted no time crossing the main glacial valley to the east. Once across, I used another pilot as a marker and quickly climbed out and made my way up the ridge to catch up with Andi, while Oscar, the other pilot, raced east. Rich took a different track and I decided to wait for him (he did his share of waiting for me yesterday!) instead of chasing the lower/faster Oscar. Soon Andi (passed him on the way up) climbed up to me as well, and immediately raced to the east in his white Sol Glider.

It didn't take long for Rich to climb out, but I was still contemplating some things by the time he got here. Racing east, and back, was surely an easy option, as we proved yesterday even feeling like shit and having no sleep, however, the cloudbase today was higher, the mountain ranges to the north are beautiful, there were several peaks that looked like they needed to be bagged, and I was feeling great after a full nights sleep. About the time I had made up my mind to explore deeper into the mountains, Rich started racing east to catch Andi and Oscar.

I chose a peak and headed north. My day ended up producing a most excellent

flight of peak baggin'! The first one took four attempts and a half an hour to nail.

The cloud-street was on the front/south side of this wide range of mountains and every time I went north of them to bag a peak, I would sink out. What I also realized was that the mountains behind, although they looked like they were thick in clouds, were free of them.

Once this was known, I was able to more comfortably "skirt the edges" of the clouds and gain altitude for my push north around the peaks I wanted to round.

I wound up spending much of my flight above 10,000 feet and bagged three, of the four, peaks I wished. This exploration also gave me a great opportunity to cross a few nice glaciers and gain access to the ridge line behind (to the north) of where the others were flying in our main valley. Rich tried to call me once on the radio, but he was very broken up on account of the mountains between us, but he essentially was wondering if I had managed to climb out yet...I was at something like 10,700 at the time! :-)

I came out of the mountains with over 11,000 feet of altitude as I neared the Furka Snake. No problem making it past, or so I thought, with this altitude, but camp was back the other way, the cu-nims were developing, and I already had a stellar flight. Additionally, I had no idea where Rich may have gotten off to.

Returning toward Fiesch, I ran into some ass-kicking turbulence...most likely rotor induced from the strengthening NNE wind...that had me thinking of tossing my laundry at least once, and realizing it would be for naught on another occasion. A couple of large collapses, a full frontal, a half a spin, and an odd surging which pointed me toward the ground at an un-nerving angle, yet with a fully pressurized glider. The second time this happened I was almost home, and within an easy glide of the LZ, but chose to turn out to the main valley for a landing away from the dumping cloud in front of me.

After three hours in the air, I packed up, hitched a ride, and watched the rain pour down as my driver took me all the way to the campground gates.

Rich was waiting, wondering what had become of me, so we said goodbye to our neighbors who helped Rich true my bike wheel, and headed off toward Chamonix, but, sticking with our standard of never ending up where we start off for, detoured to Zermat on account of bad traffic on the road we were traveling, and because Rich has never seen the Matterhorn.

Camp Fee from prior night/s: Rich got it.

Fuel: 0

Tolls: 0

Food/Drink: 20e and Rich got some too.

Supplies: 0

Misc: 19e lift tickets for Rich and I.

Odometer: ????

Saturday July 15th

Chamonix France: Camping Alphubel pretty much sucks. The woman who checked us in last night was reportedly fairly dour toward Rich, and then her husband came and scolded us for camping in a reserved spot, although the woman told us to camp there. Additionally, The bathrooms and kitchen are dirty and there are not enough of them for the numbers in the camp. The only good thing about the place is that a taxi-bus (cheaper than the nearby train now that Rich has gotten his fare share of ridding them) leaves right from the campground every morning.

After a quick trip to Zermatt, a pleasant mountain village where tourists must either take the train or taxi to explore, Rich called the local tandem pilot and found he would land soon and brief us on the flying.

The small LZ on the west side of the steep valley is on the roof of the train station and if you miss it, you are pretty much screwed. The local pilot did sharp wing-overs to the ground not just to thrill his passenger, but to help facilitate getting into land, and, after our briefing, Rich and I headed into, and up, the Sunnegga cog-train through a steep tunnel, onto the Blauherd gondola, and then finally the Rothorn gondola which took us to the top.

Nice views of the Matterhorn, and surrounding mountains, but things were quickly starting to cloud over.

We wound up launching to the north and basically taking a 28 min extended sled ride to Tasch. Neither one of us got even a peep on our varios, unless you count the time I recovered from a frontal after flying into a rotor.

We landed in a large, windy, field next to our campground and then blew out of dodge for Vevy on the north shore of Lac Geneve. I had located a restaurant in my Wine Spectator magazine that was supposed have an impressive wine list to go with its equally impressive French-Swiss cuizine.

Of course, keeping with tradition, we never made it to Vevy, and wound up in Chamonix instead. Les Arolless camping is right in town, cheap, clean, and friendly, but one of the best things is that the 'il Impossible restaurant is only a couple hundred meters away.

We enjoyed a terrific French dinner of a tomato juice and mozzarella aperitif, a smoked salmon and bass tartar on greens starter (ok, fish-hating Rich had ham and melon), an indescribably tasty, and tender, roasted pork chop with crisp steamed veggies and roasted baby potatoes for our main, followed by a to-die-for white and dark chocolate mouse on a plate drizzled with dark chocolate, white chocolate, and a light caramel sauce. Our meal, paired with a 2003 White Bourgogne and a 1999 Bordeaux, constituted one of my best European feasts since my little adventure started.

Camp Fee from prior night/s: Rich got it

Fuel: Rich got it for ~45e, 37l at 110434/341km

Tolls: 0

Food/Drink: 260e for a good French dinner.

Supplies: 0

Misc: Rich got tickets and taxi

Odometer:110533

Sunday July 16th

Boumfock, Switzerland: After a late night we slept in till 09:00 before enjoying a leisurely breakfast and stroll to the gondola. Pilots were already getting high by the time we arrived on launch and I slowly laid out while Rich went to see a man about a horse.

I had planned on waiting for him, but about the time he got back, another group of pilots had arrived and needed me to clear the launch space.

I paralleled the ridgeline west, toward where I could see others easily climbing out, and quickly found lift after crossing under the gondola cable to the upper peak. I was in closer than anyone else, and was out-climbing them as well, when the growing turbulence reminded me of the lee-side conditions I was flying in. A full frontal as I neared the ridge top, encouraged me to move out even more and I found a nice thermal that rocketed me through the layer and up to cloud base. There were newly forming small clouds above, around, and below as one other glider and I played around over the valley and reveled in the magnificent views of the Mt Blanc Massif.

Rich was still stuck on launch so I decided to head back that way, and eventually moved farther out over the valley so I could just maintain around launch level in lazy thermals.

I then saw Rich launch and start the same flight path I took, and work the rock face below me, but the lift did not look as good as it was earlier. As he struggled, he radioed me and exclaimed that some guy below him just tossed his reserve parachute and piled into the trees/rocks. Wicked!

A very short time later I heard a chopper and watched it come over town and head right for that same rock face. I let Rich know he was about to have company, and also mentioned that  a bunch of pilots were heading to the valley with full speed bar and big ears. A couple others, including Rich for a while, continued to work the face as the chopper searched for the downed pilot, but eventually I saw Rich heading out to avoid the chopper wash, so I spiraled down to land with him.

Even though the flight was cut short, this was DEFINITELY my best flight in Chamonix. I have just never hit the WX correctly during my other trips here, and would either not fly at all, or just get a sled ride at best. This 46 minutes and 2000+ gain for 8300 asl was a lot of fun regardless of the rough air.

After packing up, we made the long HOT drive to Geneva and out past the airport to Dardagny,  where Rich had seen a campground symbol on our trusty map. The place was packed, the weather was damn HOT, the humidity was high, and we wound up parking on a shade less, metallic-gravel, driveway and sweltered as Rich organized his gear.

Being just south of Boumfock, Switzerland, our plans of dinner out turned into a a scavenge of the fridge and pantry, as no restaurants were nearby.

Camp Fee from prior night/s: 17e

Fuel: 0

Tolls: 0

Food/Drink: 0

Supplies: 0

Misc: Rich got lift tickets.

Odometer: 110648

Monday July 17th

Aix les Bains, France: Did an early morning drop off of Rich at the airport and then headed south toward Grenoble to visit Dominique.

My battery light has been coming on for the past three days and I have been leaking a bit of diesel from a cracked hose, so I stopped at a Fiat repair shop I saw along the way.

They looked over my rig and found a broken Soufflé (gasket attaching the drive line to the right front wheel) as well, and can repair it on Thursday along with the leaky diesel and battery light situation.

I had no choice but to grab a campground so got one with a lot of shade and near the lake. Temp 40+ with high humidity.

Camp Fee from prior night/s: Rich got it.

Fuel: 0

Tolls: 0

Food/Drink: 40e

Supplies: 0

Misc: 3e laundry

Odometer: 110780

Click here to see Section 20: More of the Alps

Click here to see Where's Mike 2005 with more on the Alps