Day 8, 21/8: Blatten - Sion

Blatten - Sion

The instability of the day which was forecasted, was there. And the storms which were meant to give some rains during the afternoon, decided to show up at 9 in the morning, while I was walking to the top of the mountains. The front went quickly and I managed to take off and flew about 20km in very week conditions, quite low on the North side of the mountains. I did well that day, as I was the only one to fly so far in between the rain fronts. “Good on you good buddy !!!”

But I had to pay for doing that : I landed in Turtmann in the rain … The extra hundred meters that I did gain by keeping flying, made me waste a minute or two. Too much when it’s raining hard ! I can hear you saying : And what ? Landing in the rain is nothing compared to nearly losing a reserve, or landing backwards, or doing an uncontrolled loop… BUT, a glider full of water weighs few kg more than when it’s dry, and I had to carry this extra weight until Verbier. Not ideal really!

Anyway, I decided that the weather wasn’t good enough to waste a 5 hours walk to a mountain, to try to fly. My aim was to go ASAP to Verbier, by the road.

It was 2:30pm when I started walking from Turtmann. I walked until the W side of Sion where I stopped after 6 hours of walking.

Started day at 8′19. Took off at 11′20. Finish day at 20′15
Total flying 1h40, 25km
Total walking 8h30, 960m up, 33km
Max altitude 20m above the trees … for the whole flight!