La Clusaz - 23 Aug

In keeping with Don & Yolie's "fly by the seat of the pants" travel style, they arrived at Annecy without any reservations. Normally it works. But this year, they unknowingly arrived at Annecy on a French holiday weekend (Assumption of Mary). The nearest accommodation was in La Clusaz, a wonderful little ski town about 25 minutes NE of the lake. This is where Don, Yolie, Tommy, Serena & Scrappy spent their first week.

Don was torn. Mad Dog & I were near the lake, and he and the others drove to fly with us each day. But he was leaving a great flying site each time he did. From where they were staying, you could walk to the ski lift and ride up to a great, wide-open launch and land a short walk away from home as well. And many were taking to the skies there, showing it to be good. Finally, Don was determined to fly here on his last day at this apartment. And Mad Dog & I were determined to fly from where we were to join them.

Months before this trip, I studied the area around Annecy with the focus to the North. This was the route Mad Dog took on his big flight to Chamonix the year prior. He flew from Annecy to Chamonix just a few days after 60+ pilots top landed Mont Blanc. It was a great week that year and we had big hopes for a repeat on our trip. 

MD and I set off from the local site, Planfait. Conditions looked good and I soon found myself 6000+ ft over Dents de Lanfon. "Where should I go?", I asked. MD basically told me to just "go", and that he will head toward Thones Approach when he gets up to the perch. So, I took a bee line for the closely studied point and the ridge beyond. There was a nice thermal along the way that put me back up to 6k+ at the half-way point, so there was plenty of altitude to work the ridge when i got there. The goal was to get to the back to Le Suet, where a massive house thermal is reputed to live. That's essentially where MD went to the moon and secured a route to Chamonix the prior year. Unfortunately, we were both denied. The wind that day split the ridge at the approach and there was sink on either side below ridge height. I cut a line 90 degrees to the SE to make a bid for something on the other side of the valley. I didn't get much further than the valley floor, let alone the other side's slope. MD followed along the contour line, got a taunt with few turns in short-lived lift and made it further to the town of St. Jean de Sixt. 

I hitched two rides from my landing to La Clusaz, but MD just needed one from his end point. From the ski town, we caught the two chairlifts up to launch. MD flew another, more impressive flight along the Aravis mountain range. He was sold  and LOVED the flying from this launch!I launched shortly after, since I was 10 minutes behind. A compression knot on some brake lines kept my next flight to a minimum, having to fight my way down through the abundant lift to land. Don was waiting for me, Tommy soon landed as well and we soon started downing beers. MD was last to finish, bouncing off of a half-dozen peaks along the range before we broke from Scrappy's "white room" tale and scooped him up at the LZ.

All had good flights at La Clusaz, climbing up to cloud base (and beyond) in really strong, widespread lift. There may have been some regret for the days spent driving from there to Annecy in the week they were there. It stands as an excellent flying site.

Side note: On this day, Alex out-flew us all from Kahana with an envious flight that spanned from Kualoa to Sacred Fall.