"Sounds Like the South"? A Trip Report...

Looking back at our course originally planned in the South of France this autumn...

... which turned into a wonderful 3 day traveling adventure... in Italy!!! The story of our flights between Turin and the Italian Alps...

Setting off from Talloires on Friday morning, our seven pilots enrolled in this course, together with Cédric and myself, hit the road for three days of paragliding wherever the weather looked most favorable for flying.First stop at the Les Saisies site (Bisanne) in the Beaufortain. When we arrived at the launch, we had well oriented wind, but almost a bit too strong. After taking a moment to assess the flying site, which some of us didn't yet know: the wind eased off slightly and we decided everything was good to fly. And what a flight!! About 1 hour of soaring in the wind, and even a few thermals to gain height, to enjoy the exceptional view over the Beaufortain, Mont Blanc, the foehn effect currently happening on the range in the southeast wind... An unexpected and incredible flight to kick off this trip.We then took the road to Bourg St Maurice via Roselend, continuing on to the Col du Petit St Bernard. The goal is the exit of the Aosta Valley, the Ivrea area north of Turin. A short picnic stop at Lake Roselend along the way, where we again took in some stunning views, including on the mountain pass road after Bourg St Maurice.

Arriving in Ivrea around 4pm, we headed toward the San Giacomo flying site above the village of Andrate. Conditions at the launch weren't straightforward, due to a nearly tail wind, occasionally light headwind, but not often. We waited for the headwind given the weather forecasts and surrounding wind gauges, but with no success... The launch's unusual shape (a large flat area, then a very abrupt break all at once) made takeoff a bit tricky for us. Still, through persistence and various original technique attempts, everyone managed to get airborne and discover this fabulous site.

Then, off to the gîte chosen for these two days: a charming B&B on the shore of Lake "Viverone". A good Italian restaurant to close out this first day, and off to bed for everyone to be in shape for day 2.After breakfast, we decided to head back to the San Giacomo site, hoping to find a headwind. That turned out to be mostly the case, but the launch's shape meant the wings on the ground were completely "wind-shadowed". That made inflation tricky for some of our pilots. But since we're trained for "tricky" conditions, everyone managed to pull it off. Robin closed out the flight and decided to cross the valley rather than land with the group, in order to reach the Cavalarria flying site on the other side of the Aosta Valley. It's on that side that Robin found small thermals, which quickly became generous and let him reach that site's launches, along with the pilots who were taking off there. Conditions were looking really generous for what followed!Robin then landed at that site's landing zone, at the same time as the shuttle driven by Cédric, with all the other pilots aboard. We'd booked a midday shuttle ride up, but the team managing site access was pretty friendly and let us go up as soon as we arrived. At the same time, there weren't many of us, only about ten other pilots joined us... After a fairly sporty ride up with a driver who must have missed his coffee 😛, we were all at the launch with really, really good conditions: an aligned headwind breeze and plenty of generous, not too turbulent thermals, PER-FECT!All the pilots made the most of these excellent conditions to discover the site and even take a few excursions over the small nearby terrain![The tracks are here]For some pilots, this was their first thermal flight… and oddly enough, the thermal novices were almost the most brilliant 👍 🙂 What a joy for everyone to make the most of these perfect conditions to get into thermals! After almost 2 hours of flight for some, we all met up at the landing, quite tired but happy!Back to our accommodation to share a good meal together in the sun. Late in the afternoon, a burst of energy and motivation took us to discover another site further north: Muanda. A new site and one more short flight! A good debrief in a bar with some tapas and one last night before hitting the road home...

For this third day, we started at the Rueglio flying site, very pleasant with a 20 minute walk to reach the launch. Despite the lack of full sun, a few thermals were there to make us work on positioning and turns.After an excellent pizza, we moved on to the last site to discover: Santa Elisabetta. A long sled run awaited us there, with more and more independence for some, better dynamic turns, and even a few standing landings...Finally, a return via the Fréjus tunnel, to reach our Les Grands Espaces school in Talloires in the late afternoon. A wonderful trip with great pilots: thanks to Hervé, Aureliano, Urara, Marie, and of course our 3 Belgians: Mathilde, Alexandra, and Maïté! We spent and shared some really good paragliding moments, and more besides!Thanks also to Cédric, it's always a pleasure working together, a real dream team!We took the opportunity to rename the course "Feels Like Italy". So... shall we do it again next year?! 😀Robin