He joined us the Eagle Chrigel Maurer and made a small video:
All the pictures on Google Photo.
Here my recap:
Friday May 3rd
Task: Baulmes -> Suchet -> Breguettaz, Option via Aiguille de Baulmes, Morond, Antenne Première, Dent Vaulien, P.Ferdiand, Orient, Chatel.
As usual start in Baulmes with first turn point the Suchet. Arriving at the top no immediate take off was possible due the low cloud base. Thus some walked further to the Aiguille de Baulmes, directly to the Morond, or down direction Lignerolle.
I took the option to wait and indeed half an hour later I could take off in direction of Antenne Première. By catching a thermal I was able to cross the valley and land together with Lolo beside the road of Vallorbe. We hiked to the Antenne Première and following further the nice walking path to the Dent de Vaulion. My legs started really to hurt, thus I was not very eager to walk much more. Therefore, after the take off at the Dent de Vaulion I went straight in direction of Le Chatel, not taking in consideration the Pierre Ferdinand or L'Orient. So a last hike from below the Col de Mollendruz to the Chatel and back. Just before the Breguettaz, I wanted to fly in the goal and took off 200m above between the trees. That figured out not to be such a good idea. Despite my flight direction was in the main the wind direction, I went through a real washing machine. It was so turbulent that I could just manage to control the glider in order that I finally landed on my feet.
Hiking: 26.8 km +2360 m - Baulmes-Suchet, Premier-Dent de Vaulion, Breguettaz-Chatel
Flying: 10 km - Suchet-Antenne Premiere, Dent de Vaulion - Mollendruz, Rodeo ride
Saturday May 4th
Task: Col de la Givrine - La Breguettaz, Option Le Brassus, L'Orient, Pièce Ferdinand, Chatel, Dent de Vaulion, Chalet Devant
Weather forecast with a cold front arriving in the after noon was really not promising. We hoped to fly a bit in the morning. But first we took the car in direction of the start point beside the La Dôle. Driving down the Vallée de Joux we were all very quiet, because it was endless and we knew that we would have to come back, most likely on foot...
And in fact we could not fly a lot, a low cloud base and a lot of humidity was present. I renounced at the first take off opportunity below the Noirement (below the cloud base, about 300m above the valley) as I did not want to get a wet glider for the rest of the day with in mind that we had still 35 km ahead. So we walked, and walked and walked, mostly together with Benoit, great company, and at the Brassus we could finally take off. That was good despite I missed the turn point of l'Orient in flight. Thus landed and went up with Moritz to catch get it. We watched there a critical take off and decided to walk further to the Pierre de Ferdinand, where Stephanie joined. She motivated me to catch also the Dent de Vaulion, which was not in my initial plan. In Le Pont I teamed up with Philip to fight through the snow storm to reach the Dent de Vaulion and then back to the Breguettaz arriving completely frozen and exhausted.
Hiking: 42.3 km +1560 m Col de la Givrine - Le Brassus, L'Orient - Dent de Vaulion - La Breguettaz
Flying:4 km Le Brassus
Sunday May 5th
Task has been cancelled due very strong winds. We did all together a hike through some snow a nice landscape in direction of Baulmes.
Hiking: 16.5 km +240m Breguettaz-Montcherand
Here a personal selection of pictures (from google photo):
