David Corpas -Day4 – Slopes of TP3 (Peña Montañesa)
David Corpas | Day 4, yesterday he finished the day on the slopes of Tp3, and he had to climb it to try his first flight. Cheer up David.
Tag: 2022
Another two withdrawals on day 4
During the day, another two teams have decided to withdraw: Lino Coló due to injury, just 61 km from Peña Montañesa and 466 km to the finish line, and Rémi Bourdelle due to other reasons, just 60 km from Arbas.
Day 3: Into the light
After the first days it was hard to believe our eyes when we had seen the sun for the first time during the race. The race was finally on! After a morning group hike with Noé, Maxime and Chrigel we got airborne, flying in tough conditions yet covering a lot of ground in the air. Some tough Lee side thermals at TP 4 made us lose sight of Maxime and Chrigel, but the outcome is nowhere near decided.
Update Day 4 – mid-day
A recap of Day 3 and team news and intentions for today and tomorrow.
Day 3 Video Highlights
Best moments of the first really flyable day
Noé Court – Day 4 arriving on the mountains
Finally I arrive on the mountain by walk. My dad was tried to follow me. I could say the son surpassed the father for this time 😛
Thanks to my dad to support me at every time!
Update Day 4 – mid-day
Yesterday, apart from two withdrawals due to injury, Edoardo Colombo and Fred Juvaux, there were two more withdrawals due to other reasons – José Ignacio Arévalo and Rémi Bourdelle.
Penalties given to other pilots were a 24 hour penalty for airspace infringement for Giuliano Minutella and a 12 hour penalty for Keith Paterson for cloud flying.
Some news from yesterday, reports from the teams.
At the front, Jeremie Lager, Maxime Pinot supporter says:
“It was a pretty good day. 2 flights, first to glide and gain distance in the morning. The second to the turn point and to cross into France. Conditions in Spain were vey nice because cloudbase was high. 3500 max. Tricky on north side because cloudbase was much lower but still possible to cover distance. Total 170 km and eight hours in the air. Easy in the first part, tricky in the second.
Today south wind is not as strong as expected. They will try to fly from Saint Lary Soulan (the ski resort) to the Midi de Bigorre (TP5). They expect strong south wind, so it may be tricky to get back into Spain.
For tomorrow, it will be better in Spain, but with strong south winds. So it may be difficult to fly tomorrow, so they will try to make the most of today.”
Team Chrigel Maurer says: “Chrigel flew 8.5h in total and covered nearly 200km. According to Chrigel conditions didn’t play to his strengths, but as a team with Maxime Pinot they could make the most of it. He then had a really tight landing in a very small field next to a road. The plan for today and onwards: reach TP 6 and back to Spain. It’s not going to be easy, but getting back to Spain is critical.”
Report from James Elliot, team Canada:
“They flew for more than six hours and did 130km. After he landed he didn’t want to hike anymore, so he just hung out in the valley. He said the conditions were pretty insane. It was the first big flight in the Pyrenees and if that was a mellow day, he can’t imagine what a rough day would be like. Thermals were insane where all the valleys meet. He said the flying was wild and the terrain was wild. Flying from Spain into France, the layers of clouds were crazy, he was flying down to base with cumulus below him. Base was so different between the two countries and it was shaded out, so he couldn’t get up again.
Team Canada had a really good day. Objective is TP 4 and 5 and then get back into Spain. He’s feeling strong, but avoiding the road as much possible. He will fly conservatively today to avoid landing and hiking at all costs.”
Team Logan Walters “ Couple of good flights. On the second flight he got caught in the lee side and cloudbase was pretty low. He got flushed in sink. There were not trails where he landed but he managed to climb up, sometimes on his hands and feet some very steep terrain. Relaunched and did good distance. He tagged the TP flying. This morning he hiked high into some alpine terrain NW of Castejon de Sos. He’s currently heading for France. There is a fair amount of SW wind. So we will see.”
Fabian Umbricht has a bad knee and now bad feet. He has chosen mountain paths, rather than asphalt roads. It was a risky move, but it paid off and he managed to fly 70 km to the edge of the National Park. He used the last daylight to get to TP 3, so they are really happy. Conditions were “funky”.
At the back conditions remained tricky. If you didn’t get into Spain, it remained hard going. Nicolas Haynes found the conditions on the border challenging and only flew for about 10 minutes and 5 km. David Liano also did a short 25 km flight to land near TP 2 and then hiked up. Many at the back could not profit from the good weather on the south side.
Currently, at 13:00 on Day 4, Pinot and Maurer are close to TP 5. Ten pilots have passed TP 4 and are heading west to TP 5.
Keep tuned. If you see problems with live tracking, it’s not the web page, but the mobile coverage where the pilots are located.
Yuji Emoto – Day 3
We were able to do 5 well deserved glides and some walking that allowed us to cover a bit less than the 40km that we needed to do to reach TP2 (Accous).
The conditions were still very humid and we had to wait quiet a long time on the take offs for the sky to open, the good thing about this is that it gave us the opportunity to join Ignigo and Greg and walk / fly together!
Eventhough we had hoped to fly more we are happy to hit TP2 flying and to finally not be at the very end of the ranking!
We hope that the forecast will change and that we will be able to have some proper flights before the end of the race. We are still motivated so, until then we will keep on walking !
First victims of the X-pyr 2022 race
After hard weather conditions, some teams have decided to say good bye to the X-Pyr 2022 in the third day of the race. The first victims of this year are Edoardo Colombo, Frédéric Juvaux, Giuliano Minutella and José Ignacio Arévalo.
Recap of day 4
Things are getting spicy. As most of our group lost the best flying day walking or in the clouds, we started the day high up in the mountains with a forecast of 30 km/h+ winds.
We decided to climb the nearest hill anyway, but up there we measured winds up to 13m/s – def too much. However, lower down we found a “protected” spot and after “quick” one-hour contemplation, I decided to give it a try. Should I have known it wouldn’t be the sketchiest take off spot of the day, I would have taken off immediately instead of waiting for one hour… 😀
Conditions were smooth and nice, lifts everywhere. I got some additional height and then I hit the wall wind in the valley. After that, full bar, a sketchy landing and barely any distance at all. We gained nothing, asphalt was the winning option again. But hey, at least we’ve got some nice shots!
Then it was just too hot, too far, too windy and too tiring. Spain as I imagined. Our next selected take off laughed at us with gusty wind. But the way down was long and would take ages. In between the cycles, we measured around 7m/s, so I decided to give it a try.
I walked down a bit and opened the wing. The cycle came brutally, I had to knee down holding the Bs. But well, I’ve done that before, in Chile, South Africa, Brazil, so I count on my experience. I pull the wing up, the lift comes immediately. I’m traversing the slope, twisted. I can still stall it, I think… I manage to turn around and try to get to my speed bar. My always peaceful Scala seems to be mad. I sort out a cravat, push the bar and try to calculate how much altitude I need to jump behind the ridge. There are no landings in front and I can barely move forwards – sideways it is then.
I take some lifts on the way and clear another ridge as I can’t seem to fly along it. After the next one, there are only high mountains. I’m not taking chances, so I decided to escape all the lifts and move towards the main valley. The valley is calm and there are big landing spots there – I like that. I guess I could have pushed further… Still, I gained some positions, found some limits, and most importantly, flew over really slow terrain.
We finished the day early, at 20:10. As the storm approached, it made more sense to fly down in the morning than to descend that late.
Overall, that day 4 was a good day.
Luis Linde Team – X-Pyr Day 2: Rain and run
Two days running in the rain, very hard and with some short flights to advance a few kilometers flying in the French geographical labyrinth, with countless valleys, small mountains, and small roads that connect almost everything, but a bad decision running or planning to another place can make you lose a lot of time or gain many kilometers on your feet.
The tiredness in my legs is already noticeable and an injury that I had in 2016 has also begun to come back. I have no problem climbing the slope but it is very difficult for me to descend it, so these two days I have noticed a lot of the kilometers accumulated.
Today is the third day in which we hope that the weather will be with us and we can make longer flights and to avoid kilometers on foot.
Andreas Viehböck – Day 3
Happy about the flight yesterday.
Noé Court – Day 4
Today under the sun, I enjoy the walk and I’m hurry to fly.
