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
Faced again with tricky conditions and the now already familiar low cloud layer on the north side we had no choice but to cover distance on the ground. Two very efficient glides, one with some soaring were at least some relieve and helped us get further than expected – with the south side only one hike away.
After the awesome day of flying the north side of the Pyrenees was not that kind on us. Cloud cover and strong winds at the Pic du Midi turnpoint had Simon spend a lot of time waiting for feasible conditions. He battled very turbulent air and ended the day trapped on a mountain pass in a thunderstorm.
With paragliding being a conditions-dependent sport, days four and five of the X-Pyr were pretty hike-centric. Rob was faced with strong headwinds both days, making it tricky to fly, but he was able to cover a good distance on the ground. He was ushered into camp at the end of day four by a booming thunderstorm with some pretty dramatic lightning strikes. We posted up near Yesera, Spain, where we enjoyed some tasty pizza that was generously delivered by Keith’s friend Alex, a wingsuit athlete local to the area.
By mid-afternoon on day five, Rob had walked and run a good portion of the day, taken a short flight and charged through the town of Ainsa towards Peña Montañesa, which is TP3. The decision was made as Rob approached Peña to rally up a very direct trail with a lot of vert and tag the TP on foot, with the idea that we would make it back down to camp and set out east the next day to a different launch. Rob was able to tag the TP before the cutoff time for the day, but we didn’t make it back down to the car. Keith was a champ and hiked food, water, and camping gear up to Rob, and I made an out and back run to the car to grab more gear and join him for the night up on the side of the mountain, which was actually quite nice.
Rob has been playing leapfrog with a few other athletes chugging along in the same zone; it’s been fun to run into and chat with them and their teams, including Rich Binstead and co. Rob has been working really hard, never stopping, and has done a good job of putting himself in a good position to utilize XC conditions on day six. ‘Til next time!
Here are the back of the race we are fighting for every mile of distance. Getting served with rain, cloud and wind. Walking up high peaks only to find stable layers beneath it, or risky wind flows that force a long walk down. Now we are in Spain and hopes are high for a big flight. I’ve updated the X-PYR coverage with some live streams during the race. Enjoy an inside look at racing life. X-PYR 2022 here.
Day 3 was a really great day for team Canada. At the end of day 2, James ended up in a really good position that allowed him to hike into Spain early in the morning and get a flight early in the day, allowing him to make the most of the day.
6 hours and 20 minutes in the air had James way too stoked to be off the ground and not walking, flying over some of the craziest terrain in the Pyrenees!
Day 4 is looking promising weather-wise so we’re looking to hike up early in the morning and try to make the most of the day, landing on mountains and avoiding valley bottoms until the day turns on.
TP6 checked
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