Le Grand Tour du Lac Annecy

It's not the most dramatic of flights, but for a weekend flier like me, even the 40km trip around Lake Annecy is a great flight for your holiday. It's a classic, a neat triangle round an obvious object. It just has to be done.




An old timer (not me, btw) launches to mix in with the 21st century (photo by me)

The last week of August wasn't exactly the best of the year. We started the holiday with three days of bad weather - lots of rain - and then on Wednesday it got OK for a flight, with heavy clouds. That was good for a warm up. The next day looked more promising, and when I came back Roger talked me through with some hints for how to go about the triangle the next day.

Launch from Col de la Forclaz at 3pm was a bit later than I wanted, but in fact the conditions were only just turning on, with paragliders getting up on the cliffs to the north. I left and after five minutes or so mixing in the broken lift with the 15 or so paras, climbed out nicely - through another HG pilot :-) - and got the level of the cliffs behind launch, La Rochette. I soared there on the dynamics for a while until I got to 1600m (take off is 1275m), and then crossed over to the first set of cliffs; the south facing bowl there was working really well, and once I got half-height on the vertical face, I moved across to the cliff and soared the vertical cliff upwards... very cool.




Me launching on the flight (photo by Karine Vanthienen)

I get to around 2000m, and then move to Les Dents, the dramatic teeth shaped rocks overlooking the lake. It's rough there, which it often is, but I've kept high like Roget said I should. Despite trying hard I can't get much over 2000m and it is soon time to head west to the bottom of the ridge that runs up to Annecy;  a couple of paragliders have gone first just to help me, that's nice...

I cross over and the glide goes really well,  I'm not losing much height but anyway I stay cautious and stop in a thermal at around 1650m marked by a para that's climbing up. But he's heading south, so I leave him and move north onto the ridge. About half way along,  where the cliff on the ridge really starts and there looks like there's a take off, there was some great lift - up to 1800m again and it feels like convergence. Maybe the wind is really north again: checking the instruments it tells me NE at this height. Perfect for crossing the lake...

Now I decide to go north along the ridge to see if the lift continues - but it doesn't and at 1600m I start to think the ridge (which isn't that high just here) is finishing and the air too smooth for lift. So at 1560m I decide to  head across the lake, 4 or 5 km to the north end of the Semnoz ridge, even though I have no idea what to aim for, since I can see a glide through to fields on the west side. On the way I don't lose much and arrive just SE of the industrial zone at a bit under 1200m, and straight into a nice solid thermal back to 1600m. That's not high enough to get to the summit of the Semnoz, nearly 10km away, but I figure that here there is an inversion (the whole sky is blue anyway) and I'm not going to get high; time to move on south.

Another 5km glide, this time trying to decide whether to follow the lower (west) crest or the higher (east) crest of the ridge. I start to get close (low) enough to the ridge to be forced to the lower one, and about half-way finally stumble into some rougher air. It's not much, but it is rising, and the wind is pushing me up the hill: I follow it for a couple of kms until the summit is now in sight. At 1700m I decide finally I have to move onto the front, passing over the Semnoz PG launch, and onto the west facing cliffs in the sun. However, instead of smooth lift, it's rough again, meaning rotor or wind shear. I move along the ridge trying to find some lift, past the aeromodellers, and get really thrown - probably as bad as I ever have been, I just clutch the bar and wait... anyway, I go back in to the thermal/rotor but then decide that south facing bowls are too risky, and try the straighter west cliff/ridge. After what seems a longish delay - I've resigned to waiting the flight out here perhaps - I climb out slowly back over the flat summit. I only get to 1900m, but that's enough and I aim for Roc du Boeuf. Only one more big glide and I am home...




Me coming into land at the Doussard landing field (photo by Wim Devos)

The 7km glide across goes at a straightforward 1:11 and I arrive at around 1300m, about a 1/3rd along from the north end. There are about 5 paras soaring there, again it's a long wait trying to get a thermal to launch is to the summit. One comes a long, two paras and me start the climb out, I impatiently leave early - and halfway to the summit get below the ridge and don't make it across the 2nd powerline. I watch as the two paras who stayed with the thermal make the summit...

Back to the only place it seems to work well (the notches above the lower powerline) and when finally, after 40mins there, I get 100m above the ridge I leave and go straight back across to the ridge south of the Col de la Forclaz. I arrive at about 1000m, but the face is working well and I get back up to take off height without much hassle. a bit of playing around then I realise I've been in the air three hours, it is 6pm and time for beer, so I head back south, over the hotel Arcalod, see if the kids spot me from the pool and then come in to land. Wim gets a great shot of me on final with the ridge north of take off in view... perfect end to a great day.





If you want to check it out in 3-D, IGC file here, Google Earth KMZ here

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