A 20 minutes TV coverage on Vercofly - following the 2 Laurents
Day 1: Vercorin - Cab. Becs de Bosson - Zinal
I decided to walk up to the La Brinta in the hope to fly. Arrived at the the top, the clouds were still dense and thus I continued on the ridge in the direction of the hut Bec the Bosson together with many other competitors. At the hut, still no way to fly in my view. Some pilots took off and found miraculously a way around the clouds in the direction of Zinal. After 4 hours waiting I followed the locals taking off in direction of the Val d'Herens, despite some clouds in front of us. Arrived at the cloud front, without the possibility to fly around and not seeing anything through it, I decided with few others to turn back to the Bec de Bosson. There I teamed up with Filippo and Doru. We decided to walk down in the direction of Grimentz. Below the cloud base we took off and glided towards Zinal, where we stayed the night. A lot of time has been wasted that day in the hope to be able to fly - I just prefer flying to walking, but definitively it is not the winning strategy ;-).
Hiking tracks: Vercorin - Becs de Bosson , Becs de Bosson - Bendolla , Pralong - Zinal
Flying tracks: Becs de Bosson - Clouds , Bendolla - Pralong
Day 2: Zinal - Cab. de Mountet - Lac d'Arpitetta - Cab. d'Arpitetta - Cab. Tracuit
Hiked up, through a dense fog, to the hut of Mountet. On the way we crossed other competitors walking down, but suddenly we heard somebody shouting above us and we figured out through the mist a paraglider landing in front of us. He apparently took off at the Tracuit hut with better conditions... Arrived at the hut of Mountet we waited for better conditions and indeed we could take off and land safely at the Lac d'Arpitetta. Then walking was on the program: Cabane d'Arpitetta - Col de Milan - Cabane de Tracuit.
Hiking tracks: Zinal - Cab de Mountet , Lac Arpitetta - Cab. Arpitetta , Cab. Arpitetta - Cab. Tracuit
Flying tracks: Cab. du Mountet - Lac d'Arpitetta
Day 3: Cab. Tracuit - Cab. de la Tsa - Lac Bleu - Cab. des Aiguilles Rouges
During the night it was snowing and a thin white carpet covered the landscape in the morning- just beautiful but it was also very cold... Take off at the hut directing to the other side of the valley reaching Sorebois. Filippo is still accompaning me, whereas Doru decided to reach first the Truttmann hut before going to the Arolla Valley. Thus, with Filippo we walked up to the top of Sorebois for taking off to reach the Moiry lac. Another walk up to the Col the Tsaté waiting for good thermal conditions. However, it was so cold that I couldn't really stay more than an hour, thus we decided to take off with the risk to be too early. And indeed, we did not yet find any thermal, it was too early, thus we headed in direction of the Val d'Arolla. There Filippo decided to go directly to the hut of the Aig. Rouge via the lake Blue, whereas I decided to join first the Tsa hut. Their I struggled a bit to take off in the strong thermals, but finally I managed it and landed beside the Blue lake. Then followed a final hike up to Aigullies Rouges hut. It was the meeting hut of the last night, where we all enjoyed a chummy evening. Doru could unfortunately not join the hut, he had to quit the race after a bad landing injuring his foot ankle.
Hiking tracks: Sorebois - Corne de Sorebois , Lac Moiry - Col du Tsaté , Satarma - Cab. de la Tsa , Lac Bleu - Cab. Aig. Rouges
Flying tracks: Cab. de Tracuit - Sorebois , Corne de Sorebois - Lac de Moiry , Col du Tsaté - Satarma , Cab. de la Tsa - Lac Bleu
Day 4: Cab. des Aiguilles Rouges - Vercorin
The morning expected us with snowfall. No way to fly, we had to hike down. At the level of l'Etoile, above les Haudères, wetter conditions allowed to glide down to Evolène. There we hiked up with the idea to take off in direction of Vercorin. Arrived at the Alp L'A Viellie, we went into the bistro to have some lunch. It took ages until we got our food and afterwards, when we went outside the condition had changed. The wind increased considerably and it was out of question for me to take off. Frédéric Nabet tried his luck and we could observe his rodeo trip through the rough air. He did not advance much faster than we hiking. He finally landed again beside us. The last kilometers we had really to speed up in order to reach the goal before it closed.
Again it was an intense experience, where you realize how small you are in respect to mother nature !
Hiking tracks: Cab. Aig. Rouges - L'Etoiles , Evolène - L'A Viellie , L'A Viellie - Vercorin
Flying track: L'Etoile - Evolène
Here the link to the final ranking
